Application Of Cognitive Linguistics In English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

As we know, vocabulary is the foundation of language. Teaching vocabulary is a keypart in English teaching and learning. Nevertheless, Traditional methods of teachingvocabulary has its certain shortcomings. Therefore, innovative English vocabularyteaching becomes an important issue that must be solved. In the process of teachingvocabulary, teachers should keep trying vocabulary teaching methods based on newtheories to help students with efficient vocabulary learning.Cognitive Linguistics, which began at1970s, had its fast development in the1980sand1990s. It becomes one of the main trend of Linguistics in recent years. The study ofCognitive Linguistics is the relation between common principles of language andhumans’ cognitive law. It is a completely new subject which is based on our experiencesand perception of the world and the pattern of conceptualization world. CognitiveLinguistics provides the wholly new method and viewing angles for language research.Cognitive Linguistics has wide range of research. On the account of the descriptive andfunctional nature of Cognitive Linguistics, it is a worthy framework to explore Englishteaching and learning.Categorization and metaphor are basic tool and measures to the construct ofhumans’ language. As fundamental theories of Cognitive Linguisitics, categorizationand metaphor are instructive for the teaching vocabulary in senior high school. Thispaper mainly introduce the instructional application of categorization and metaphor.Over the time when learning and teaching in No.8high school, the author applied thecognitive theories to the teaching vocabulary, expecting the effectiveness. Based on thecontrast experiments, this paper aims to analyze and confirm whether the cognitivetheories will have positive effects on the students’ understanding, memory andenlargement of the vocabulary; whether they will have positive effects on the Englishvocabulary teaching in senior high school.However, Cognitive Linguistics has a wide range of application, its also hasinnumberable great research achievements. This paper mainly applies the cognitive theories to the teaching vocabulary and puts forward some suggestions on teachingvocabulary. Through the contrast analyses of the experiments, this paper can give someinstructional meanings to the English teaching and learning in the senior high school inthe future.