From Students' Perspectives: EFL Learners' Metaphors about English Instructors in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand university preparatory class students' mental images about their English language instructors through metaphors. With regard to this aim, 148 students enrolled in 16 different programs were required to write metaphors on the metaphor elicitation task including the statement "my English instructor is like

İngilizce Öğretmenim Melek Gibi ve İngilizce Öğrenmek Ayna Gibi: Türk İngilizce Öğrencilerinden Yansımalar

“…The findings of the study are in alliance with those in terms of English language teacher metaphors and themes (Ahkemoğlu, 2011;Akbari, 2013;Erarslan & Asmalı, 2017;Kamberi, 2013;Nikitina & Furuoka, 2008;Sayar, 2014;Wan et al, 2011). Teacher as nurturer theme is echoed in the studies of Erarslan andAsmalı (2017), Sayar (2014) and Wan et al (2011). It should be noted that the metaphors have been associated to three philosophies of education found in the studies of Oxford et al (1998), which are Social Order, Cultural Transmission and Learner-Centered Growth and these philosophies of education are in accordance with those emerged in Nikitina and Furuoka's (2008) study.…”

“…The aim this study is to investigate the metaphors used by Turkish EFL learners about English language teacher and learning English. The findings of the study are in alliance with those in terms of English language teacher metaphors and themes (Ahkemoğlu, 2011;Akbari, 2013;Erarslan & Asmalı, 2017;Kamberi, 2013;Nikitina & Furuoka, 2008;Sayar, 2014;Wan et al, 2011). Teacher as nurturer theme is echoed in the studies of Erarslan andAsmalı (2017), Sayar (2014) and Wan et al (2011).…”

“…Patient metaphor is reflected as teacher as agency of patience in Sayar's (2014) study. There is Guide metaphor in the studies of Ahkemoğlu (2011), Akbari (2013, Erarslan and Asmalı (2017), Nikitina and Furuoka (2008) and Wan et al (2011). Angel metaphor is utilized in Akbari's (2013) study and there is an expression as teacher as someone good-hearted in the study of Erarslan and Asmalı (2017).…”

“…The metaphors are listed as guide, professional, devil, angel, parent, natural element, machine, creator and wet blanket. Erarslan and Asmalı (2017) conduct a study so as to investigate mental images of university preparatory class students regarding their English language instructors by using metaphors. The researchers gather data from one hundred and forty-eight students from sixteen different programs.…”

“…It has been widely seen that there have been quite enough studies for metaphors towards the language teacher and language learning separately from the perspective of the language teachers or students (Ahkemoğlu, 2011;Akbari, 2013;Erarslan & Asmalı, 2017;Genç, 2017;Kamberi, 2013;Nikitina & Furuoka, 2008;Oktay & Osam, 2013;Sayar, 2014;Wan et al, 2011). However, there is a scarcity of research into the metaphors of language learners towards both language teachers and language learning.…”