The Application of Conceptual Metaphors to Teaching English Idioms to English-majored Students in Viet Nam

Abstract

The discovery that several figurative idioms are semantically motivated by a common conceptual metaphor (CM) has opened up a path to more systematic and insightful learning. However, it was still unclear to what extent the elaboration of conceptual metaphors (CMs) could facilitate learners’ reception and production of idioms over time. To address this issue, a quasi-experiment was conducted, with the pre-test – post-test design, on a sample of 69 Vietnamese undergraduates. Results revealed that the explanation of CM was especially beneficial for the students’ idiom reception over time, and to a lesser extent for their use of idioms. Though not outstanding in the short term compared with the traditional method, this cognitive approach showed its relatively long-lasting value in terms of both idiom reception and production.