Teacher Discussion Forums

Dear friends,
I have been writing my Ph.D. projet about Metaphors and EFL teaching.
Could you suggest me some readings?
Regards,
Luiz Carlos Souza
E-mail: [email protected]

I remember that I have ever studied about "iceberg methphor", in relation to CALP and BICS, and "pendulum metaphor" which deals with the two language functions.

Well, there's the book "Models and Metaphors in Language Teaching" by Tessa Woodward (I think).

But there are a few less overtly used metaphors which nonetheless seem to crop up in the lit from the late 70s on. Namely:

1) Teacher as therapist. See http://www.hltmag.co.uk for repeated examples of this, and anything written by Mario Rinvolucri and the Pilgrims Press axis of humanist niceness. Also, Michael Berman's article "The teacher as Wounded Healer" is out there somewhere.

Make of these what you will. The last one in particular might seem a bit extreme but Berman is a Shamanic Counsellor so the metaphor is no doubt in good faith. Whether we need such levels of self-mythologisation to inform or justify what we do is perhaps a matter of taste.

Al

Brazilian,

Are you asking about metaphors about teaching, such as "teacher as therapist" as Al recommends, or about teaching metaphors themselves to L2 learners (i.e.: metaphors as cultural capital?)

Try Michael Lewis.