A Study Of English Idioms Learning Strategies Used By Chinese High School Learners

English idiom is one of the most difficult areas of language learning, no matter for native speakers or EFL learners, and they can make expressions sound more authentic and fluent, therefore, it is necessary to explore some idioms learning strategies. How idioms are acquired by foreign learners is an area worthy of study. The view that the meanings of idioms are non-compositional is widely shared in traditional views. Yet Cognitive Linguistics suggests conceptual metaphor can provide a good way for the semantic explanation of English idioms.This thesis is based on Lakoff s Conceptual Metaphor Theory. It is carried out in the following order:firstly, the study makes a survey on the current idioms learning situation in a senior high school, which indicates that high school learners are poor in idioms learning, and other effective strategies still need to be employed; secondly,32participants are divided into two groups, control group(EG) and experimental groups(CG), traditional and conceptual metaphor ways of learning are carried out in each group to analyze their learning strategies and effect, with two modes of contexts; last but not least, there will be an ask-answer activity between teacher and students to explore effective learning strategies. Firstly, the thesis aims to check the role of conceptual metaphor in idioms’learning, positive or negative? Secondly, it is to see whether proper context can help learners process the meaning of idiom. Thirdly, it is to seek effective strategies employed by Chinese high school learners to learn English idioms.The findings in the pretest show that there is no big difference between two groups, while EG get higher marks than CG in the post test; what’s more, EG are better at using complex cognitive strategies and deducing the correct meaning of idiom in proper context than CG, but most participants depend on literal meanings to understand idioms in zero context, with lower accuracy. After interviewing, it is found that Cooper’s strategies have been partially suitable for Chinese high school learners, and the effective strategies are listed in the following order:context guessing>concept integration>literal meaning>background knowledge>L1.Therefore, during the process of daily teaching, teachers should consider the cognitive levels of learners, and never ignore the instruction of conceptual metaphor, stimulating Chinese high school learners’interest in learning and using English idioms.