Application Of PIM Theory In English Preposition Teaching

English prepositions are small in number but complex in usage and frequent in using rate. It is one of the most difficult part of speeches when Chinese students learn English. Therefore, it is a necessary testing item in various English tests such as CET-4and TEM-4.Structuralists, functionalists and cognitive linguists at home and aboard have done researches on English prepositions from different points of view. This thesis tries to investigate English prepositions from a new perspective. The author proposes PIM theory-the combination of prototype theory, image schema and metaphor theory. The purpose of this thesis is to apply PIM theory in English preposition teaching and to testify its effectiveness by a teaching experiment. The ultimate aim of this study is to improve Chinese students’ ability of English reading and translation.The method used in this study is the method of combining quantitative analysis with qualitative analysis. The thesis firstly systematically introduces the PIM theory. Then preposition on is taken as an example to be analyzed with PIM theory: analyzing its prototypical sense, distinct senses derived from the former by image schema transformation, non-spatial senses projected from spatial sense by metaphor and the semantic network of preposition on. It provides a basis for the teaching experiment and sets an example for preposition teaching to draw inferences about other cases from the example. Eighty sophomores in two classes in Wuhan Bioengineering Institute were chosen as participants of the experiment, which lasted for four weeks. The control class adopted the traditional preposition teaching method while PIM theory were applied in preposition teaching in the experiment class. A pretest and a post-test were carried out. By comparing the results from the two tests, it is obvious that the experiment class made more progress than the control one in preposition learning and translation. A conclusion is drawn from the experiment: compared with traditional method in preposition teaching, the application of PIM Theory in college English preposition teaching can improve the outcomes of preposition learning, can improve students’ understanding ability of prepositions, therefore, improve students’ reading and translation ability. It is clear that the application of PIM in English preposition teaching has great significance in helping Chinese students correctly understand and translate English preposition. English prepositions are no longer a barrier for Chinese learners.