A Study On Teaching Metaphor

This thesis is trying to make an initial research on teaching metaphor in China from a theoretical perspective. Metaphor has been studied for over two thousand years. Traditionally, it was treated as a kind of linguistic ornament; however, with deep research into it, metaphor is now universally treated as a matter of thought and a way of cognition. This thesis mainly adopts the cognitive view of metaphor. Metaphor functions as a main working mechanism of cognition, a way to extend thought, an essential way of conceptualizing experience, and the generative mechanism of the language system. Language and human cognition interrelate with each other. That is to say, there must be a close relation between metaphor and English language teaching and learning. In recent years, some scholars began to pay attention to metaphor study in applied linguistics--practical use and language teaching study. It is believed that metaphor study in applied linguistics is one of the future directions on this topic and the application of metaphor in foreign language teaching is an important future study topic. This thesis is inspired by relevant studies on this direction. The intimate relationship between metaphor and language can benefit the contemporary English teaching a great deal. Therefore, to study teaching metaphor in foreign language teaching practice is of significance and necessity.As to study teaching metaphor is a comparatively new topic, the thesis firstly clarifies the rationales of teaching metaphor based on relevant metaphor theories, mainly adopt the cognitive perspective. Followed by the analysis of possible problems that will rise during the teaching process, the thesis moves on to emphasize the importance of cultivating metaphoric competence in teaching and learning process. Then the main approaches and activities involved in teaching metaphor are proposed. Meanwhile, the author attempts to integrate teaching metaphor into other language teaching practices, such as teaching vocabulary, teaching culture, teaching spoken English, and teaching writing. Hopefully, the introduction of teaching metaphor to English language teaching injects some new life to current English language teaching in our country's collage education. It facilitates both the teaching and learning process in a more inspiring and vivid way. However, what should be pointed out is that this paper is only a tentative exploration to teaching metaphor. Well-designed and carefully manipulated experiments may lead to hypotheses more convincing.