An Empirical Study of College English Vocabulary Instruction Based on Prototype Category Theory

Abstract

As one of fundamental theory of cognitive linguistics, the prototype category theory exerts an important influence on vocabulary acquisition and instruction. In light of this, in this paper a vocabulary instruction experiment was launched for 100 non-English majors to testify the effect of the application of the prototype category theory to college English vocabulary teaching. The results indicate that English vocabulary instruction based on the prototype category theory is effective in promoting students’ vocabulary acquisition and arousing their interest in English learning.