The Study Of Applying Metaphor To English Vocabulary Teaching

Metaphor was defined as a means of understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life. According to cognitive linguistics, metaphor is not only a kind of rhetoric, but also a kind of cognitive approach. Metaphor can be seen as a bridge which links teacher's abstract knowledge and students'tangible knowledge based on their common experiences. Researchers have made valuable contribution to metaphor studies from different perspectives. However, most current metaphor studies are limited to theoretical level and pay less attention to its applications, especially concerning how to put related theories into foreign language teaching practice.This study mainly explores the function of conceptual metaphor in the process of the understanding and retention of vocabulary, and attempts to apply the theory of conceptual metaphor to teaching and learning vocabulary in the English language classroom. In the traditional vocabulary teaching, at many colleges, teachers seldom explain the deep relationships among different meanings of a polysemy, consequently the students often learn vocabulary by rote memory, and they usually forget these words soon after class because of the lack of meaning connection. Vocabulary teaching directed by metaphor theory emphasizes the internal connection of vocabulary. Expressions which seem unrelated are linked together by conceptual metaphor, and vocabulary can be acquired from the perspective of cognition. According to metaphor theory, among the varieties of meanings of a polysemy, there exists a more basic or core meaning which acts as a prototype, and the other meanings are extended or developed in a metaphorical way based on the core meaning according to family resemblance and image schemas. Therefore, all the items form a network. The analysis of the development of word meaning from metaphor perspective enables students have a deeper understanding about vocabulary meaning, and make vocabulary teaching in class more interesting and impressive, which inspires their enthusiasm for foreign language learning, and to a large degree, change their vocabulary learning strategy from rote memorization to more advanced and complicated but more effective strategies.The purpose of this research is to apply metaphor theories to language teaching, and to prove whether or not it is an effective way to teach vocabulary with metaphor method and whether it has an influence on learners'vocabulary learning strategies (VLS).Two classes were chosen as the control group (CG) and the experimental group (EG). They are freshmen of non-English majors, and their English proficiency level is similar. In CG, traditional vocabulary teaching approach was used in the class, while in EG metaphor approach was introduced during the process of vocabulary teaching.Pre-test and post-test were made both in the English vocabulary level test and in the questionnaire about vocabulary learning strategies. Data were collected from the result of questionnaires and English vocabulary level tests, and then analyzed using Software SPSS 18.0. In English vocabulary level tests, Independent Sample T-test was used to compare the means between the control group and the experiment group, which indicate whether there is a significant difference between the two groups. We compare the results in pre-test and post-test to determine whether the metaphor method is more effective than traditional method. In questionnaires, SPSS was employed to provide descriptive statistics before and after the experimental teaching, and to illustrate whether there is a change in subjects'vocabulary learning strategies.Through eight weeks of experiment teaching, the study reached its conclusions. Compared with traditional teaching method, metaphor method is a relatively effective way in vocabulary teaching because subjects in EG made much more progress on vocabulary level than subjects in CG; metaphor method does have influence on learners'VLS to a large degree. Most subjects changed their VLS from rote learning to applying imagery and learning in context. They realized that these strategies make boring vocabulary learning become relatively more interesting, impressive and effective.