A Study On High School English Polysemy Teaching From The Perspective Of Prototype Category Theory

To grasp the polysemous networks of the target words is extremely important for the improvement of EFL learners’ vocabulary ability. Under the influence of traditional linguistics, teachers believe that different senses of a polysemy are unrelated and unsystematic. As for the acquisition of polysemous words, students are used to learning the multiple senses by rote or inferring the senses from the context. However, these strategies are ineffective and time-consuming, and most importantly, it doesn’t necessarily result in long-term retention.Recently, polysemous words have been studied on the basis of cognitive linguistics. According to the prototype category theory, the semantic network of a word show family resemblance. Different senses of a word are related and systematic. Implied senses are derived from the prototypical sense through two cognitive tools of metaphor and metonymy. This new respective provides deep enlightenment on polysemy teaching and learning.With the prototypical category theory as the theoretical ground and senior high school students as the subjects, the present study attempts to discuss the following problems: 1) What is high school students’ overall situation of polysemous words acquisition? 2) Compared with conventional teaching method, is teaching method based on prototypical category theory more helpful for high school students’ polysemous words acquisition?A total of 100 students studying in two independent classes in Grade One from Xiaogan senior high school participated in the study and they were randomly divided into two classes. The control class adopted conventional vocabulary teaching approach, however, the experimental class was given the polysemy teaching model under the guidance of prototype category theory.Two stages were involved in the study. In the first stage, the instruments of questionnaire and a vocabulary test were used at the outset of the study to investigate the overall situation of high school students’ polysemy acquisition. In the second stage, polysemous words tests were given to students in each class to measure their polysemous words acquisition after receiving two different teaching methods respectively for nearly two months.The results of the study were as follows: 1) Although their vocabulary ability was satisfactory, high school students were not good at mastering polysemy. 2) Compared with the conventional teaching methods, the polysemy teaching model based on prototype category theory lead to better acquisition and long-term retention of polysemous words. Based on the above findings, some recommendations were provided for English teachers as well as students in senior high schools.