The Correlations Among Metaphoric Competence,Inferential Competence And English Vocabulary Size Of Grade-2 Senior High School Students

Metaphor,a kind of cognition and thinking way,is a cross mapping in the conceptual system and inference is a kind of advanced cognition and a key way to acquire knowledge.Vocabulary plays a crucial role in English learning.Therefore,researching the correlations among metaphoric competence,inferential competence and English vocabulary size is conducive to instructing students' vocabulary learning.This study,taking 165 grade-2 students in a key senior high school in Anxi County as the subjects,adopts metaphoric competence test,RSPM test and English vocabulary size test to test students' metaphoric competence,inferential competence and English vocabulary size respectively.It employs surveying and interviewing methods and attempts to explore three questions: 1)How are the metaphoric competence and inferential competence of grade-2 senior high school students? 2)Are there significant differences in English vocabulary size between high-score students and low-score students of metaphoric competence and inferential competence respectively? 3)How are the correlations among metaphoric competence,inferential competence and English vocabulary size?The results are as follows.1)The mean score of the ability to find meaning in metaphor is 25.25(Full score: 35),which is 72 in the percentage.The mean score of the ability to interpret metaphor fluently is 17.87,which means students can interpret 1.787 metaphors in each item of five.The mean score of the ability to produce metaphor is 16.88,which means students can produce 8.44 metaphors on average.RSPM test's mean score in referential competence is 76.62 and 73.3% of them is good.2)There is a significant difference(P=0.000<0.05)in English vocabulary size between high-score students and low-score students of metaphoric competence;there is also a significant difference(P=0.000<0.05)in English vocabulary size between high-score students and low-score students of inferential competence.3)There is a comparatively significant correlation between students' metaphoric competence and English vocabulary size(r=0.440).There is also a comparatively significant correlation between students' inferential competence and English vocabulary size(r=0.587).Regression estimation model is: the score of English vocabulary size = 11.017+0.375×M+0.334×I(M stands for metaphoric competence and “I” inferential competence)Accordingly,the author provides relevant suggestions for teachers and students to improve the efficiency of English vocabulary teaching by developing students' metaphoric competence and inferential competence.