| English vocabulary is an important component in English language teaching and learning for primary schools. Efficient vocabulary teaching is a prerequisite for students'good mastery of language and gives lots of support to the development of students'ability to communicate effectively in the language they are learning. In fact, inefficient and time-consuming phenomena in English vocabulary teaching are still relatively obvious in many primary schools. Even with long time of painstaking study, students still find it difficult to master English vocabulary well. How to conduct English vocabulary teaching efficiently and get students out of the embarrassment in English vocabulary learning is what will be discussed in this thesis.Cognitive semantics is an effective approach to analyze the natural language that puts special emphasis on language as an instrument for organizing, processing and conveying information. Methodologically speaking, the analysis of conceptual and experiential basis of linguistic categories is of the first importance in cognitive semantics: it primarily considers language as a system of categories. Some of the leading figures within cognitive semantics are George Lakoff, Ron Langacker, and Len Talmy. In addition, an introduction to some of the fundamental descriptive concepts of cognitive semantics may be found in Radden.In China, a lot of scholars and researchers have undertaken many discussions and studies on English vocabulary teaching from many perspectives, but few of them have used cognitive semantics in the research of English vocabulary teaching, especially at the primary school level. In fact, most of their research efforts are directed mainly at university English vocabulary teaching while few researches have focused on English vocabulary teaching in primary schools. So it provides the writer with great insights in applying cognitive theory to English vocabulary teaching in primary schools. After reading interrelated literatures and research articles about both English vocabulary teaching and cognitive semantics, the author, with her own practical experiment and practice probes into how to apply cognitive semantics to English vocabulary teaching in primary schools with the hope of improving present English vocabulary teaching and learning . In order to test the effectiveness of the teaching mode, an experimental research was carried out. Two classes from the Fourth Grade at the author's school have been chosen as samples. A pre-test and a post-test were conducted to both the experimental class and the controlled class; a questionnaire survey was undertaken among the subjects. During the one semester experiment, the controlled class was taught in traditional teaching methods, while the experimental class used a new approach designed under the guidance of cognitive semantics. Data collection includes pre-test achievements, post-test achievements, as well as the questionnaire survey. The data were analyzed by SPSS. The results of the study indicate that compared with the traditional method, cognitive theory can not only help improve the learners'vocabulary level more effectively but also increase their interest in English vocabulary learning.In a word, cognitive-theory-oriented teaching proves to be more effectively in English vocabulary teaching in primary schools. It can shed some light on English vocabulary teaching in primary schools.
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