An Empirical Study On The Application Of Conceptual Metaphor Theory To English Writing Teaching In Senior High School

In recent years, the study of cognitive metaphor has become a hot topic. It gradually breaks away from the bondage of traditional rhetoric and turns to be the object of the multitudinous disciplines, which also provides a new perspective for the study of English teaching and learning. The conceptual metaphor is not only a kind of universal language phenomenon but also an indispensable cognitive tool. The conceptual metaphor theory has offered a solid theoretical basis for the study of language.Writing is one of the basic skills of English learning, which is a comprehensive reflection of the level of English learners. For a long time, it has become the focus of the study for many scholars. However, it is still a difficulty in English teaching. In the English writing teaching in senior high school, teachers concentrate more on the explanation and analysis of vocabulary and grammar, ignoring the cultivation of students’ English writing ability. As a result, students, in the process of English writing, overly pay attention to the correctness of vocabulary and grammar. A majority of their writings are composed of the simple word, incoherent discourse and nonnative expression. In fact, it results from the different metaphoric cognition between the native language, which is Chinese and the target language, which is English. Based on these facts, this thesis makes an empirical study on the students in senior high school on the basis of the conceptual metaphor theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson as the representative cognitive linguists and explores the following two questions:1. Can students’ metaphoric competence be effectively promoted after the teaching of conceptual metaphor in senior high school?2. Can students improve their writing achievement more effectively after the teaching of conceptual metaphor in senior high school?The subjects of the experiment are from two parallel classes in Grade 2 in Changping senior high school, Gaoping, Shanxi Province. There are 60 students in total. They are randomly divided into the experimental class and the control class with 30 students in each class. In the experiment, the two classes are taught by the same teacher and use the same textbook. But they are exposed to different teaching methods. The control class is exposed to the non-metaphoric English writing teaching while the conceptual metaphor theory is applied to the English writing teaching in the experimental class. This experiment lasts a semester. The metaphoric competence test, writing test, an interview and SPSS 17.0 are the research instruments, which integrate the quantitative and qualitative research methods.Through the data collection and analysis of pre-test and post-test of metaphoric competence and the analysis of the interview, it can be found that students’ metaphoric competence can be promoted after the teaching of conceptual metaphor in senior high school. The data analysis and discussion of pre-test and post-test of the writing indicates that students can improve their writing achievement more effectively after the teaching of conceptual metaphor in senior high school. The application of the conceptual metaphor theory to English writing teaching is only a tentative method in senior high school. There are many limitations and the further research is required in the future.