Application Of Conceptual Metaphor Theory In English Vocabulary Teaching

Metaphor is traditionally regarded as a figure of speech, which is related to poetry and rhetoric. In 1980, the publication of Lakoff and Johnson's work Metaphors We Live By marks the establishment of the cognitive approach to metaphor, which is recognized as a great breakthrough in the field of metaphor study.In the modern view, metaphor is far more than a rhetorical device but rather a mode of thinking, a way of cognition, which plays an important role in structuring people's conceptual system. Lakoff and Johnson claim that conceptual metaphor is a universal phenomenon in human language, which uses experiences of one conceptual domain to express experiences of another domain, in terms of which we both think and act. People usually communicate with each other and experience the world through conceptual metaphor.According to this theory, metaphor is not only a prevalent language phenomenon but also an indispensable cognition tool, which bears close relationship with language learning, especially vocabulary learning.Vocabulary has been generally acknowledged as one of the most important aspects of foreign language teaching and learning. Nowadays many non-English majors complain that a lot of time has been spent on English vocabulary, but little has been achieved. Since scholars both at home and abroad hold that metaphor is an important means by which word meaning changes and also an important basis on which word meaning evolves. Teachers should teach first the basic meaning of words and then with some knowledge of conceptual metaphor theory help the learners understand and grasp the extended meaning. This is believed to be a promising exploration.This thesis is intended to offer some implications of conceptual metaphor theory for English vocabulary learning and teaching since vocabulary has been a major concern for many EFL learners in China. It first discusses the definition, the theoretical foundation, the working mechanism, and the classification of conceptual metaphor. And then, the thesis explores the application of conceptual metaphor theory to vocabulary teaching such as the teaching of prepositions, verbs, idioms, etc. Finally, the paper touches upon the cultural implications in vocabulary which are related to conceptual metaphor, and reveals the specific significance of metaphor in improving vocabulary teaching and learning efficiency.