Metaphor in education

Abstract

This special issue explores the use of metaphor in education from a multilingual perspective in two Scandinavian countries, Norway and Sweden. In this introduction, we include a brief overview of earlier research in the domain and identify common factors noteworthy to discuss in relation to the multilingual context, for instance, the notion of creativity and speaker legitimacy in a second language context. The issue includes six articles comprising multilingual school children, youth, university students, adult migrants, and indigenous minorities. Several of the articles focus on second language acquisition, use and assessment, while others deal more with social issues, including unequal power relations and prejudices that newcomers encounter in everyday life.

Language ideologies in metaphors: Exploring L2 Saudi students’ conceptualization of language mixing as a language practice

“…The creative interplay of languages, exemplified in "DJ" and "chef" highlights the cognitive ability of the users and the dynamic nature of such a practice. These findings may relate to the idea that language mixing is a creative space that facilitates t he creation of novel and inventive concepts for meaning making (Rampton, 1995) which is associated with higher levels of cognitive flexibility (Ahlgren, Golden, & Magnusson, 2021).…”

Introduction: Cognitive Linguistics and Beyond – from Conceptual Mechanisms to Theoretical Aporias

“…The chapter by Justyna Wawrzyniuk studies metaphorical objectifications of women in stand-up comedy. In doing so, the author contributes to the growing body of research which aims to show the role and significance of metaphor in various social discourses and contexts such as politics (Perrez et al, 2019), mental healthcare (Tay, 2020), business (Li & Zhu, 2021) or education (Ahlgren et al, 2021). Her investigation of metaphorical expressions collected from 30 performances by female North American comedians sheds light on the most common target (body and person) and source frames (place and food) used to metaphorically conceptualize women.…”

Developing productive metaphoric competence through a frame-inspired task-based teaching model

“…Metaphor is a pervasive conceptual, linguistic and discursive phenomenon, and its use and role in education has been explored from various perspectives over the past decades. The importance of metaphor acquisition is emphasized in recent overviews of the relevant literature (e.g., Nacey 2017;O'Reilly & Marsden 2021;Ahlgren, Golden & Magnusson 2021). General statements about metaphorical reasoning being "inherent in human nature" (Nacey 2017: 503) and metaphor "play[ing] a central role in human language" (O'Reilly & Marsden 2021: 25) are supported by more specific references to the 1 Address for correspondence: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of English, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece.…”