Illumination of Cognitive Metaphors on the Reform of College English Teaching

Abstract

Metaphor which is an important rhetorical device exists everywhere in our life. It is not only a linguistic phenomenon but also a cognitive phenomenon which is a cognitive activity that humans use in one field to explain or understand the experience of another field. This paper combines cognitive metaphor with the reform of English teaching to research. It studies the metaphor’s influence on the reform of English teaching according to the application of orientational metaphors, structural metaphors, ontological metaphors. Use metaphor to teach, cultivate the students’ metaphorical competence and change the students’ thinking methods to improve their reading and writing abilities. And then promote the development of the reform of English teaching.