| Metaphorical language is ubiquitous, its research also has a history of over two thousand years, and the earliest treatise can be traced back to Aristotle’s "Rhetoric" Metaphor is usually regarded as a rhetorical device of a kind of pure language phenomenon. However, with the development of cognitive science, metaphor is not only an approach of study but mainly is a kind of thinking and behavior way. In daily life, people often refer to their familiar, visible and concrete concepts to understand those intangible concepts that it is difficult to define, forming a different concept of relationship between cognitive styles.Therefore, English learners in the process of English learning will be frequent exposed to expressions that reflect metaphorical way of thinking. But because the metaphor itself is contradictory, temporary and fuzzy, learners need to maximize their own background knowledge as well as the metaphorical expression to understand the real meaning of metaphor expressions and the writers’real intention. English learners sometimes find it is difficult to understand metaphors:they are familiar with the literal meaning of each word, but they cannot give the correct metaphorical meaning when putting them together.However, most of the studies on this subject in the second language is not widespread. Considering the non-English major students’metaphor understanding in English reading, combined with cognitive category understanding, the article conducted comparison test on metaphor comprehension to 50 sophomores and interviewed some of them, aiming to solve the following questions:first.are different levels of learners’ comprehension of metaphor different? Second, does metaphor comprehension influence their English reading scores as well as English scores? Third, what is teachers’ teaching effect on metaphor comprehension and is it obvious?According to the contra-test data analysis, high level learners have better understanding than low lever learners and each test group can improve their comprehension after three months learning, but the improvement is not significant. The results prove that metaphor study is a long-term and complex process, which cannot rely on short time crash. Many factors affect metaphorical language, such as language degree, English-Chinese cultural difference and contextual understanding. Based on non-English majors’metaphor understanding in English reading in cognitive research, this study will provide significant implications on metaphor study and EFL teaching and learning. |
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