Image-Schema And Children's Acquisition Of English Preposition-Particles

Image-schema is an important concept widely discussed in cognitive linguistics. So far, researchers have not only defined and classified the concept of image-schema but also identified its functions and important role it plays from the perspective of cognitive science. But scholars have seldom explored the influence it has on language acquisition especially on that of children.Preposition-particles are the words that indicate the relationships among entities and their states, or the direction, extent and scope of actions. They are essential for human beings to express themselves and describe their experiences. Some linguists just regard them as a word class or linguistic symbols; they rarely recognize how significant it is for language acquisition to master the concept of these words, let alone do researches into their connection with image-schema.Currently, many Chinese are becoming acutely aware of both the importance and result of learning English from pre-school ages. Experts suggest that learning English should start from childhood, and that a good English learning environment should be created; many of them are developing suitable learning textbooks for children and exploring the most efficient ways of learning English, too. However, the results are far from satisfactory. Most young children can only speak some simple words, sing some English songs, but they have not learned how to express their ideas or describe their experiences.This paper explores the rationale and significance of the acquisition of preposition-particles in early second language acquisition under the framework of the categorization and image-schema theories. By contrasting and analyzing present textbooks widely used by Chinese children for English learning, this paper identifies their shared features as well as their weaknesses. It suggests that preposition-particles should be taught during the early period of children's learning English because preposition-particles, which represent rich image-schemas in their concepts, are essential to children's expressing their ideas and describing what they see, hear and feel. Following this, the paper brings forward some practical teaching strategies and plans which may provide some guidance to teaching and learning English among young children.The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the motivation of this study, its research objectives and the general organization of the paper. Chapter 2 mainly concerns one subject: what is image-schema. Literature review expounds both the definitions and classifications of image-schema. Also, to further explain this term, several of its defining features and its important role in the conceptualization and knowledge organization of human beings are discussed by reviewing past researches. At the same time, this chapter also summarizes researches about preposition-particles from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Chapter 3 highlights the important role of image-schema in second language acquisition and proposes the idea that, preposition-particles, which contain rich image-schemas, are even more important to early language acquisition among young children. Chapter 4 puts forward a detailed empirical analysis of existing textbooks for children. Weaknesses shared by these textbooks are identified and in Chapter 5, a solution to the problem follows, in the form of presenting a concrete textbook design that incorporates the teaching and learning of preposition-particles. And finally, Chapter 6 states the conclusions of the study, its weaknesses and possible future researches.