A Study On Strategies Of English Idiom Teaching Based On Conceptual Metaphor

English idiom refers to those phrases or sentences with fixed structures and special meanings which have been used for a long time. Idiom includes phrases, common sayings, proverbs, slangs, allusions, phrasal verbs, mottoes, two-part allegorical sayings, etc. As a special way of language expression, English idiom is widely and frequently used in daily language communication. Mastering English idiom is the symbol of the language acquisition. However, due to English idiom itself has lexical features, metaphorical expression way and relevant cultural and social attributes, it is hard for students to understand and master. And mechanical memorizing sometimes does not work. So idiom is imitated and used as fixed structure in practical application. Idiom is the core and difficult point in vocabulary teaching. Seen from the previous teaching practice, the speed of idiom acquisition is slow and the teaching result is relatively unsatisfactory. Thus it can be seen, the traditional idiom teaching methods can not meet the rising demand for idiom teaching.Lakoff&Johnson (1980,1993) propose famous conceptual metaphor theory. The theory provides a new insight into the study of idiom acquisition. As an important research result of cognitive linguistics and other disciplines, conceptual metaphor not only updates the cognitive ideas of idiom theoretically, but also further clarifies the semantic motivation of idiom. Conceptual metaphor is an important semantic theory basis for idiom. The meaning of idiom is recognizable and analyzable. These studies provide a valuable complement and perfection for the improvement of idiom teaching strategies. The findings from Gibbs (1990,1992) showed that idioms are motivated mainly by conceptual metaphors. Kovecses&Szabo (1996) and Li Fuyi (2003) both empirically demonstrated that conceptual metaphor can improve the teaching and learning of idioms, which has made great contribution to the study of idiom acquisition and idiom learning with conceptual metaphor can be more effective in facilitating the use of idioms in learners’language output than the traditional approach.The thesis include six chapters. Chapter one to three introduce conceptual metaphor and idiom, and analyze the necessity and feasibility that idioms teaching combined with the conceptual metaphor theory. In Chapter four, according to the issues and reasons in the past idiom teaching, there is a four weeks experimental study for investigate the effectiveness of idiom teaching strategies of this thesis.62non-English major students from two classes of HeiHe University were involved in the experiment. The experimental group were taught to the conceptual metaphor method and the control group were taught to the traditional method. In the traditional method, English teachers directly told the meaning of idiom and explained some words through example. After make students to do some class exercises. Questionnaire, pre-test paper and post-test paper were used to gather experimental data. The data through Excel software and independent sample T-test. The results indicated that the experimental group and the control group has a significant difference of statistical significance. Chapter five and six introduce idiom teaching strategies based on Conceptual Metaphor and propose improving idiom teaching method suggestions, and give advice for idiom learners. The ultimate aim of the thesis is lay a solid foundation for the quality improvement of idiom teaching in the future. Through above analysis and experimental study, the thesis arrive at the conclusion that:(1) Conceptual metaphor knowledge is an effective and important processing strategy of idiom meanings;(2) Idioms teaching strategies and improve teaching suggestions of the thesis could help English teachers use metaphor knowledge first and the traditional teaching method second to teach idiom.(3) Sometimes students learn idioms could follow learning laws rather than mechanical memorizing. So conceptual metaphor can help to inspire and assist students in comprehending, memorizing and flexibly using idioms.