An Empirical Study On Metaphorical Competence In Foreign Language Teaching And Learning

Metaphor has been studied for more than two thousand years. The representative theories are as follows: the Comparison Theory, the Substitution Theory, the Interaction Theory, and the Cognitive Theory. The representatives of the Comparison Theory and the Substitution Theory are respectively Aristotle and Quintillian, both of whom restricted their study of metaphor to the field of rhetoric. The Interaction Theory was first put forward by Richards and later developed by Black. Although it touched metaphor study in a somewhat cognitive way, it was limited on the level of language. The cognitive study of metaphor that has been carried out for more than two decades is gaining recognition. The Cognitive Theory is represented by Lakoff and Johnson, who historically proposed the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which in width and depth broke through the limitations of traditional metaphor theories. Gardner and Winner defined metaphorical competence as "the capacity to paraphrase a metaphor, to explain the rationale for the metaphor's effectiveness, to produce a metaphor appropriate to a given context, to evaluate the appropriateness of several metaphorical expressions" (Gardner & Winner, 1979:126-127). But their study was confined to the development of children's metaphorical comprehension capacity and their renaming ability, not involved in its pragmatic dimension or the relationship between metaphorical competence and foreign language teaching and learning.Based on various metaphor theories, this thesis conducted an empirical study of the relationship between metaphorical competence and foreign language teaching (FLT) and foreign language learning (FLL), and particularly of how metaphor can act as a facilitator of FLT and FLL. It sets out to examine two conflicting situations as far as the relationship between metaphor and FLT and FLL is concerned. First, in College English Syllabus and College English Curriculum Requirements (2007), metaphor is not explicitly required at all, while in CET4 and CET6, especially in reading comprehension part, metaphorical language is usually tested. Second, many philosophers, linguists and psychologists (Lakoff & Johnson. Richards. Pollio, etc.) have demonstrated that metaphor is a basic cognitive instrument and is pervasive not only in language but also in our thought and action, while in college English teaching, metaphor is treated only as a rhetorical device and rarely touched on for the purpose of appreciation or completely ignored.In view of these two paradoxes, an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG) with similar English proficiency were chosen to participate in a comparative and empirical study. The aim is to test the hypothesis as to whether experimental teaching of metaphor could facilitate FLT and FLL, and to show in which way metaphorical competence and conceptual fluency could be fostered among foreign language learners. First, the two groups underwent language teaching of two different approaches that lasted 13 teaching weeks. The control group went through language teaching in the traditional approach without systematic instruction of conceptual metaphor, while the experimental group received a systematic instruction of conceptual metaphor. Namely, the teaching of metaphor to EG in the present research incorporated the teaching of metaphor into the content teaching of the textbook. The teaching materials for EG mostly came from the textbook, assisted by theories and examples chosen from metaphor researches.One pre-test was carried out on both EG and CG to ensure there was no apparent difference of knowledge about metaphor and metaphorical competence in language output between the two groups before the teaching experiment. One post-test was conducted to test the difference between subjects from EG and CG after 13 weeks of teaching experiment. The data collected in the two tests were given an analysis by virtue of SPSS13.0 (Statistics Package for Social Science) and the results show that subjects from EG performed better in identifying, interpreting and producing metaphorical expressions in their language output. Through this research, it is concluded that the approach of applying conceptual metaphor in college English teaching cultivates metaphorical competence, thus facilitates the learners' English learning.The research findings implicate that language teachers should encourage analogical metaphorical reasoning and divergent thinking, meanwhile highlight the cultivation of the students' metaphorical competence and encourage them to make appropriate use of metaphorical expressions in their language output. To language learners, language study will no longer be a mechanical or riot process if the underlying conceptual metaphors are interpreted in a meaningful manner. And the conscious use of metaphors is likely to contribute positively to an overall level of language competence.