Research On The Teaching Of English Phrasal Verbs In Junior High School Based On Conceptual Metaphor

English phrasal verbs are an important part of English grammar teaching in junior high schools.However,phrasal verbs have always been a major difficulty in junior high school English teaching due to their diverse collocation forms and rich semantics.Previous studies have discussed about phrasal verbs from different theoretical perspectives,such as forms,meanings and composition basis of phrasal verbs.However,the generation of special phrases(such as V+up,V+down)and their semantic extension remain a difficulty.Based on the philosophy of experience,the conceptual metaphor theory that emerged in the 80 s of last century puts forward the cognitive rationale,which provides new opportunities for understanding the generation of various phrasal verbs and their semantic expansion.Based on conceptual metaphor theory,this study combines qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore the feasibility of applying conceptual metaphor theory to phrasal verb teaching,and how to improve learners’ metaphorical awareness in classroom teaching.This study focuses on the following two questions:(1)Does English phrasal verb teaching based on conceptual metaphors help improve the effectiveness of phrasal verb learning among junior high school students?(2)How do teachers effectively integrate metaphors into English phrasal verb teaching?In this study,60 students in the ninth grade of a middle school in Chengdu,Sichuan Province,including 20 girls and 40 boys,were the subjects.The subjects were divided into two classes,one experimental and one controlled,each with 30 students.The author taught phrasal verbs that contain prepositions and conducted teaching experiments based on metaphorical theory.The study involved multiple steps,including pre-testing,classroom practice,post-testing,questionnaires,and semi-structured interviews.The quiz was selected from the high school entrance examinations in Chengdu in the past few years.After preliminary test,it was found that there was no significant difference in the learning of phrasal verbs between the experimental class and the control class.After eight weeks of teaching experiments,all subjects were asked to take part in teats,including filling out questionnaires and conducting semi-structured interviews.The main tool used for data collection and analysis was SPSS25.0.In the eight-week teaching experiment,when teachers used structural metaphors to teach phrasal verbs with V+to structure,students had a deeper understanding of this type of phrasal verbs.The phrasal verb teaching method based on ontological metaphorical consciousness makes the learning of phrase verbs with in and out for junior high school students easier.The phrasal verb teaching method based on orientation metaphor can effectively reduce the difficulty of students’ understanding of phrasal verbs such as V+up and V+down,and increase students’ interest and motivation in learning English phrasal verbs.Through the analysis of research data and interview results,it can be concluded that English phrasal verb teaching based on conceptual metaphors can help improve the effectiveness of English phrasal verb learning of junior high school students.Therefore,junior high school English teachers should consciously use conceptual metaphors in the teaching process to help students understand the formation of phrasal verbs based on their own cognitive experience and the basic meaning and extended meaning of phrasal verbs.At the same time,after mastering its metaphorical meaning,students can also guess its semantics more accurately.When it comes to verbal expression,students are able to choose prepositions more accurately.