The purpose of this study is to explore the design elements of vocabulary education to investigate expressional intentions. It has a meaning of a basic research for systematizing valid vocabulary using education. To accomplish this purpose, this study adopts an educational approach focused on the investigation of expressional intentions by examining the Korean subject curriculum. Valid vocabulary education can broaden educational outcomes by clarifying how and why words in a text can depict the world the expresser wants to draw. Thus, this study explores the theoretical and practical elements necessary for vocabulary education design from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. As for the theoretical elements, this study verifies a vocabulary teaching strategy using the frame and metaphor approach based on cognitive grammar. Cognitive grammar is a fundamental theory for understanding vocabulary as a process of conceptualization. On the other hand, as a mediation theory, the frame and metaphor approach provides a methodological mechanism that can lead the expresser to use vocabulary in a conceptualization process by choosing vocabulary foregrounds and backgrounds. Regarding the practical elements, this study focuses on the cognitive aspect of texts and investigates vocabulary validity. The concept of text is established from a cognitive perspective and verified by an approaching example, while the investigation of vocabulary validity comprises the application of the frame and metaphor approach to the learners’ performing steps in the analysis of a news story.