On The Lexical Metaphorical Competence Of Chinese EFL High School Learners

Metaphorical competence（MC）is an important part of the FL learner’s conceptual fluency,and it plays an important role on whether FL learners can achieve native-likeness in a foreign language.The current research on MC mainly focuses on the teachability and learnability of MC,and the research subjects are mostly advanced learners and children.Researchers keep a watchful eye on high school learners are very limited,not to mention the research on covert nonnative-likeness by exploring MC.On the basis of previous studies,from the perspective of conceptual metaphor and conceptual fluency,this paper attempts to investigate the MC of Chinese high school learners（CHSL）with Chinese background.The research questions are listed as follows:（i）How is the development of CHSL’s receptive MC at lexical level?（ii）How is the development of CHSL’s productive MC at lexical level?（iii）What is the relationship between CHSL’s MC at lexical level and their language proficiency?This study adopts two written-tests: “Multiple Choice” and “Translation-induced Blank-filling”.The two empirical tests of CHSL are both completed in classroom.Test one is a “Multiple Choice” test,20 English sentences with a blank are designed as research items,and each sentence is offered three choices.123 Chinese high school learners（CHSL）from a Senior High School in a city in Guangdong Province are selected as subjects（41 first-year CHSL,41 second-year CHSL,41 third-year CHSL）.The purpose is to investigate the development of CHSL’s receptive MC at lexical level and the relationship between their receptive MC and language proficiency.The research subjects of test two are the same as test one.According to the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve,test two is conducted one month after the completion of test one,at which time participants’ memory of test one has been refreshed.The research items are from test one,20 multiple-choices are changed into “translation-induced blank-filling”,including 20 pairs of sentences with blanks.Each sentence has corresponding Chinese counterpart,and each blank allows two types of expressions,one is metaphorical expression,the other is non-metaphorical expression.The participants are asked to fill in the blanks with the help of Chinese counterparts and the understanding of the context.The purpose is to investigate the development of CHSL’s productive MC at lexical level and the relationship between their productive MC and language proficiency.The results are as follows:（1）The frequency of NME provided by CHSL is significantly more than that of ME in test one,indicating that the development of CHSL’s receptive MC at lexical level is at a low level.（2）The frequency of NME provided by CHSL is significantly more than that of ME in test two,suggesting that the productive MC at lexical level of CHSL is very limited.（3）The frequencies of ME provided by the third-year CHSL are significantly more than those of ME offered by the first-year CHSL in two tests,and there is a significant positive correlation between the MC and language proficiency of CHSL,which shows that CHSL’s MC at lexical level improves with the promotion of language proficiency.To find out it’s cause,our conceptual system is metaphorical,but each language has its own unique conceptual system.Due to the differences between the conceptual system of English and Chinese,CHSL’s conceptualization mode differentiates from that of the target language,resulting in the preference of non-metaphorical expressions.Meanwhile,metaphorical input is the key to cultivate CHSL’s MC,CHSL’s lack of MC can be attributed to the lack of a large amount of English reading.To sum up,different mode of conceptualization,inadequate metaphorical input,proficiency of target language account for the lack of MC among CHSL.The pedagogical implications of the present study are as follows.MC is an important part of linguistic competence,mastering MC is the important sign of L2 proficiency.SLT should emphasizes the cultivation of CHSL’s MC,and EFL learners should learn how to identify,understand and apply L2 metaphorical concepts under the guidance of FL teachers,which can help improve EFL learners’ MC.