The Metaphor of Learning

Abstract

The previous sections have looked at how a teaching approach built out of our sense of meaning as created through metaphor can help to:

• 1 Illustrate specific language points and improve students’ grasp of the same.

• 2 Forge a link between the way in which linguistic meaning has been constructed and the manner in which language is learnt.

I illustrated these points with an outline of specific techniques and a recollection of their impact upon different classes, focusing on different types of teaching strategies and how they can emerge from the larger cognitive thesis I am putting forward. My argument has assumed that language learning is assisted by the development of both conscious and unconscious knowledge about how the language operates. An implication has been that a conscious or explicit understanding of the imageschematic basis of a language and the principles on which this is based can help the student to master and control that language. Yet many would question the assumption that explicit understanding of any linguistic form can help us achieve its intuitive mastery.