VietTESOL International Convention 2026

As Vietnam moves toward repositioning English from a foreign language to a second-language-oriented model, learners are increasingly expected to develop not only grammatical accuracy and lexical range but also conceptual fluency in English. Within Cognitive Linguistics, cognitive metonymy is understood as a fundamental mechanism through which speakers access one conceptual entity via another within the same Idealized Cognitive Model (Lakoff, G.,1987). Although previous studies have examined figurative language learning, metaphor has received far greater pedagogical and empirical attention than metonymy. As a result, little is known about how Vietnamese L2 learners process metonymic meanings in English, how such processing is represented in the L2 mental lexicon, and whether metonymic competence contributes to higher levels of English proficiency. This study investigates cognitive metonymy's role in the organization and retrieval of lexical meaning among Vietnamese English learners. It examines common intra-domain mappings (e.g., PRODUCER FOR PRODUCT, PART FOR WHOLE) and their support for lexical flexibility and idiomatic comprehension. Using a mixed-methods design incorporating metonymy identification, lexical decision tasks, and corpus analysis, the research reveals that higher metonymic awareness fosters a more interconnected L2 mental lexicon and contextually appropriate English use. Conversely, reliance on literal translation leads to fragmented lexical networks. Ultimately, this study argues that explicit instruction in cognitive metonymy bridges the gap between vocabulary knowledge and conceptual fluency. Pedagogically, it advocates moving beyond rote memorization toward cognitive mapping activities, helping learners recognize and access structured lexical meanings in authentic communication.