An Empirical Study Of The Application Of Conceptual Metaphor To Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

The study of metaphor can be dated back to more than two thousand years ago. The traditional view of metaphor only regarded it as a linguistic phenomenon, a figure of speech employed in literary works, and a deviant use of language. In 1980s, Lakoff and Johnson published their book named Metaphors We Live By in which they put forward their Conceptual Metaphor Theory, marked the real cognitive-paradigmatic shift of metaphor research. In their book, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) claims that metaphor is pervasive in everyday language, structuring not only how we talk, but also how we think and act, and it is a way of human thinking or cognitive process; the core of conceptual metaphor is that it is a cognitive activity mapping from one specific and physical domain onto the abstract and non-physical domain; therefore, conceptual metaphor is a tool of human cognition. From the perspective of cognition, it is very important and necessary to study the role of conceptual metaphor in foreign language vocabulary teaching and learning. Some of the scholars and researchers have tried to apply conceptual metaphor to language vocabulary teaching and learning at college at home and abroad. However, through the observation in the daily teaching experience, the author finds that there are metaphorical words and expressions everywhere in the textbooks for senior high school students, but the application of conceptual metaphor to English vocabulary teaching in senior high school has been far less explored in China. Therefore, the author proposes a hypothesis that Conceptual Metaphor Theory can be applied to English vocabulary teaching in senior high school to enhance the students' metaphor competence and vocabulary level.At the beginning of the thesis, the author reviewed the basic theory of metaphor and conceptual metaphor including its definition, classifications, features and its working mechanism as well as its links to linguistic expressions. Then, the author made an exposition on studies of implication of conceptual metaphor on vocabulary learning from the past until recent study at home and abroad. Meanwhile, in order to testify whether the application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory in senior high school English teaching and learning could facilitate vocabulary learning, a relevant experiment was designed and carried out for 16 weeks in two parallel classes, after the analysis of the collected data, the author made a comparison between CC group and EC group and finally got a conclusion that applying conceptual metaphorical method is an effective way to improve the vocabulary learning of senior high school students. At the same time, based on the experiment, the author put forward the necessity and flexibility of conceptual metaphorical vocabulary teaching in senior high school. It further revealed the specific significance of conceptual metaphor in improving the learning of polysemy, idiomatic expressions, cultural implications and word connections based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory.Finally, the author made a conclusion and gave the limitations of the whole thesis, meanwhile, some suggestions were also made that more researches about Conceptual Metaphor Theory should be conducted further.