An Action Research On Conceptual Metaphor-based Phrasal Verb Instruction In Middle School English Classroom

English phrasal verbs have become a major obstacle for English learners due to their complex structure,variety and polysemy.In recent years,many researchers at home and abroad have analyzed the structure of phrasal verbs from the perspective of cognitive linguistics,tried to explore effective teaching methods of phrasal verbs,which have made some progress.However,most of the existing studies are based on theoretical hypothesis testing,with few studies considering how to design teaching for specific students,and most of them have focused on adult English learners at intermediate level or advanced level.The research on teaching phrasal verbs to adolescent English learners is not deeply studied,which is not conducive to further improving the effectiveness of cognitive linguistics in classroom teaching.Therefore,this study focuses on junior high school students,guided by conceptual metaphor theory,and adopts an action research approach to explore how to use conceptual metaphor instruction to teach English phrasal verbs in junior high school English classrooms.It aims to answer the following two questions:(1)How can conceptual metaphor instruction effectively be applied in teaching English phrasal verbs in junior high school?(2)What effects does the implementation of conceptual metaphor have on the students’ phrasal verbs acquisition?Because of such problems,the current study took 53 students from Grade 8 of a junior high school as the research subjects,implemented three rounds of action for two months,and collected teacher’s teaching reflections,student interviews,and students’ performance in pre and posttests.Teacher’s teaching reflections and students’ interviews were analyzed qualitatively,and pre and posttests were analyzed using SPSS statistical methods.In the first round of action research,all the subjects were asked to take a pretest to test their overall level of English phrasal verbs.The text containing a certain number of phrasal verbs written by native speakers was selected for lead-in,and then the students were given a preliminary understanding of conceptual metaphor theory through Chinese expressions containing metaphors.Finally,translate sentences containing phrasal verbs which were chose from their textbook to further consolidate.The second round of action research addressed issues arising from the first round of research,such as low difficulty in consolidating materials,lack of practice,and deviation in students’ understanding of conceptual metaphor theory.Aiming at the low difficulty of consolidating materials,the drills in the second round of action research were all selected from the phrasal verb textbooks compiled by native speakers and the past year’s paper of high school entrance examination.The teaching process adopted TPR teaching method to guide students to better understand the physical basis of conceptual metaphor theory.The third round of action research focused on solving the problems of uneven participation in classroom activities between boys and girls and lack of consolidation after class that occurred in the second round of action.First,in the design of teaching activities,situational activities that can stimulate students’ interest were selected,and each student was actively participated in group discussions;second,the teacher reinforced consolidation after class,and encouraged students to summarize the phrasal verbs they have learned by means of conceptual metaphor,so as to promote students’ understanding of conceptual metaphor theory,and cultivate their habit of autonomous learning.After three rounds of action research,the subjects were asked to participate in a posttest.The research found that,first of all,the analysis of interview results showed that students generally accepted the conceptual metaphor instruction,which can help them further analyze the meaning of particles and promote their acquisition of phrasal verbs.Meanwhile,it provides them with new learning strategies to distinguish the polysemy of phrasal verbs.However,some students said that using conceptual metaphors was timeconsuming,especially when they were asked to generalize conceptual metaphors on their own.Therefore,how to effectively apply conceptual metaphor method to consolidate after class still needs further optimization.Next,through the analysis of teacher’s teaching reflection,it was found that presenting principles directly and giving examples,while integrating TPR teaching method,could help students understand conceptual metaphors.Choosing situational activities during the teaching process can improve students’ participation in the class.Finally,there is a significant difference between the pre and posttest,indicating that students have made significant progress in learning English phrasal verbs,and confirming that teaching guided by conceptual metaphor theory has a positive impact on junior high school students’ phrasal verbs acquisition.The current study suggests that the effectiveness of conceptual metaphor instruction is influenced by the following factors:(1)students’ ability to generalize conceptual metaphors,teachers’ analysis of learning situations,and the difficulty of teaching materials;(2)Differences in students’ cognitive styles.Imagers are better at using metaphorical strategies to understand the meaning of unknown words than verbalizers;(3)The interlanguage similarity of metaphor.When there are equivalent conceptual metaphors in Chinese,students are more likely to acquire phrasal verbs through conceptual metaphors.(4)Embodiment of teaching methods.Integrating physical experience into teaching can better align with the concepts of cognitive linguistics and deepen students’ understanding of conceptual metaphor theory.The TPR teaching method can help learners establish connections between symbolic structures and actions,gestures and images.It is suitable for teaching phrasal verbs based on cognitive linguistics.According to the results and analysis,this study proposes that using conceptual metaphor instruction to teach English phrasal verbs in junior high school can be divided into five stages: introduction-presentation-practice-production-consolidation,realize a smooth transition from presentation to practice,and then to production.Specific teaching suggestions are as follows:(1)Lead-in: text introduction with phrasal verbs should be selected;(2)Presentation: the principle of conceptual metaphor can be explained through performance;(3)Practice: select exercises that are slightly more difficult than the actual level of students and consolidate teaching activities closely related to the teaching theme;(4)Production: classify phrasal verbs based on the conceptual metaphors learned;(5)Summary and consolidation after class: students review and summarize the teaching contents,and apply conceptual metaphors in summarizing phrasal verbs after class.