An Empirical Study On College English Vocabulary Learning Infused By Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Vocabulary plays an increasing significant role in language learning which also goes all the way through the process of language learning.but the effects are not good enough. The conceptual metaphor theory regards that metaphor pervasively exists in language and it is a way of human thinking and action. In fact, Human language is metaphorical in nature, and metaphor has a great impact on vocabulary semantic change and expansion, so the conceptual metaphor theory has a close relationship with vocabulary. Many scholars put the conceptual metaphor and vocabulary research together,such as Koveceses and Szabo did some experimental researches in 1996 and the results showed that using the conceptual metaphor can facilitate the inference of idiom meaning, Boer in his book also indicated that the conceptual metaphor theory plays a very efficient role in the teaching and learning process of English propositions.On the basis of research findings by predecessors, the present thesis intends to infuse the conceptual metaphor theory into the college English vocabulary learning in order to find out efficient methods for vocabulary learning.This study mainly use quantitative method,and in the study two natural classes of Xi'an Medical University 120 non-English major freshmen were selected randomly as experimental subjects and the study lasted a period of a semester. At the beginning of the experiment pretests were carried out to ensure that they can be used as test subjects, and then six teaching plans which mainly infused the conceptual metaphor theory and analyzed it with examples were conducted in experimental class. Then every two weeks a test was conducted to test the subjects'grasp situation of metaphor vocabulary and expresses. At the end of the experiment the author designed a questionnaire to survey the subjects' feeling of applying the conceptual metaphor theory to vocabulary acquisition.Through statistical analysis of the obtained test data:Infusing the conceptual metaphor theory into the English vocabulary learning can effectively improve the efficiency of their vocabulary learning, but also cultivate their metaphorical awareness and metaphorical competence.This research also brought some enlightenment to vocabulary teaching and learning:Applying the conceptual metaphor theory to vocabulary teaching and learning will be effective in improving the efficiency of vocabulary teaching and learning, and it also can develop the learner's metaphorical awareness and metaphor using ability.