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Metaphor and the Social World: Online-First Articles

Comparing metaphor elicitation models

From online surveys to classroom intervention

| Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
| Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
Metaphor has increasingly been recognized as an effective investigative tool, especially in educational research, because it allows for insight into implicit beliefs, values and assumptions about the world around us. This article discusses methodological issues involved in ‘getting at’ students’ metaphors, the first step in metaphor analysis in educational research. Our focus is on techniques of eliciting metaphor, where respondents are overtly prompted to produce a metaphor about a particular issue. We discuss different elicitation techniques in four studies: study 1 without any scaffolding, just a prompt for eliciting metaphor; study 2 with minimal scaffolding in the form of a definition of metaphor and illustrative examples; study 3 with a brief classroom intervention before elicitation; and study 4 with a longer intervention over an entire semester. We gained the most thorough results in study 4, which also arguably provided the most valuable learning experience for the respondents. This came at a price however — a great investment of time over the course of a semester. In the event that no classroom time may be set aside for work with metaphor, the non-interventional approach of study 2 offers an acceptable alternative. Even a few explanatory lines about metaphor proves helpful in eliciting metaphor.
Keywords: metaphor elicitation, learner English, Finland, Norway, English language learning
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Metaphor elicitation
    • 2.2Challenges with metaphor elicitation
  • 3.Respondents and elicitation prompts
    • 3.1Studies 1 & 2
    • 3.2Studies 3 & 4
  • 4.Elicitation models
    • 4.1Study 1 (no scaffolding)
      • 4.1.1Elicitation technique
      • 4.1.2Results
    • 4.2Study 2 (minimal scaffolding)
      • 4.2.1Elicitation technique
      • 4.2.2Results
    • 4.3Study 3 (brief classroom intervention)
      • 4.3.1Elicitation technique
      • 4.3.2Results
    • 4.4Study 4 (periodic classroom interventions over one semester)
      • 4.4.1Elicitation technique
      • 4.4.2Results
    • 4.5Pulling it all together
  • 5.Concluding thoughts
  • Data availability statement
  • Note
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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