Research On English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School Guided By The Conceptual Metaphor Theory

In recent years,more and more attention has been paid to the English vocabulary learning,but there remains many problems existing in the process of vocabulary learning.Therefore,it is necessary to carry on the study to explore the vocabulary teaching.Metaphor is first proposed by Aristotle,an ancient Greek scholar.In the 1980,the publication of Metaphors We Live By written by Lakoff and Johnson marked the beginning of the study on cognitive metaphor.They believe that metaphors are everywhere,and human languages are metaphorical,and that even the meanings of many words are derived from metaphors.Therefore,metaphor and language learning,especially vocabulary learning,are closely related.In order to further explore the feasibility and effectiveness of the application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory(CMT)to the English vocabulary teaching,this thesis mainly studies the following three questions:1)How to use conceptual metaphor to improve students' polysemous words acquisition ability in senior high school?2)How to use conceptual metaphor to improve students' metaphor awareness and ability in senior high school?3)How does conceptual metaphor influence senior high school students'vocabulary retention?To solve these questions,the author takes the empirical method.The subjects are from two classes of Grade One in a senior high school in Nanjing.One class is selected as the experimental group,where the teacher teaches vocabulary under the guidance of CMT.The other group is the control group,where the traditional method is used.Besides,the study includes a questionnaire,a pre-test,a post test and a delayed test.The experimental data are analyzed by SPSS 22.0.According to this study,the following conclusions can be found:1)The teaching method guided by CMT can help improve senior high school students' ability of learning polysemy by deepening the understanding between core meaning and its extended meanings.2)The teaching method guided by CMT can help senior high school students improve their metaphorical awareness and ability.Students taught under the guidance of Conceptual Metaphor Theory can use the conceptual metaphor to learn new words consciously.3)The teaching method guided by Conceptual Metaphor Theory has a better effect on students' vocabulary retention.Students taught under the guidance of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory have deeper impression on the vocabulary they have learned.Therefore this study believes that,compared with the traditional vocabulary teaching method,the method guided by CMT is more effective in vocabulary teaching by cultivating students'metaphorical awareness and this teaching method worth is promoting.Here are implications for teaching gained from this study:1)Teachers can have a try to apply the conceptual metaphor to other aspects of English teaching,like reading or even other subjects.2)Teachers can develop a simplified and systematic instrumental book about the English vocabulary teaching method guided by the Conceptual Metaphor Theory.3)Although the vocabulary teaching method guided by the Conceptual Metaphor Theory proves to be efficient in the study,teachers had better optimize the merits and demerits of different vocabulary teaching methods and adopt the most appropriate one or two in their teaching.