The Application Of Conceptual Metaphor In English Vocabulary Teaching In High Schools

The latest edition of English Curriculum Standards for General Senior High Schools(Ministry of Education,2018a)was officially published at the end of 2017(referred to as "Curriculum Standard 2017")."Curriculum Standard 2017" marks a new period of curriculum reform,which points out the direction and goal for a new round of high school English curriculum reform."Curriculum Standard 2017" raises the language ability of high school students.Language competence consists of five parts: listening,speaking,reading,viewing and writing,and listening,speaking,reading,viewing and writing are inseparable from vocabulary in any communication mode.It can be seen that vocabulary is the cornerstone of language learning and plays a very important role in language learning.This paper chooses two classes of Great Two in senior high school of Wudalianchi in Heilongjiang Province as the experimental class and the controlled class.The experimental class is taught vocabulary with the teaching method of conceptual metaphor,while the controlled class is taught with the conventional teaching method of vocabulary.With the help of analyzing software of SPSS22.0 system,this paper mainly discusses and researches three questions through the quantitative analysis of the pretest and posttest of the experimental class and the control class: First,how to apply conceptual metaphor to English vocabulary teaching in senior high school? Second,can the application of the method of conceptual metaphor in teaching English vocabulary in senior high schools improve the students' interest in learning English vocabulary? Third,can the application of the method of conceptual metaphor in teaching English vocabulary in senior high schools improve senior high school students' scores of English vocabulary? On the basis of empirical research,the paper supplements and proves the results of quantitative analysis through semi-structured interviews.After 16 weeks' teaching experiment,the following conclusions can be made:First of all,conceptual metaphor can be applied to the teaching of English vocabulary in senior high schools,and the teaching method of vocabulary is feasible.Teachers can gradually cultivate senior high school students' metaphorical thinking through three steps of teaching vocabulary.The first step is to pay attention to the teaching of basic vocabulary and their metaphorical meanings;the second step is to give priority to the prototypical meaning of vocabulary;the third step is to summarize vocabulary by using method of metaphorical concepts.Secondly,conceptual metaphor can improve high school students' interest in English vocabulary learning and their scores of English vocabulary.Because senior high school students can understand their metaphorical meanings and memorize English basic words and more firmly from the perspective of metaphorical cognition.Understanding the metaphorical cognitive motivation of polysemy,students in the high schools can infer its correct meaning in specific context.Associating its metaphorical meanings on the basis of the prototype of lexical meanings makes it easier for students to understand the usage of English phrases and idioms easily,so that the boring learning on English vocabulary becomes lively,and senior high school students can change from memorizing vocabulary passively into exploring them actively.