A Study On The Acquisition Of Prevent Verbs By Senior High School Students Based On The BP Approach Analysis

At present,Chinese senior high school students have difficulty in distinguishing English PREVENT synonyms.Therefore,this study mainly examines the acquisition of English PREVENT verbs by Chinese learners.PREVENT verbs,which contain the causation events that are implicit in the causative construction,have received a great deal of attention from the cognitive linguistics.Scholars have tended to create the force image schema of PREVENT verbs based on force dynamics theory and investigate them in order to reveal their common features.This thesis focuses on PREVENT verbs with the construction of [V +N + from + doing],which are analyzed by utilizing force dynamics theory and the BP approach based on the COCA corpus,including “prevent”,“prohibit”,“bar”,“stop”,“ban” and “forbid”.By applying the similarities and differences of these PREVENT verbs to language learning of students in senior high,a total of 100 fresh students from senior high were selected as participants in this study.The study is carried out through questionnaires,tests and interviews,trying to answer the two questions as follows:(1)What are the similarities and differences of the English PREVENT verbs currently studied by senior high school students?(2)Whether the learning method guided by force dynamics and the BP approach can help students distinguish the synonym of prevent verbs and cultivate students’ vocabulary acquisition?If so,in what ways can it help?The study finds that in the domain of syntax,there is the typical collocation between“prevent” and material nouns.“Prohibit” tends to be paired with compound nouns and individual nouns.“Bar” can be matched with individual nouns.“Stop” is paired with individual nouns and collective nouns.“Ban” is paired with individual nouns and abstract nouns and “forbid” can be paired with individual nouns.In terms of pragmatic function,the order of their degree of formality can be shown as prohibit > prevent > stop> ban > bar >forbid.What’s more,the results show that the learning method guided by force dynamics and the BP approach can help students distinguish the synonym of PREVENT verbs and cultivate students’ vocabulary acquisition.Through the comparison of the vocabulary test results of the two classes,it can be concluded that the method is useful and effective.Through questionnaires and interviews,it’s found that most students have a positive attitude towards this way of vocabulary learning which can enrich the teacher’s teaching methods,and students can also acquire vocabulary in a relaxed environment,especially to distinguish a set of synonyms.But students will still be affected by their existing vocabulary learning methods.In conclusion,this study is the first one which utilizes BP approach to analyze the characteristics of the PREVENT synonymous verbs,which enriches the theoretical study of causation and broadens the research dimension of synonyms.What’s more,the research confirms the validity of BP approach for the research of synonyms and helps English learners to master the identification of PREVENT verbs through schematic representation and BP approach.In addition,this study has implications for both second language teaching and learning,especially for vocabulary learning.