A Study Of The Role Of Conceptual Metaphor-based Writing Instruction In Enhancing Chinese Efl Learners' English Writing Ability

English writing is one of the four basic skills that EFL learners have to master. However, the teaching and learning of EFL writing has not been so satisfying for a long time. Current researches on EFL writing instruction aim to enhance learners'writing ability by improving their verbal fluency. Based on the literature (e.g. Jiang Meng, 2009; You, 2004), there is a widely held belief that the discourse of Chinese EFL learners might show a high degree of verbal fluency, but it invariably seems to lack the conceptual appropriateness that typifies that of natives. Digging deeper into the phenomenon, it is believed that EFL learners are deficiency in metaphorical thinking during the writing process. Therefore, this thesis intends to enhance EFL learners'English writing ability by improving their conceptual fluency.Based on Lakoff and Johnson's conceptual metaphor theory, this thesis provides an empirical study of the effects of teaching conceptual metaphor on university-level Chinese EFL learners'writing ability. Given the inner-relatedness between conceptual metaphor and writing, the researcher puts forward the hypothesis that EFL learners could better improve their writing with the help of conceptual metaphor-based writing instruction.The subjects involved in this study were 76 non-English majors of two natural classes in Shengda College Zhengzhou University. 39 of them constituted the experimental group, with the teaching of conceptual metaphor; and the others formed the control group, with normal way of teaching (i.e. without intervention of conceptual metaphor). After two and a half months'training, 34 valid data of each group were given descriptive and interpretive analyses, based primarily on the results of the SPSS 13.0 statistical program. 6 students randomly chosen from experimental class were interviewed in order to get more specific information. The results indicate that statistically significant difference exists between post-test scores and pre-test scores of experimental class. Meanwhile, there exists statistically significant difference between EC and CC in terms of their overall writing ability (p=0.049), content (p=0.003) and organization (p=0.011). However, no statistically significant difference exists in their language form (p=0.956). Therefore, the following conclusions can be drawn: 1) In terms of writing content and organization, conceptual metaphor-based writing instruction is more effective than the traditional verbal fluency-based method. 2) In terms of language form, no statistically significant difference exists between conceptual metaphor-based writing instruction and the traditional method.At last, based on the research findings, this thesis provides some pedagogical implications for English writing instruction in China. The limitations of this study and some suggestions for further research are also put forward.