The Effects Of Conceptual Metaphor Theory Oriented Teaching Approach On Students’ Acquisition Of English Polysemous Words In Junior High School

Polysemy is the capacity for a word or phrase to have multiple meanings,usually related by contiguity of meaning within a semantic field.For the majority of English teachers and learners,the teaching of English polysemous words has always been a priority in vocabulary teaching.However,the current situation of junior high school students’ acquisition of English polysemous words is not satisfactory.Teachers ignore the relationships among the different meanings of English polysemous words sometimes.Students’ traditional methods of learning vocabulary are mechanical,time-consuming but ineffective,so they can not accurately understand and use the words they learned.It is important to expand the meanings of language,and it is also vital to our understanding of how language,thought and discourse are structured.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the application of conceptual metaphor theory to English polysemy teaching in junior high school,which will provide a new perspective for junior high school teachers to teach vocabulary.Self-directed learning concepts have supported professional development in the fields of pharmacy,medical,and human resources,as well as the teaching of math,science,elementary education,and educational technology.The author adopted the Self-directed Learning Readiness Scale(SDLRS)to collect data about students’ self-directed learning readiness before and after the experiment.Under the guidance of conceptual metaphor theory,an experiment of English polysemy teaching was carried out in junior high school.The research questions were as follows:1)How does conceptual metaphor theory oriented teaching approach affect students’ long-term memory on acquisition of English polysemous words?2)What are the effects of conceptual metaphor theory oriented teaching approach on students’ self-directed learning readiness?3)What are the relationships between students’ long-term memory of English polysemous words and self-directed learning readiness?The subjects of the study were from a middle school in Shenzhen.They were 100 students from two parallel classes in Grade seven.The author applied the conceptual metaphor theory to English polysemy teaching in the experimental class,while the control class was taught by traditional teaching approach.After 12 weeks of empirical study,the author used SPSS 17.0 to analyze and summarize the data of a questionnaire,three vocabulary tests and a scale in this study.In order to prove the feasibility of the experiment,an interview was also used to answer the third research question.The results showed that the conceptual metaphor theory played a positive role in English polysemy teaching.Firstly,It not only helped students understand and apply English polysemous words efficiently and accurately,but also helped students deepen long-term memory of English polysemous words.Secondly,it improved students’self-directed learning readiness under the guidance of the conceptual metaphor theory.Thirdly,the author found that there was positive correlations between students’long-term memory of English polysemous words and self-directed learning readiness.In conclusion,the study can provide some enlightenment for the use of teaching approach based on conceptual metaphor theory to deepen long-term memory of English polysemous words and improve self-directed learning readiness.