MA Thesis TREATMENT OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN

ADVANCED EFL COURSEBOOKS

Professor: Student:Katarina Rasulic PhD Dina Vulovic

Belgrade, 2014

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Cognitive linguistics William Croft and Alan Cruse:- language is not an autonomous

cognitive faculty- grammar is conceptualization- knowledge of language emerges from

language use

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Boers and Lindstromberg:

general theories of cognitive processing, such as those of memory, can be employed to understand linguistic behaviour

Theories of memory: levels-of-processing, dual coding

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Motivation in language ‘Extra-linguistic’ + ‘intra-linguistic’ motivation

= lateral thinking

Elaboration: ‘mental effort that promotes deep-level processing and facilitates memory storage’

Structural:sound-pattern analysis, affixes etc. Semantic: meaningful context, pictorial support

LIMITATIONS Different socio-cultural backgrounds Same conceptualisation, different

lexis (add fuel to the fire vs. *add oil to the fire; ANGER IS HEAT)

Scarcity of long-term empirical research; no consistent CL-inspired vocabulary teaching syllabus

RESEARCH QUESTIONS CL principles in figurative language

presentation? (cognitive, emotional and cultural experiences as factors guiding language understanding)

Theoretical explanation? Means of fostering figurative language

understanding, retention, recognition in context and successful retrieval?

Based on: critical analysis of relevant up-to-date research; author's immediate experience with the teaching process

HYPOTHESES Vocabulary treated as subordinate to grammar;

no special attention paid to instances such as figurative language

Figurative language instances grouped according to their usage in context, rather than according to their semantic or structural properties

No consistent model of figurative language presentation

OBJECTIVES Identification of exercise range Classification of exercises according to

consideration given to CL principles (motivation, levels-of-processing, dual coding)

Manual for teachers Overall applicability of CL principles in

vocabulary teaching

METHODOLODY Textbooks comprised by DELTA course

(Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages): Face 2 Face, New Cutting Edge, New Headway, Innovations, New English File, Total English, English Unlocked, Clockwork

Focus on metaphoric expressions, idioms and collocations, and exercises that explicitly deal with them

ANALYSIS Corpus selection and organisation Data analysis – mainly qualitative

TREATMENT OF METAPHOR 1 unit; no theoretical explanation,

context provided; categorisation:- Describing life as a journey- Describing character/feelings as weather- Describing business as war

7 exercises

TREATMENT OF METAPHOR Look at these pairs of sentences.

Which words/phrases in bold has a literal meaning (L)? Which has a non-literal meaning (NL)? What are the non-literal meanings? (F2F)

a) The market is flooded with cheap, plastic goods.

b) If it rains any more, the roads will soon be flooded.

TREATMENT OF IDIOMS 2 units/sections matching idiomatic expressions with non-

idiomatic examples; discussion on style; no theoretical explanations

Categorisation: key words hands, head, feet, heart and face (e.g. To have one's hands full – referral to experience; My heart sank - HAPPY IS UP, SAD IS DOWN)

TREATMENT OF IDIOMS 22 exercises Matching:

TREATMENT OF IDIOMS Gap-fill

TREATMENT OF IDIOMS Replacement

Categorisation

TREATMENT OF COLLOCATIONS Grouping and categorisation

TREATMENT OF COLLOCATIONS

TREATMENT OF COLLOCATIONS

TREATMENT OF COLLOCATIONS

DISCUSSION No explicit consideration is given to the

notions of semantic motivation of target figurative expressions (complex, unnecessary, frustrating?)

Data abounds in possibilities for both structural and semantic elaborations (follow-up speaking exercises)

Pictorial elucidation as a method of idiom presentation

!!! Successful retrieval (multiword expressions etc.)?

FINDINGSInstances of

figurative language

Total number of units

Total number of exercises

Metaphor 1 7

Idioms 2 22

Collocations 0 30

FINDINGS

Figurative language

Number of exercises/activities according to type

Gap-fill Match.

Repl. Key words

Exp. domains

Speaking ex.

Metaphor 2 0 0 2 3 0Idioms 7 4 2 4 0 5Collocations 10 4 5 5 6 0