Abstract:

Students can’t escape the influence of metaphorical language used in their coursebooks and by their teachers, trainers and mentors. Metaphor scaffolds their understanding of key concepts and develops awareness through reflection. As their choice of certain methods depends on their tacit theories of language and teaching, metaphor analysis also serves to uncover their professional beliefs and to assess their knowledge growth. Therefore, 70 language and 68 teacher metaphors of 37 sophomores (FLE Department, METU) were analyzed by using Cameron and Low’s methodology (1999) and within the framework of Oxford et al. (1998) and Richards and Rodgers (2002) in order to investigate their pre- and post-course beliefs. While 70% adopted functional and interactional views of language and 54% a learner-centered view of teaching, the behaviourist view of teaching was maintained by 46% and a participatory view of teaching was supported by none.

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