| Verb-particle constructions(VPC) is a language phenomenon with high frequency and general application. It is in great measure unique in terms of morphology, semantics and syntax. In China, middle school students, as learners of English as a second language, learn by rote the meanings of the “verb-particle” constructions, hence low efficiency. When teaching “verb-particle” constructions, middle school teachers employ the traditional method of listing all their meanings and producing some examples, hence little satisfying teaching effect. In the last two or three decades, cognitive linguistics has been introduced by domestic experts and scholars in SLA field; besides, in the last ten years, there has gradually appeared some studies looking for the possibility of applying metaphor, metonymy and image schema to the vocabulary instruction in the field. These methods put forward by cognitive linguists are supposed to be better than the traditional way, but as for the experimental researches designed to testify the hypothesis, the quantity is small. In the present thesis, senior high school students, who are barely investigated in the former researches, become the research subjects. Based on all the work done before, the present author explores the possibility of applying image schema to the instruction of VPC further. It is also a process of exploring an effective way for vocabulary teaching in elementary education.On the basis of the Image Schema Theory and Constructivism, the main research questions in the present thesis are as follows:1) What is the effect of teaching verb-particle constructions based on the image schemas of the particles on improving students’ receptive vocabulary?2) What is the effect of teaching verb-particle constructions based on the image schemas of the particles on improving students’ productive vocabulary?3)What is the reflection of learners to the new method?The subjects in the present research are the students in two regular classes, Class 3 and Class 4, Grade Two, in Chuanhua High School in Qingbaijiang, Chengdu(40 students/ class). It takes approximately two months to finish the teaching part. During the process of data collection and data analysis, there are a pre-test and a post-test(both including a paper testing receptive vocabulary and a paper testing productive vocabulary), as well as a questionnaire and classroom observation.The results are as follows:1) The students who are taught verb-particle constructions through the image schemas of the particles get higher score of receptive vocabulary than those taught through a traditional method, no matter in the post-test or the delayed test, while the difference is not significant;2) The instruction based on the image schemas of the particles can improve students’ productive knowledge remarkably, both in the post-test and the delayed test.3) Learners are basically positive toward the method, but they need time to adapt to it. Besides, there’s still space left to raise learners’ interest.According to the result, a conclusion can be drawn: It is basically feasible to apply image schema to the teaching of verb-particle constructions in senior high school. While if action is really taken to popularize the method, how to increase the interest of the students who dislike learning vocabulary is something asking for exploration by the researchers in the future. Besides, considering the right of the present author, the number of subjects is limited. If possible, future researches shall cover a wide area(different textbooks used) and take a bigger sample as the subjects. Last but not least, the result on improving learners’ receptive vocabulary in the present thesis differentiates from that in Zhao Mingyuan’s study. Whether the instruction of applying image schemas of the particles in verb-particle constructions is better than a traditional way, especially for receptive vocabulary, requires more investigations in the future. |
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