John Benjamins Publishing Company
5. The gaps to be filled
Abstract
Over fifteen years have elapsed since the publication of Low’s (1988) article on teaching metaphor; this has been followed by a number of experimental studies on the teaching/learning of figurative language in a FL. Some of these have been able to make recommendations about the treatment of such difficult aspects of English for the non-native speaker as polysemy or phrasal verbs. However, little is known about how much impact this research activity has actually had on the real world of ELT, or on what actually goes on in EFL classrooms. As Gibbs (this volume) suggests, “[…] real-world metaphor research needs to explore situations which are as much social as psychological and to try and examine how both aspects interact.” In order to gain some insight into what learners of EFL gather about the meaning potential of the words they are taught, I examine the text books used in two educational settings with learners between the ages of six and eighteen. Focusing on three highly polysemous words (hand, cool and run), I examine what different senses of these words are introduced, practised and recycled over the twelve years in which English is an obligatory subject, and what activities are used to foster understanding of the figurative uses of these words. This study reveals that applied metaphor research has had virtually no impact on the text books used in these classrooms.
Abstract
Over fifteen years have elapsed since the publication of Low’s (1988) article on teaching metaphor; this has been followed by a number of experimental studies on the teaching/learning of figurative language in a FL. Some of these have been able to make recommendations about the treatment of such difficult aspects of English for the non-native speaker as polysemy or phrasal verbs. However, little is known about how much impact this research activity has actually had on the real world of ELT, or on what actually goes on in EFL classrooms. As Gibbs (this volume) suggests, “[…] real-world metaphor research needs to explore situations which are as much social as psychological and to try and examine how both aspects interact.” In order to gain some insight into what learners of EFL gather about the meaning potential of the words they are taught, I examine the text books used in two educational settings with learners between the ages of six and eighteen. Focusing on three highly polysemous words (hand, cool and run), I examine what different senses of these words are introduced, practised and recycled over the twelve years in which English is an obligatory subject, and what activities are used to foster understanding of the figurative uses of these words. This study reveals that applied metaphor research has had virtually no impact on the text books used in these classrooms.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editors’ introduction vii
- 1. The wonderful, chaotic, creative, heroic, challenging world of Researching and Applying Metaphor 1
-
1. Metaphor and language learning
- 2. Can people be cold and warm? 21
- 3. Grasping the point 35
- 4. “Drugs, traffic, and many other dirty interests” 63
- 5. The gaps to be filled 81
- 6. A cross-cultural study of metaphoric understanding 105
-
2. Capturing and analysing metaphors
- 7. Love, metaphor and responsibility 125
- 8. A critical look at the desktop metaphor 30 years on 145
- 9. Pragglejaz in practice 165
- 10. Mapping principles for conceptual metaphors 185
- 11. Systematicity in metaphor and the use of invariant mappings 209
- 12. Attitude, style and context 245
- 13. A genre approach to imagery in winespeak 265
-
3. The function of metaphor in discourse
- 14. Wot no similes? 291
- 15. Metaphor marking and metaphor typological and functional ranges in business periodicals 309
- 16. Critical analysis of creative metaphors in political speeches 321
- 17. Metaphor in physical-and-speech action expressions 333
- 18. The evaluative properties of metaphors 357
- Index of names 375
- Index of terms 381
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editors’ introduction vii
- 1. The wonderful, chaotic, creative, heroic, challenging world of Researching and Applying Metaphor 1
-
1. Metaphor and language learning
- 2. Can people be cold and warm? 21
- 3. Grasping the point 35
- 4. “Drugs, traffic, and many other dirty interests” 63
- 5. The gaps to be filled 81
- 6. A cross-cultural study of metaphoric understanding 105
-
2. Capturing and analysing metaphors
- 7. Love, metaphor and responsibility 125
- 8. A critical look at the desktop metaphor 30 years on 145
- 9. Pragglejaz in practice 165
- 10. Mapping principles for conceptual metaphors 185
- 11. Systematicity in metaphor and the use of invariant mappings 209
- 12. Attitude, style and context 245
- 13. A genre approach to imagery in winespeak 265
-
3. The function of metaphor in discourse
- 14. Wot no similes? 291
- 15. Metaphor marking and metaphor typological and functional ranges in business periodicals 309
- 16. Critical analysis of creative metaphors in political speeches 321
- 17. Metaphor in physical-and-speech action expressions 333
- 18. The evaluative properties of metaphors 357
- Index of names 375
- Index of terms 381
