An Iconicity-based Approach To English Grammar Teaching

The study of iconicity is one of the hotspot issues within cognitive linguistics research and it is another essential feature with respect to language arbitrariness. Generally speaking, iconicity builds up a natural connection between the signifier and the signified of a language sign and the achievements made in this field have played an active role in helping people understand the relationship between linguistic signs and cognitive mechanism. For now, scholars both at home and abroad have published many articles on this subject, discussing and exploring not only the theory of iconicity itself, but also its practical application in language teaching.Grammar teaching has always been the emphases and difficulties in English language teaching and teachers are seeking ways that can make grammar teaching more vivid and easily acceptable by students all the time. Since iconicity theory reveals the inherent relations between linguistic phenomena and human cognition, the teaching effect can be doubled as it will contribute to the students'comprehension of grammatical points. Based on this point, this thesis directs to the different requirements that concerning lexical and syntactic teaching and further refines the theory of iconicity by combining analysis of relevant examples in grammar teaching, thus making this thesis strongly practical and applicable. There is a good operability when iconicity theory is used to guide grammar teaching since it pays attention to the motivation that lies behind language phenomena. Therefore, it is necessary to apply iconicity theory consciously in teaching practice and a new perspective is provided for current teaching models as well.