The Study Of English Euphemism In English Language Teaching At Middle School

The application of Euphemism is a widespread linguistic phenomenon in all kinds of languages, which is adopted to avoid being unpleasant or offensive. In general speaking, the development of Euphemism can be traced back to the religion. In reality, language taboo also affects its development to some extent.Nowadays, some opinions are introduced into Middle-School English teaching outline, in which the aim of English-learning is focused on cultivating the students' ability of communicating in English. In order to do this better, I think it is helpful to introduce the knowledge of euphemism to students. Meanwhile, it is good for the teachers to communicate with students in a euphemistic way. It can help to cultivate the students' interest in English and to promote their self-confidence.In order to form a general concept about the euphemisms, the thesis first gives a brief review of the history of euphemisms, in which it illustrates the principles of formation and analyses the social function of euphemisms. In the following chapter, the thesis analyses the psychologic characteristics .By a survey we made into our students' knowledge on English euphemisms, we prove it necessary to introduce euphemisms in English teaching. We discuss the accessibility of introducing euphemisms to our English language teaching class and put forward some tentative strategies to help students grasp this language phenomenon, thus improving their basic linguistic competence and their communicative competence. Finally the thesis comes to a conclusion that introducing euphemisms in English teaching can help cultivate the students' interest in English and create pleasant, lively, harmonious atmosphere in class. It can also help students overcome psychologic impediment and alleviate anxiety and so on.In order to prove it, an experiment was introduced in English teaching by contrasting two parallel classes. One class was introduced in euphemistic teaching and learning but the other not. The result proves that the experiment is effective. The former is better than the latter in many aspects and the students themselves feel that they have made more progress than ever before.