Application Of Conceptual Metaphor Theory To Vocabulary Teaching In Junior Middle Schools

The present thesis mainly introduces the application of conceptual metaphor theory to vocabulary teaching in junior middle schools.Traditionally, metaphors are considered as a linguistic device used to achieve a specific communicative purpose. Since the publication of Metaphor We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson explain metaphor in a new way. Lakoff and Johnson (1980:3) state that "metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our traditional conceptual system, in terms of which we think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature." It was Richards who proposes that metaphors have cognitive function, so more and more researches were done on metaphor in the field of cognition (Richards,1967). Conceptual metaphor theory was raised by Lakoff, a more systematic one of cognitive linguistic. Since then, linguists begin to do research on metaphors and find that there are some relations between metaphors and language. Many of them try to apply metaphors to vocabulary teaching, but there is far less research to explore this theory applied in junior middle schools. The author has found that many words in the textbooks of junior middle schools can be applied by this new method based on her teaching experiment in the Middle School Attached to Northwest University.Firstly, the author introduces the concepts of metaphor and conceptual metaphor. Then the conceptual metaphor is explained in terms of definition, features, classifications and mechanism.Secondly, the author discusses the relationship between conceptual metaphor and language teaching, and she concludes that application of conceptual metaphor theory to language teaching is feasible.Thirdly, in order to prove the effectiveness of applying conceptual metaphor to vocabulary teaching, the author has done a research with 72 junior students from the Middle School Attached to Northwest University. Three tests of two pre-tests and one post-test are taken by the subjects. The pre-test one aims to find out whether the junior middle school students have metaphorical competence. The second pre-test aims to find out whether the students from control group and experimental group are at the same level of English proficiency. At last, the post-test was to testify that the new approach of teaching vocabulary was effective. Their results were analyzed by the software of SPSS 17.0. P value was 0.028 less than 0.05. Therefore, it was testified that the application of conceptual metaphor theory to vocabulary teaching in junior middle school was effective. Consequently, the result of the research is significant in its practical value.