A Study On The Relationship Between Metaphoric Competence And English Listening Proficiency Of College Non-english Majors

Metaphor is a cognitive tool as well as a way of thinking and living. Moderncognitive metaphor theory and practice have revealed in foreign language learning theimportance of MC, the ability to interpret and produce metaphorical expressions in thetarget language. This study aims to explore the relationship between MC and Englishlistening proficiency of college non-English majors.This study did research on60college non-English freshmen. The instrumentsemployed are tests (MC test and listening comprehension test) and interviews. Byanalyzing both the quantitative and qualitative data, the present study yielded findings asfollows:Overall, Chinese non-English majors’ MC is at a relatively low level. After beingintroduced to metaphors and with some practice, learners could make significantimprovement in building their MC. And the cultivation of MC could help enhancelistening proficiency. Notably, in listening comprehension, students perform differentlyin different types of metaphor-related items. Prepositional metaphors are readilyacceptable and understandable due to their high frequency in daily life; adjectival andnominal metaphors can be acquired after some practice; and verbal metaphors are themost difficult to acquire, and it takes more time to increase the ability to interpret them.There is a significant correlation between learners’ MC and listening proficiency aftersome metaphorical training. The two specific abilities of MC—the ability to interpretand generate metaphors has a direct bearing on listening proficiency.Based on the discussions of the results, some suggestions are proposed forlistening-teaching. Teachers should arouse students’ awareness of metaphors byequipping students with systematic knowledge about metaphor, instead of casually commenting on them as they occur in language, while learners should be encouraged touse metaphors in the context of the English culture.