Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research Background
Vocabulary plays an important role in the second language learning. It isconsidered as the organic unity of the sound, the shape and the meaning. Vocabularylearning has aroused many scholars’ attention. Wilkins (1972) said, “ if there is notany grammar, there is little can be conveyed；if there is not any vocabulary, nothingcan be conveyed.” Meanwhile, McCarthy (1988) claimed that word was moreimportant than the grammar and the sound. Therefore, communication could nothappen in any meaningful way if there was no word to express human’s thoughts. It isshown that vocabulary is fundamental to all of the language skills in human linguisticsystem.Nowadays, many English teachers in the vocational schools rarely exploreddeeply into the appropriate use of the words in the language teaching. They not onlypaid more attention to explain the sound, the form and the word meaning, but alsoemphasized the vocabulary memory. For these situations, most of the domestic andforeign scholars agreed that there would need a new method to improve thevocabulary teaching and learning. As metaphor is a cognitive tool which can helphuman recognize the world better, many scholars at home and abroad have done a lotof researches on metaphor. In ancient Greet, Aristotle’s famous works poetics andRhetoric put forward the earliest systematic metaphor study which was considered asthe literature language in myth and poem. In 1 A.D., Roman rhetorician Quintilianstated that metaphor was looked as a kind of rhetorical device. In 1930s, Richard’swork named The Philosophy of Rhetoric stated that metaphor was a way of thoughts.In 1980s, Lakoff and Johnson’s masterpiece called Metaphor We Live By stated thatmetaphor was widely considered as a cognitive mechanism in this book.
…………
1.2 Research Purpose
The present research is in hoping of finding a more practical and effective way forvocational school English vocabulary teaching. An empirical research was conductedby Boers (2017) and Gibb (1992) illustrated how useful the conceptual metaphor inthe understanding of English words, idioms and proverbs. Based on the view ofconceptual metaphor, it is more important to input the metaphorical knowledge to thestudents and help them set up the conceptual awareness. The English teacher canexplain the natures of conceptual metaphor and the significance of the application ofvocabulary to the students. The teacher can also help the students to cultivate thecompetence of conceptual cognition, which can assist them to comprehend theEnglish vocabulary better and raise the students' interest in learning English. Richard(1936) insisted that one could make a better application of a second language afterthey had mastered a great number of vocabularies. Therefore, vocabulary acquisitionshould penetrate the process of language learning. In all, this thesis conducted anexperiment to verify that vocabulary teaching based on the conceptual metaphortheory could better improve students' understanding of English words and raisestudents' interest in learning English.
…………
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Studies on English Vocabulary Teaching and Learning
Phonetics, grammar and vocabulary are considered as the inseparable componentsin a language. ，英语论文，英语论文
|
