An Empirical Study Of Applying Conceptual Metaphors In Vocabulary Teaching And Learning

Vocabulary has been generally acknowledged as the most important aspect of EFL teaching and learning. Under the influence of structuralism with Saussure as the leading person, traditional approaches of vocabulary teaching and learning believe that the relationship between words and meaning is arbitrary and neglect the underlying relationship between various meanings of the same words from a cognitive perspective. As a result, most EFL learners learn vocabulary heavily by rote, namely, memorizing vocabulary by repetition mechanically. Most time and energy of both teachers and learners have been spent in memorizing vocabulary while the achievement has been far less than satisfying. Different from the traditional linguistics, cognitive linguistics maintains that metaphor is pervasive in everyday language and plays a central role in semantic change.This research firstly discusses the contemporary studies both abroad and inside China on vocabulary learning strategies and reveals some of the problems facing Chinese EFL learners. This research further carries out an empirical study to testify whether introducing conceptual metaphor theories to TEFL in China can enhance EFL learners' metaphoric competence and facilitate their vocabulary acquisition.Two intact classes of sophomores as non-English majors of the same proficiency level were chosen in this research with one as experimental class (EC) and the other as the control class (CC). CC was instructed in the traditional approach while to the experimental class, a systematic instruction of metaphors was interwoven into the normal language teaching. Namely, the teaching of metaphor to EC in the present research incorporated the teaching of metaphor into the content teaching of the text book. The teaching materials for EC mostly came from the textbook, assisted by theories and examples chosen from metaphor researches.Two pre-tests were carried out on both EC and CC to ensure there was no apparent difference of knowledge about metaphor and metaphoric competence in language output between the two classes before the teaching experiment. Four post-tests were conducted to test the difference between subjects from EC and CC after 10 weeks of teaching experiment. Post-test 1 was to test whether there was a statistically significant difference between EC and CC in their competence of interpreting metaphorical expressions. Post-test 2 was to measure their competence of using polysemous words and their retention of proverbs. Post-test 3 tested their originality of metaphorical expressions. Post-test 4 was similar to pre-test 2 and was to check if there was difference between subjects from EC and CC after the teaching experiment.All the data collected were analyzed by SPSS and the results show that subjects from EC performed better in interpreting and using metaphorical expressions in their language output. Through this research, it is concluded that the approach of applying conceptual metaphors in vocabulary teaching facilitates the learners' vocabulary leaning.The research findings implicate that TEFL teachers should pay more attention to applying conceptual metaphors in EFL teaching and take metaphor as a cognitive instrument instead of only as a rhetorical device, meanwhile highlight the cultivation of the students' metaphoric competence and encourage them to make appropriate use of metaphorical expressions in their language output.