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Chapter one Literature Review  

This chapter gives an overview of studies on metaphoric competence. Specifically,  it  would  be  involved  in  two  parts.  The  first  part  introduces the  studies  on  MC  from  varies  perspectives.  From  the  existing  research, we  find  that  the  focus  of  studies  on  MC  falls  mainly  on  definitions,  the development and measurement of MC, and the concerning factors on MC, but only a few studies stay in advocating and calling for improving MC. As  for  the  issue  of  how  to  improve  English  MC  in  the  background  of  learning  English  as  a  second  language,  few  research  is  seen,  especially from  an  empirical  perspective.  The  second  part  discusses  about  whether language  learners  can  acquire  conceptual  metaphors  through  metaphor instruction  or  not,  namely  the  questions  about  the  teachability  and learnability  of  conceptual  metaphors,  as  well  as  some  studies  on  it.  We find that only a few researchers have touched upon some strategies on the enhancement of MC, one of which is metaphor teaching. But the teaching procedures and materials vary a lot due to various views on the definition of  MC.  Anyway,  the  present  study  can  borrow  something  from  the existing  studies.  But  at  the  same  time,  it  even  needs  to  make  some adjustments and creation on the base of them. 

1.1 Studies on MC 
As  an  effective  factor  of  communicative  competence,  MC  draws increasing  attention  from  foreign  language  researchers  and  teachers, hence the number of the studies grows rapidly. The studies abroad on MC started  as  early  as  1970s.  For  instance,  Flahive  and  Carrell  (1977), Gardner and Winner (1978), and Pollio and Smith (1980). China followed behind  yet  developed  very  fast.  Since  1977  when  the  first  study  on  MC was  published,  the  number  of  papers  concerned  has  been  increasing rapidly  every  year.  According  to  the  research  contents,  those  studies  on MC can be sorted into three main categories: studies on the definition of MC; studies on the development and measurement of MC; studies on MC and its relevant variables. The three subcategories of MC studies are to be reviewed respectively in the following parts. 
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1.2 Studies on Metaphor Instruction 
Now  that  we  have  a  relatively  clear  idea  about  factors  that  may affect  the  level  of  MC,  we  can  boldly  本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。