A Research On Conceptual Metaphor Theory Applied To English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School

Vocabulary is the basis of language and plays an important role in English learning.It directly affects the development of learners' listening,speaking,reading,writing and translation abilities.The English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools(2017)requires students to master 3000-3200 words in total,and elective(supplement)requires systematic mastery 4000-4200 words.However,students' vocabulary learning is mainly based on mechanical memory by the results of questionnaire,which is inefficient and lacks attention to semantic connection.Obviously,how to help students learn vocabulary effectively has become an urgent problem.In recent years,foreign language scholars have begun to study vocabulary from the perspective of cognitive metaphor.Based on this situation,this paper attempts to combine conceptual metaphor theory with senior high school English vocabulary teaching method.This study mainly adopts a combination of qualitative research and quantitative research.Firstly,this paper systematically combines the relevant literature to lay a theoretical foundation.Afterwards,based on the three categories of Conceptual Metaphor---structural metaphor,orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor,teaching demonstrations are carried out,and matching metaphor exercises are designed to consolidate the teaching effect.Finally,the empirical stage is to prove the effectiveness of metaphorical vocabulary teaching in English classes.This paper chooses two classes of Grade Two from middle school in Nanchang to carry out a one-semester teaching experiment.This teaching experiment is divided into experimental class and controlled class.The experimental class uses metaphor theory to teach vocabulary,while the controlled class mainly uses traditional vocabulary teaching.Through the three tests,the author compares and analyses the test results,and concludes that: 1)In the Vocabulary Level Test,the test scores in experimental class are higher than controlled class,which indicates that metaphorical vocabulary teaching helps to improve students' vocabulary level.2)In the English Ability Test,the students in experimental class are higher than controlled class in reading comprehension,translation and writing,and the range of differences are different,reading > translation > writing,which shows that the teaching method has a positive impact on the mastery of vocabulary semantics,reading,translation and writing skills.3)As for the total scores of English Ability Test,the students in experimental class also are higher than controlled class,which shows that the students' English ability have been improved.This study aims to promote the learning effects by revealing the inherent logical relationship between words meaning and constructing the lexical semantic internet.It is an new attempt to teaching vocabulary,which is helpful to renew the teaching concept and serve a guidance for vocabulary teaching in middle schools.