| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 華語教學碩士學位學程 === 107 === As a precious language legacy in Chinese, Chinese quadrisyllabic idiomatic expressions are rich in cultural meanings, which are embedded in metaphors. This dissertation aims to analyze and categorize animal metaphors in Chinese idioms, and also to apply the current research findings to teaching Chinese as a second language (TCSL), through which might enhance the effectiveness of CSL teaching and learning.
To investigate animal metaphors in Chinese idioms, we selected idioms that contain twelve zodiac animals as representative because of their high frequency in daily life and rich cultural meanings. We found that the major topic in the source domain of animal metaphors concerns the evaluation of the animals and through metaphor, the evaluation of the animals projects to that of human behaviors in the target domain.
Based on the analysis, we applied the findings to compile teaching materials. Forty eight twelve-zodiac idioms were selected. These idioms were then used to test two different teaching methods: the metaphor-guided method and the traditional meaning-given method in a single-subject research design. When implementing the metaphor-guided method, the connection between the Source Domain (ANIMAL) and the Target Domain (HUMAN) was presented to students by presenting visual aids of metaphorical mapping and explaining the metaphorical meaning of the zodiac animal in Chinese culture
The experiment was implemented from the third week to the sixth week in a ten-week advanced Chinese course in a language center in Northern Taiwan. Tests were given once after the participants learned the idioms of three zodiacs, and there was one final test of all the twelve-zodiac idioms. The test included filling in the blanks, correcting and forming sentences, and generalization test to investigate the vocabulary learning effect and retention of the two different teaching methods. Aside from the pencil-and-paper tests, all learners filled up introspection questionnaires after each lesson and accepted one-on-one interview at the end of the instruction.
The results showed that: (1) the metaphor-guided teaching method did enhance the retention; however, the benefits emerged in the late period of teaching. (2) The teaching of metaphor-mapping evoked learners’ metalinguistic awareness, through which they were able to understand the figurative meanings of idioms and use them correctly, although (3) there was no significant difference between the two methods in the performance of generalization test. (4) Finally, according to the interviews, all the learners agreed that the metaphor-guided method brisked up the atmosphere of the idiom class.
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