A Study On Attributes And Educational Functions Of Metaphors In Fairy Tales In Chinese Textbooks Of Primary School

In the age of information highway, the development of the ability of imaginalthinking is of vital importance, because it is a significant basis for the formation of theability of creative thinking. Nowadays lots of texts of fairy tales, which contain manymetaphorical expressions, are found out in Chinese textbooks of primary school.Nevertheless, these metaphors are only treated as figures of speech to recognize,understand and appreciate. No one has ever appraised their values from the perspectiveof cognitive science. Therefore, according to the present situation of teaching research, itis essential to carry out a study of the value of metaphorical languages in fairy tales inChinese textbooks of primary school from the angle of cognitive linguistics. The thesisaims to employ theories of cognitive linguistics and noetic science, in order todemonstrate why learning metaphorical languages can develop the ability of creativethinking, primarily through the exploitation of the value of metaphorical languages infairy tales in Chinese textbooks of primary school in cultivating the children’s ability ofcreative thinking.The objectives of the paper mainly include the following aspects:1) To analyze thenumber, types and attributes of metaphors in fairy tales in Chinese textbooks of primaryschool during two periods from grade one to grade three and from grade four to grade six;2) To argue the relationship between the ability of imaginal thinking and the ability ofcreative thinking, and verify why the cultivation of metaphorical competence canfacilitate the development of the ability of imaginal thinking and the ability of creativethinking;3) To explore the educational functions and significances of metaphoricallanguages in fairy tales at different teaching stages in primary school.The paper attempts to make an investigation into types, attributes, educationalfunctions and significances of metaphors in fairy tales in Chinese textbooks of primaryschool from perspectives of the theory of conceptual metaphor in cognitive linguisticsand the theory of imaginal thinking science in noetic science. This research begins with selecting texts of fairy tales in Chinese textbooks of primary school of PeopleEducational Publisher edition from grade one to grade six. Then the data will beclassified according to children’s thinking at various stages of development, and methodsof inductive reasoning and qualitative analysis will be conducted to explore attributes,educational functions and significances of metaphors in fairy tales in Chinese textbooksof primary school.Based on the analysis, the expected findings are as follows: The special propertiesof metaphorical thinking make it possible that reading metaphorical languages will lendsupport to the cultivation of children’s ability of creative thinking. To be specific, thereare lots of fairy tales which involve a wealth of metaphorical languages in Chinesetextbooks of primary school; In high grades, the number, types and attributes ofmetaphors in fairy tales in Chinese textbooks of primary school are different from thosein low grades; Reading and studying fairy tales are the processes of cultivatingmetaphorical thinking; Metaphorical features such as the figurative feature,transcendental feature, emotional feature, sympathetic feature and symbolic featureprovide powerful evidence to show that the enhancement of children’s metaphoricalcompetence can improve their abilities of imaginal thinking and creative thinking; Inconclusion, the improvement of metaphorical competence of elementary school studentsin low grades and high grades is beneficial to the individual growth, and the developmentof the innovative and competent talents who can participate in international competition,and plays a positive role in heightening the overall level of elementary literacy educationin China.The interdisciplinary study of this paper expounds the mutually complementaryrelationship between metaphorical thinking and imaginal thinking, and argues that thecultivations of the ability of metaphorical thinking and the ability of imaginal thinkingare necessary conditions for the development of the ability of creative thinking. Thepaper suggests that the relation between the function of fairy tales and the developmentof the ability of creative thinking should be stated explicitly, so that the primary schoolliteracy teachers are fully aware of the practical significances of the cultivation of metaphorical competence in the actual teaching activities. In classroom teachingactivities, the development of students’ metaphorical competence should be mentionedand incorporated into the syllabus. It is believed that the findings of the study will makecontributions to deepening the analysis of metaphor in the mother-tongue teaching.