A Study Of The Effects Of Iconicity Theory On College English Lexical Learning

In learning English,vocabulary learning has been the most important and difficult part.Some students take traditional learning methods,such as the direct method,phonics,situational language learning.A lot of learners spend a lot of time and put a lot of energy learning English words;however,the desired result is not achieved.In view of the question about how to learn and memorize words in a scientific and efficient way,scholars and teachers have had discussions about it.Especially in recent years,attention to the iconicity theory coupled with vocabulary learning has been paid by scholars and teachers with the development of Cognitive Linguistics.Many scholars at home and abroad have conducted a lot of theoretical researches on it.In China,many of them discuss applications of iconicity theory on English lexical teaching.However,so far,many researches on them have been incomplete.In view of this situation,based on the iconicity theory,the study focuses on lexical iconicity.The author selected 91 sophomore subjects at a university in 2017,of whom,44 subjects were in the control group and 47 subjects were in the experimental group.Two questions are discussed in this study.1.Does the knowledge of lexical iconicity broaden students' ways to lexical learning?2.What effect does the instruction of lexical iconicity have on students' lexical competence?This research method employed the questionnaire and teaching experiments.The questionnaire was aimed at investigating students' vocabulary learning methods.The teaching experiments which last for four months(from September to December)were aimed at proving whether iconicity theory plays a positive role in learning college English vocabulary.The major results in this study show that iconicity theory plays a positive role in learning college English vocabulary.First,this theory broadens the ways to lexical learning.Many students utilize lexical iconicity to memorize words effectively,change the habit of the rote-learning,and overcome the fear for word memorization.After learning lexical iconicity,students begin to show more interest in English vocabulary learning.Second,lexical iconicity has the positive effect on lexical competence.It helps learners enlarge their vocabulary and promote efficiency of word memorization.By learning lexical iconicity,it help students deepen their understanding of the meaning of the word.Based on the discussion above,the author offers some constructive suggestions for teachers,students and educational institutions and make contributions toward improving English teaching and learning.