A Study On The Effects Of Conceptual Metaphor Instruction On The Acquisition Of Phrasal Verbs By Senior High School Students

Vocabulary learning plays a significant role in language learning.As an important part of vocabulary,English phrasal verbs have become an obstacle for L2 learners because of their flexible meanings in different contexts.In recent years,many scholars at home and abroad have applied the relevant theories of cognitive linguistics to phrasal verbs acquisition and explored effective ways to teach phrasal verbs,which have made some progress.Most studies in the research field have focused more on college students,less on senior high school students,so this study attempts to enrich the related studies of the acquisition of English phrasal verbs in senior high schools.The current study laid emphasis on the other group,senior high school students,to examine the differences between traditional translation method and conceptual metaphor instruction of their acquisition of phrasal verbs.It aimed to answer the following two questions:(1)Does conceptual metaphor instruction have any effects on senior high school students’ acquisition of phrasal verbs?Do proficiency levels(lower level and higher level)of senior high school students play a role on the acquisition of phrasal verbs with conceptual metaphors?If so,why?(2)How do senior high school students perform in the acquisition of the phrasal verbs?In the current study,195 senior high school students were from two different levels(97 in the higher-level group and 98 in the lower-level group),with each level divided into two groups:the experimental group and the control group.The control group in the higher-level group consisted of 45 students,and its experimental group included 52 students.The control group in the lower-level group was made up of 47 participants,while its experimental group was composed of 51 participants.The experimental groups were taught via conceptual metaphorical method,while the control groups learnt phrasal verbs through traditional method.The research developed in three stages.At the first stage,the subjects were required to take a pre-test to examine their proficiency level of English phrasal verbs.At the second stage,they were required to take an immediate post-test after the experiment to test whether the conceptual metaphorical instructions helped students to acquire phrasal verbs in the short term.At the last stage,the participants were asked to take a delayed post-test to investigate whether the conceptual metaphorical instruction was effective for students to acquire phrasal verbs in the long run.For each period,students were required to finish a completion test with 30 sentences within 45 minutes.Data collection and analysis were performed using SPSS 17.0.T-tests firstly showed significant differences between the two groups at each proficiency level,and secondly there were differences between the two levels in both post-tests.According to the results and analysis,it can be concluded as follows.Firstly,compared with the control groups,students in the experimental groups have made much more progress in English phrasal verbs,so conceptual metaphor theory had a positive effect on the learning of phrasal verbs of senior high school students.Secondly,in comparison with students in senior one,students in senior two have gained more achievement in phrasal verbs,so the proficiency levels played an important role in students’ acquisition of phrasal verbs with conceptual metaphor instruction.Secondly,generally,students in the four groups performed better in the particles of up and out.In contrast,they had difficulty in learning phrasal verbs with down and off.Specifically,compared with the control group at each level,the experimental group performed much better in the acquisition of the most phrasal verbs among the 30 items in the post-test 2,such as look up,show up,hang out,check out,throw out;however,for a few phrasal verbs,the control groups performed better,such as cut down.There were still several that were extremely difficult for them to acquire,even for the experimental group at the higher level,such as burn up,take down,close down,look into,and fall off,which signified that conceptual metaphor instruction was not omnipotent.In conclusion,this study has testified that,to some extent,conceptual metaphor instruction is efficient in English phrasal verbs learning by senior high school students.It has provided an effective method to teach and learn English phrasal verbs in senior high schools;however,it is necessary to dialectically treat traditional teaching methods and conceptual metaphor instruction,and combine them with each other to promote students’ acquisition of phrasal verbs.Future studies are hoped to explore more acquisition patterns of phrasal verbs and find more effective ways for students to acquire English phrasal verbs.