The effectiveness of the Conceptual Metaphor Approach to English idiom acquisition by young Chinese learners

IF 0.9 Q2 LINGUISTICS

Metaphor and the Social World Pub Date : 2019-05-20 DOI:10.1075/MSW.17024.PAN

M. Pan

{"title":"The effectiveness of the Conceptual Metaphor Approach to English idiom acquisition by young Chinese\n learners","authors":"M. Pan","doi":"10.1075/MSW.17024.PAN","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n Although the Conceptual Metaphor Approach (CMA) has been claimed to be effective with respect to English idiom\n acquisition for EFL/ESL learners at elementary level, the claim awaits further investigation with empirical evidence (Beréndi, Csábi, & Kövecses, 2008; Boers,\n 2004). How CMA benefits these learners’ idiom acquisition and in what way it can best be implemented in their\n classrooms remain unknown. This study addresses these issues and sheds light on the effectiveness of CMA through a\n quasi-experiment, in which metaphor is exploited as an intervention that explicitly introduces the connection between idioms and\n the underlying Conceptual Metaphor theme. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 43 participants through\n questionnaires, tests and a semi-structured interview with the instructor. Results from an immediate post-test showed that\n participants under CMA scored higher than their counterparts who were undergoing a Memorizing Translation Approach, though the\n difference was statistically insignificant (p = 0.08). A one-week delayed post-test found that CMA facilitated\n idiom acquisition at a statistically significant level (p < .05). Findings from participants’ drawings and the\n semi-structured interview showed that CMA had contributed to an engaging and active learning experience. Pedagogical implications\n of this study are discussed further.","PeriodicalId":51936,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and the Social World","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2019-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"4","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Metaphor and the Social World","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1075/MSW.17024.PAN","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 4

Abstract

Although the Conceptual Metaphor Approach (CMA) has been claimed to be effective with respect to English idiom acquisition for EFL/ESL learners at elementary level, the claim awaits further investigation with empirical evidence (Beréndi, Csábi, & Kövecses, 2008; Boers, 2004). How CMA benefits these learners’ idiom acquisition and in what way it can best be implemented in their classrooms remain unknown. This study addresses these issues and sheds light on the effectiveness of CMA through a quasi-experiment, in which metaphor is exploited as an intervention that explicitly introduces the connection between idioms and the underlying Conceptual Metaphor theme. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 43 participants through questionnaires, tests and a semi-structured interview with the instructor. Results from an immediate post-test showed that participants under CMA scored higher than their counterparts who were undergoing a Memorizing Translation Approach, though the difference was statistically insignificant (p = 0.08). A one-week delayed post-test found that CMA facilitated idiom acquisition at a statistically significant level (p < .05). Findings from participants’ drawings and the semi-structured interview showed that CMA had contributed to an engaging and active learning experience. Pedagogical implications of this study are discussed further.

查看原文本刊更多论文

概念隐喻法对中国青年英语习语习得的影响

虽然概念隐喻法(CMA)被认为对初级阶段的EFL/ESL学习者的英语习语习得是有效的，但这一说法有待于进一步的实证研究(bersamendi, Csábi， & Kövecses, 2008;波尔人,2004年)。CMA如何有益于这些学习者的习语习得，以及在课堂上以何种方式实施成语习得最好，这些都是未知的。本研究通过一个准实验来解决这些问题，并揭示了CMA的有效性，在这个实验中，隐喻作为一种干预手段，明确地引入了习语与潜在的概念隐喻主题之间的联系。通过问卷调查、测试和与讲师的半结构化访谈，从43名参与者那里收集了定量和定性数据。即时后测结果显示，使用记忆翻译法的参与者得分高于使用记忆翻译法的参与者，尽管差异在统计学上不显著(p = 0.08)。延迟一周后测发现，CMA对习语习得有显著促进作用(p < .05)。参与者的图纸和半结构化访谈的结果表明，CMA为参与和积极的学习经验做出了贡献。本文进一步讨论了本研究的教学意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Metaphor and the Social World LINGUISTICS-

CiteScore

2.20

自引率

11.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： The journal Metaphor and the Social World aims to provide a forum for researchers to share with each other, and with potential research users, work that explores aspects of metaphor and the social world. The term “social world” signals the importance given to context (of metaphor use), to connections (e.g. across social, cognitive and discourse dimensions of metaphor use), and to communication (between individuals or across social groups). The journal is not restricted to a single disciplinary or theoretical framework but welcomes papers based in a range of theoretical approaches to metaphor, including discourse and cognitive linguistic approaches, provided that the theory adequately supports the empirical work. Metaphor may be dealt with as either a matter of language or of thought, or of both; what matters is that consideration is given to the social and discourse contexts in which metaphor is found. Furthermore, “metaphor” is broadly interpreted and articles are welcomed on metonymy and other types of figurative language. A further aim is to encourage the development of high-quality research methodology using metaphor as an investigative tool, and for investigating the nature of metaphor use, for example multi-modal discourse analytic or corpus linguistic approaches to metaphor data. The journal publishes various types of articles, including reports of empirical studies, key articles accompanied by short responses, reviews and meta-analyses with commentaries. The Forum section publishes short responses to papers or current issues.