A Study On The Metaphoric Productablity Of College Students

Metaphor is not only a rhetorical device,but also a way of thought and action.Therefore,metaphor plays an important role in foreign language learning.However,researches about how to apply metaphor to foreign language teaching are not so deep.Hence,there is little research about improving the ability to produce metaphors through metaphorical teaching.This study aims to explore the impact of metaphorical teaching on metaphorical production.The research questions are as follows:(1)What is the relationship between students' metaphorical knowledge and metaphorical production?(2)How can students' metaphoric competence be improved?68 second-year non-English major students(51 males and 17 females)in their second semester in XXXX University participated in this experiment.The instruments mainly include metaphorical knowledge test,metaphorical production test A,metaphorical production test B and an interview after the experiment.Before the metaphorical teaching,the subjects need to finish metaphorical knowledge test and metaphorical production test A.Data of the two papers are analyzed to answer the first research question.In the following two months' metaphorical teaching,metaphorical teaching is conducted to cultivate students' metaphorical knowledge and metaphorical production.After the experiment,the subjects are asked to finish metaphorical production test B.During the whole teaching process,the subjects are asked some questions to grasp their learning;after the experiment,they will receive an interview,which aims to help the author to grasp the subjects' mental condition.Data of metaphorical production test A and metaphorical production test B are analyzed to answer the second research question.After data analysis,the major findings lies in the following two aspects:(1)Metaphorical knowledge has a positive relationship with production of metaphoric competence.(2)Through two months' metaphorical teaching,subjects' production of metaphors can be improved,which had a great influence on their future learning.The above findings have some implications on foreign language teaching and learning.Teachers should apply metaphors to teaching.In this way,they can teach metaphors to students and cultivate students' metaphorical awareness.Students are supposed to use metaphors consciously to increase the richness,accuracy and figurativeness of language expressions.This study shows a different study perspective and gives researchers the inspiration to explore the application of metaphor in other aspects.