The Role Of Cognitive Metaphor In Enhancing EFL Leaners’ English Vocabulary Acquisition: An Empirical Study

There have been many researches on metaphor for years in foreign countries.According to traditional views, metaphor is a matter of language, a common rhetoricmethod, and a kind of unconventional usage of word. Metaphors are used in poetry orother unusual literary forms. However, with multidisciplinary development of metaphorsfor several decades, it has been generally agreed that cognitive metaphor is not only akind of behavior in using language, but also a kind of necessary tool of human beings toperceive the world. Additionally metaphor has become an important issue in the field oflinguistics. Conceptual metaphor theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson is systematicand influential. They point out that metaphors are pervasive in human beings’ languagesand they are a systematic way for human beings’ thoughts, behaviors and expressions.Apart from that, they present that metaphors are cognitive activities through explanationand understanding of experience of some field by means of another. People can use thissystematic way to communicate and observe the world by their own experience, whichleads to the creation of new expressions that make people perceive the world better.The major task of second language acquisition is vocabulary acquisition, which isregarded as the fundamental part of language learning. However, the phenomenon thatstudents spend much time remembering vocabulary without much effect has become thepervasive problem for English learners. Many scholars point out that most of Englishvocabulary can be learnt through metaphors. The author postulates that cognitivemetaphor bears natural relationship to English vocabulary acquisition. The purpose ofthis study was to explore whether metaphoric competence that includes understanding,learning and application of metaphor would influence EFL learners in their Englishvocabulary acquisition. This empirical study designed by the author aims to demonstratethe correctness and feasibility of the concept of applying the theory of cognitivemetaphor to English vocabulary teaching.The thesis concludes that the results of observation and experiment can providefactual evidence for English teaching and can also offer the guide to the application ofconceptual metaphor theory.