An Empirical Study Of Cognitive Approach To English Idiom Teaching

Idioms are a special kind of linguistic phenomenon and the essence of English vocabulary. English idioms are pervasive. A large part of our everyday linguistic repertoire is formed by idioms and familiarity with a wide range of idioms and the competence to use them appropriately in context are among distinguishing marks of a native-like command of language. According to traditional view, meanings of the idioms are arbitrary and can not be analyzed, which caused that idioms remain to be viewed by a good many language teachers as mere quirks of the language, used randomly or without much motivation. They have been relegated to the sidelines of language teaching. Students are usually left with memorizing idioms as chunks. Yet Cognitive Linguists suggest that idiomatic meaning is analyzable because"most of the idioms have systematic conceptual motivation (K?vecses and Szabó, 1996:326) that can provide a very good way for the semantic explanation of English idioms. Therefore, it may provide an effective approach for English idiomatic teaching. In other words, the idiomatic meaning can be motivated, not arbitrary.This thesis is based on the Cognitive models of Conceptual Metaphor, Conceptual Metonymy, Image Schema and Conventional Knowledge in Cognitive Linguistics. It provides an empirical study on the effect and strategies of applying cognitive theory to English idiomatic teaching and learning.This thesis is composed of the following five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction to the research background, objective and the organization of the thesis. Chapter two presents general reviews of the researches of linguists and scholars related to the current study and relevant concepts used in this study, including definition, features, forms, and cognitive mechanism of idioms. Chapter three introduces the theoretical foundations of this thesis. Chapter four is the design of the experiment. Chapter five discusses the results and the major findings of the experiment. Chapter six provides the implications of the findings, limitations and suggestions for the further study in this field.This study was designed to apply research findings of Cognitive Linguistics to teaching practice and suggest some pedagogical implications to make the students understand the cognitive mechanism of idiomatic meanings and use idioms correctly in the course of English learning and language practice.