| The study attempts to explore the acquisition of phrasal verbs, first by the means of comparing the effects of image schema with traditional approach on the acquisition of phrasal verbs, then by the means of comparing the effects of conceptual metaphor with image schema on the acquisition of phrasal verbs, and finally draws the conclusion that subjects in this paper have acquired metaphoric awareness, which in turn facilitates the acquisition of phrasal verbs. 3 experiments in total were designed with one focusing on the effects of the image schema on the acquisition of phrasal verbs, one on the comparison between the effects of conceptual metaphor on the acquisition of phrasal verbs and the effects of image schema on the acquisition of phrasal verbs, and one on the verification whether the subjects have acquired metaphoric awareness, and whether it in turn is beneficial to the acquisition of phrasal verbs. Three kinds of phrasal verbs were chosen: prepositional phrasal verbs, particle phrasal verbs and particle-prepositional phrasal verbs, which are respectively defined as Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3; and 117 subjects were chosen to participate in these experiments and were divided into two groups, 58 in EG, 59 in CG, and all of the 117 subjects took part in all of the 3 experiments.Experiment 1 is a mixed design of 2(image schema or not) × 2(Type 1 and Type 2), with image schema or not as between-subject variables, Type 1 and Type 2 as within-subject variable, and accuracy rate as dependent variables. Experiment 2 is a mixed design of 2(conceptual metaphor and image schema) × 3(Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3), with the two teaching approaches as between-subject variables, Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3 as within-subject variable, and accuracy rate as dependent variables. Experiment 3 is a mixed design of 2(conceptual metaphor or not) × 2(Type 1 and Type 2), with conceptual metaphor or not as between-subject variables, Type 1 and Type 2 as within-subject variable, and accuracy rate as dependent variables. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS(version 17.0). The following conclusions are drawn from the study:1 For Experiment 1, there is a significant two-way interaction between Type(Type 1, Type 2) and Group(EG, CG)(p=0.000), and the main effect of Type is very significant(F(1, 115)=39.152, p=0.000), so does the main effect of Group( F(1, 115)=4.695, p=0.032), which signifies that image schema theory has greater impact than traditional approach on the acquisition of phrasal verbs, that is, the metaphor awareness facilitates the acquisition of phrasal verbs. In addition, Type 1 in EG> Type 1 in CG, Type 2 in EG<Type 2 in CG, Type 1 in EG> Type 2 in EG, Type 1 in CG>Type 2 in CG, which suggest that image schema has larger influence on the acquisition of Type 1 than that on the acquisition of Type 2, and that the acquisition of Type 1 is better than that of Type 2.2 For Experiment 2, there is a significant two-way interaction between Type(Type 1, Type 2, Type 3) and Group(EG, CG)(p=0.000), and the main effect of Type is very significant( F(2, 230)=982.037, p=0.000), so does the main effect of Group(F(1, 115)=15.936, p=0.000), which expounds that the acquisition of phrasal verbs’ three types is significantly affected by the different materials in EG and CG, that is, conceptual metaphor in EG and image schema in CG. Besides that, Type 1 in EG>Type 1 in CG, Type 2 in EG>Type 2 in CG, Type 3 in EG> Type 3 in CG, Type 3 in EG>Type 1 in EG>Type 2 in EG, Type 3 in CG>Type 2 in CG>Type 1 in CG, which indicates that both the conceptual metaphor and image schema have a great influence on Type 3, and that conceptual metaphor has greater influence than image schema on the acquisition of the three types of phrasal verbs, especially on the acquisition of Type 1.3 For Experiment 3, there are no two-way interaction between Type(Type 1, Type 2) and Group(EG, CG)(p=0.000), and no significant differences between EG and CG(F(1, 115) =0.287, p=0.593), but a main effect of Type of phrasal verbs(F(1, 115) =2085.556, p=0.000), in which, EG is a little better than CG, which demonstrates that no matter materials exist or not, the average accuracy is: Type 1>Type 2, and that CG with materials based on conceptual metaphor has no larger influence than EG without materials on the acquisition of Type 1 and Type 2. Furthermore, Type 1 in EG>Type 1 in CG, Type 2 in EG>Type 2 in CG, Type 1 in EG> Type 2 in EG, Type 1 in CG> Type 2 in CG, which means that L2 learners in EG and CG have acquired metaphoric awareness no matter in the acquisition of Type 1 or Type 2, and that the metaphoric awareness has influence on the acquisition of Type 1 and Type 2, more specially, the metaphoric awareness has larger influence on the acquisition of Type 1 than that of Type 2.From the above conclusions, we argue that cognitive methods are more powerful in the acquisition of phrasal verbs of Chinese-English learners and the conceptual metaphor can be more influential than image schema in the acquisition of phrasal verbs, which may vary due to the influence of other factors. |
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