Yi-chen and Huei-ling Lai - Humanities

616speakers who are learning English as a foreign language to investigate theirability to find figurative expressions and their retention of what they havelearned.METHODOLOGYParticipantsThe participants of the study were 68 first-year university students whowere non-English majors with levels of English proficiency ranging fromintermediate to high intermediate. They were all native Chinese speakers andhad learned English for at least six years during their high school years; noneof the participants had lived in foreign countries for over one year. Thus, theyhad less experience of and exposure to English culture and authenticmaterials than English majors have. The control of the participants’ generalEnglish proficiency and experience in English is meant to mitigate the impactof factors identified as complicating in previous studies.The participants participated in two separate freshman English classes.Each class received one type of method: one class of 32 participantsreceived instruction in conceptual metaphors (the CM group), while the other