The Application Of Prototype Category Theory In The Teaching Of English Polysemy In Junior High School

Polysemy is an intensively common language phenomenon,and it is also an indispensable result of the gradual growth of language as the time goes by.Teaching vocabulary is a basic section of English teaching,but many teachers don’t pay special attention to it.In the traditional methods,the teachers merely teach students the common meaning of words,and won’t interpret the inner connection among these meanings.Moreover,quite a few students neither pay enough attention to polysemy nor effective learning methods,but continually adopt mechanical memorization methods.All these reasons cause students to have a low efficiency of vocabulary learning,low vocabulary mastery and low overall English proficiency.Hence,it is extremely necessary to find out how to master the learning strategies of polysemy and explore effective polysemous words teaching methods to assist polysemy teaching.This paper combs all the literature on prototype category theory and polysemy teaching at home and abroad,and interprets some shortcuts in the teaching of English polysemy in junior high school.From the aspect of cognitive linguistics,an empirical study about the polysemy teaching in junior high school English is evolved.And the following two issues intend to be solved through empirical research:(1)How effective is the prototype category theory applied to the teaching of English polysemy in junior high school?(2)What impact does prototype category theory have on students’ polysemy retention from perspective of short-term memory and long-tern memory?In order to get answers to the research questions,this teaching experiment mostly chooses two ordinary classes in the seventh grade of Fengxiang Middle School in Sichuan Province as the research subjects,with a total number of 102 students.This research is conducted through integrated methods including the questionnaire method,the test method and face-to-face interview method.A 16-week teaching experiment is carried out in the experimental class,and furthermore all the research data,the questionnaire survey and interview results of the experimental class and the controlled class are sorted out,and then the data obtained is analyzed by SPSS23.0.The main findings of the research include the following aspects: 1)After the experiment,comparing the pre-test scores and post-test scores of polysemy proficiency of EC and CC,the polysemous word acquisition ability of students in EC is significantly improved much more than that of CC.2)Comparing the immediate test and delayed test of polysemy in EC and CC,the delayed test scores of EC and CC have both decreased by comparison to the immediate test,but the delayed test scores of EC are still higher than that of CC.3)After the experiment,the students in EC are interviewed.The majority of the students in EC have a high evaluation of polysemy teaching based on prototype category theory.They express that they are very willing to accept this teaching method,and will adopt it to acquire polysemy in the future.Nevertheless,a small number of students say that this new teaching method is good,but it may not be appropriate for them.Owing to the research results,this study gets the following conclusions about the teaching of English polysemy in junior high school: 1)Polysemy teaching based on prototype category theory can promote students’ acquisition of polysemous words.2)Polysemy teaching based on prototype category theory has no obvious effect on students’ polysemy retention from perspective of short-term memory,but can promote students’ polysemy retention of long-term memory.3)Polysemy teaching based on prototype category theory is able to enhance students’ thinking capability such as imagination and boost their interests in learning.