Article published in:
Elicited Metaphor Analysis in Educational Discourse
Edited by Wan Wan and Graham Low
[Metaphor in Language, Cognition, and Communication 3] 2015
► pp. 213–237

Developing critical thinking in academic writing through a metaphor elicitation technique

An exploratory study

| College of Foreign Languages, National Hua-qiao University, China

While there appears to be a broad consensus about the value of metaphor as an effective means of helping participants think critically about their educational practices, little attention has been paid to its potential for cultivating critical thinking skills relating to academic literacy, and particularly to writing in a second or foreign language (L2) context. The present study introduced an innovative metaphor-oriented activity, where each of three data collection cycles during an academic year involved group discussions and sharing of personal academic writing experiences by a small group of ESL graduate (MA) students, based around a ‘think-of-one or more metaphors’ task, requiring participants to think critically concerning their personal writing beliefs and related writing practices. The study investigated the effect of engaging participants in the set of metaphor-based activities on the development of their critical thinking skills, and discusses how and in what ways the sort of activities might have helped improve their academic writing.

Keywords: academic writing, critical thinking, educational research, elicited metaphor, metaphor
Published online: 02 July 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/milcc.3.09wan
References
Andrews, R
(2007) Argumentation, critical thinking and the postgraduate dissertation. Educational Review, 59(1), 1–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, S.L
(2007) Beginning the literacy transition: Postsecondary students’ conceptualizations of academic writing in developmental literacy contexts. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Bean, J.C
(2001) Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Burbach, M.E., Matkin, G.S., & Fritz, S.M
(2004) Teaching critical thinking in an introductory leadership course utilizing active learning strategies: A confirmatory study. College Student Journal, 38(3), 482–493.Google Scholar
BouJaoude, S., & Tamim, R
(2000, December). Analogies generated by middle-school science students-types and usefulness. School Science Review, 82, 57–63.Google Scholar
Braun, V., & Clarke, V
(2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cameron, L
(2003) Metaphor in educational discourse. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Condon, W., & Kelly-Riley, D
(2004) Assessing and teaching what we value: The relationship between college-level writing and critical thinking abilities. Assessing Writing, 9, 56–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L
(1999) Bridges to learning: Metaphors of teaching, learning, and language. In G.D. Low & L. Cameron (Eds.), Researching and applying metaphor (pp. 149–176). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cooper, M.M
(1995) Cooperative learning: An approach for large enrollment courses. Journal of Chemical Education, 72(2), 162–164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ellis, R
(2008) Learner beliefs and language learning. The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly, 10(4), 7–25.Google Scholar
Ennis, R.H
(1987) A taxonomy of critical thinking dispositions and abilities. In J. Baron & R. Sternberg (Eds.), Teaching thinking skills: Theory and practice (pp. 9–26). New York: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Facione, P.A
(1990) Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction. Millbrae, CA: The California Academic Press.Google Scholar
Fain, M.A
(2001) Metaphors for learning. A cognitive exercise for students. Research Strategies, 18(3), 39–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, L.S
(2005) Becoming a teacher as a hero’s journey: Using metaphor in pre-service teacher education. Teacher Education Quarterly, 32(1), 7–24.Google Scholar
Guiller, J., Durndell, A., & Ross, A
(2008) Peer interaction and critical thinking: Face-to-face or online discussion? Learning and Instruction, 18, 187–200. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guerrero, M.C.M. de, & Villamil, O.S
(2002) Metaphorical conceptualization of ESL teaching and learning. Language Teaching Research, 6 (2), 95–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hashemi, M.R., & Ghanizadeh, A
(2012) Critical discourse analysis and critical thinking: An experimental study in an EFL context. System, 40(1), 37–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hart, G.A
(2009) Composing metaphors: metaphors for writing in the composition classroom. Unpublished PhD thesis. Ohio University.
Jones, B.A
(2006) Metaphors for L2 teachers and students. Retrieved September, 11, 2011, from Teachers helping Teachers 2006 Proceedings website: http://​www​.tht​-japan​.org​/proceedings​/2006/.
Ku, K.Y
(2009) Assessing students’ critical thinking performance: Urging for measurements using multi-response format. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 4, 70–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M
(1980/2003) Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lantolf, J.P., & Thorne, S.L
(2006) Sociocultural theory and the genesis of L2 development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Leavy, A.M., McSorley, F.A. & Boté, L.A
(2007) An examination of what metaphor construction reveals about the evolution of preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 1217–1233. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Littlemore, J
(2004) Conceptual metaphor as a vehicle for promoting critical thinking skills amongst international students. In L. Sheldon (Ed.), Directions for the future: Directions in English for academic purposes (pp. 43–50). Oxford: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Littlemore, J., & Low, G.D
(2006) Figurative thinking and foreign language learning. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Low, G.D
(2008) Metaphor and education. In R. Gibbs (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp. 212–230). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lun, V.M., Fischer, R., & Ward, C
(2010) Exploring cultural differences in critical thinking: Is it about my thinking style or the language I speak? Learning and Individual Differences, 20, 604–616. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martinez, M.A., Sauleda, N., & Huber, G.L
(2001) Metaphors as blueprints of thinking about teaching and learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 965–977. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGrath, I
(2006) Using insights from teacher’s metaphors. Journal of Education for Teaching, 32(3), 303–317. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moon, J
(2008) Critical thinking. An exploration of theory and practice. Routledge: London.Google Scholar
Oxford, R., Tomlinson, S., Barcelos, A., Harrington, C., Lavine, R.Z., Saleh, A., & Longhini, A
(1998) Clashing metaphors about classroom teachers: Toward a systematic typology for the language teaching field. System, 26, 3–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paulson, E.J., & Armstrong, S.L
(2011) Mountains and pit bulls: Students’ metaphors for college reading and writing. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 54(7), 494–503. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schön, D.A
(1993) Generative metaphor: A perspective on problem-setting in social policy. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 137–163). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Saban, A., Kocbeker, B.N., & Saban, A
(2007) Prospective teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning revealed through metaphor analysis. Learning and Instruction, 17, 123–139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Steen, G.J
(2007) Finding metaphor in grammar and usage: A methodological analysis of theory and research. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Strugielska, A
(2008) Coherence relations and concept dynamic in learners’ personal theories. Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5, 107–129.Google Scholar
Tian, J., & Low, G.D
(2011) Critical thinking and Chinese university students: A review of the evidence. Language, Culture & Curriculum, 24(1), 61–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsui, L
(2002) Fostering critical thinking through effective pedagogy: Evidence from four institutional case studies. The Journal of Higher Education, 73(6), 740–763. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Villamil, O.S., & Guerrero, M.C.M. de
(2005) Constructing theoretical notions of L2 writing through metaphor conceptualization. In N. Bartels (Ed.), Applied linguistics in language teacher education (pp. 79–90). New York: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vygotsky, L.S
(1978) Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wan, W
(2007) An examination of metaphorical accounts L2 writers tell about their writing processes. Unpublished MA dissertation. University of York, UK.
Wan, W., Low, G.D., & Li., M
(2011) From students’ and teachers’ perspectives: Metaphor analysis of beliefs about EFL teachers’ roles. System, 39(3), 403–415. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wan, W
(2011) An examination of the validity of metaphor analysis studies: Problems with metaphor elicitation techniques. Metaphor and the Social World, 1(2), 262–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zapata, G.C., & Lacorte, M
(2007) Preservice and inservice instructors’ metaphorical constructions of second language teachers. Foreign Language Annals, 40(3), 521–534. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Michalovich, Amir
2019. Reframing the linguistic to analyze the landscape. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 5:1 ► pp. 28 ff. DOI logo
Wan, Wan & Sarah Turner
2018. Applying metaphor analysis to academic literacy research. Metaphor and the Social World 8:2 ► pp. 286 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 08 january 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.