An Empirical Study Of English Vocabulary Teaching In High School Based On Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Vocabulary is the basic element of language and the foundation of language learning.Large vocabulary cognition is a prerequisite for improving English listening,speaking,reading,writing and translation skills.Therefore,the degree of vocabulary mastery directly affects English performance.The General High School English Curriculum Standards requires high school students to reach Level 7 for English vocabulary.However,high school students are not interested in English vocabulary learning,and there are still many problems.For example,students’ vocabulary memory burden is very heavy and it is easy for them to forget words.Language is the carrier of culture.In addition to prototype meanings,most words have rich cultural connotations,which brings greater challenges to students’ memory of English words and understanding of words in context.Conceptual metaphor theory is based on students’ cognitive level and comprehension ability.It can establish associations between the various meanings of vocabulary,which is convenient for students to understand and remember vocabulary.A large number of scholars at home and abroad pointed out most English vocabulary is polysemous,and most of the multiple meanings of the vocabulary can be understood with the help of metaphors,and the changes in the meaning of words are mostly realized through metaphors.In 1980,Lakoff and Johnson pointed out that metaphors are everywhere in life.In 2000,Shu Dingfang pointed out that a word has multiple meanings and the metaphorical language expression is the main reason for this phenomenon.Therefore,teachers can carry out English vocabulary teaching based on conceptual metaphor theory,emphasizing the core meaning of vocabulary,and guiding students to explore its extended meanings,so as to improve teachers’ vocabulary teaching quality and students’ vocabulary learning efficiency.This thesis takes high school students’ cognitive level and cognitive ability as the starting point and applies conceptual metaphor theory to English vocabulary teaching.It mainly discusses the following two issues:1.Can English vocabulary teaching based on conceptual metaphor theory promote students’ vocabulary learning?2.Can English vocabulary teaching based on conceptual metaphor theory promote students’ long-term vocabulary memory?The author conducts teaching experiments based on the two issues.The subjects of the experiment are all students from Class 2001 and Class 2002 of the First Grade in Taiyuan Comprehensive Senior High School.The two classes are taught by the author,and the content of the classroom teaching is exactly the same.The controlled class is Class 2001,the teacher using conventional vocabulary teaching methods.The experimental class is Class 2002,the teacher using vocabulary teaching methods based on conceptual metaphor theory.The experiment lasted four months.The data of questionnaires,pre-test,immediate tests,and delayed test made during the experiment were counted and analyzed by SPSS(26.0),from which we can infer whether there is a causal relationship between vocabulary teaching based on conceptual metaphor and the effect of high school students’ English vocabulary as well as students’ long-term vocabulary memory.Through the questionnaires,it is found that high school students have some problems in English vocabulary acquisition,and they lack knowledge of metaphor theory,so it is difficult for them to use words freely.Through the pre-test data analysis,it is concluded that the vocabulary level of the experimental class and the controlled class were basically the same.Under this premise,immediate tests and post-test about students’ vocabulary proficiency are carried out.Through data analysis,it is found that the test scores of the experimental class are much higher than those of the controlled class,and the differences were significant.Therefore,the effect of vocabulary teaching based on conceptual metaphor theory is remarkable.In a word,this method of teaching is feasible.Finally,this research puts forward teaching suggestions from the perspective of English vocabulary teaching.Teachers should guide students to think about metaphors in class,combine conceptual metaphor theory with traditional vocabulary teaching,and finally improve students’ English proficiency.