The development of a metaphoric competence. A didactic proposal of educational innovation

ABSTRACT

This article presents a didactic experience carried out in the Degree of Translation and Interpreting (English) at Pablo de Olavide University in Seville and it is part of a project of Innovation and Teaching Development. The main objective is the development in students of a metaphoric competence – metaphorical awareness and strategies to understand metaphors in a L2, since the teaching of idiomatic language is a missing section in textbooks and teaching methodologies in the current university panorama. With this purpose, we show how to learn metaphors and idioms effectively in a foreign language context following the tenets of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), a subdiscipline of Cognitive Linguistics (CL), which focuses on the conceptual motivation behind figurative meaning. By analyzing the systematicity and experiential basis of the expressions subject of study, some pedagogical suggestions are provided in order to facilitate the acquisition of idiomatic expressions.

The results, analyzed through classroom interaction and practice, a final test, a post-test examination six months later and an anonymous student questionnaire, confirm the undoubted effectiveness of the innovations introduced and, therefore, we advocate the inclusion of figurative language in any L2 syllabus, given that its acquisition contributes to the comprehensive development of a communicative competence.

KEYWORDS:

• Conceptual metaphor theory (CMT)
• metaphoric competence
• language awareness
• educational innovation
• common European framework of reference for languages (CEFR)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Regina Gutiérrez Pérez is a lecturer in the Philology and Translation Department at Pablo de Olavide University, Seville. Her main research areas are the Cognitive Metaphor Theory from a cross-linguistic point of view, and the growing area of Cognitive Linguistics related to language teaching and learning. She has conducted research at Harvard University (where she also worked as a Teaching Assistant), The University of Bologna, and The Paris-Sorbonne University. She got her PhD in 2006 by the University Pablo de Olavide and was granted the Young Researcher Award by The Societas Linguistica Europaea in 2008.

ORCID

Regina Gutiérrez Pérez http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4437-0009

Notes

1 Also available at: http://www.macmillandictionaries.com/MED-Magazine/June2009/53-LA-Metaphor.htm

2 Full lesson plan by Clandfield, L. (2003) available at: http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/vocabulary/metaphors/metaphors-anger-is-heat/550590.article

3 Full lesson plan by Clandfield, L. (2004) available at: http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/vocabulary/metaphors/metaphors-responsibilities-are-like-weights/550582.article

4 Full lesson plan by Clandfield, L. (2002) available at: http://www.onestopenglish.com/skills/vocabulary/metaphors/metaphors-happy-and-sad/550589.article

5 Activities 1 and 2 have been taken from Underhill (2002, 48). Number 3 is an adaptation from activity C belonging to appendix 2. The appendix 6 contains the answer sheet.

6 The appendix 7 contains the answer sheet.

7 Only the initials of names and surnames are provided.