Section Days abstract book 2010.indd - RUB Research School ...

HSS_07
METAPHORS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE
CLASSROOMS (ENGLISH, FRENCH AND SPANISH)
Corinna Koch
Didaktik der romanischen Sprachen und Literaturen; Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780
Bochum, Germany
e-mail: corinna.koch-3@rub.de
The central research question of this PhD project is: “What potential does the work with
metaphors in foreign language classrooms hold for foreign language learners?” The work with
metaphors is important because metaphors are omnipresent in literary and everyday language.
Therefore foreign language learners constantly have to detect, interpret and produce
metaphors. Moreover metaphorical competence is part of the intercultural competence that
learners should acquire in foreign language classrooms because metaphors provide a
productive starting point to reveal, discuss and question cultural conventions.
In the PhD project a definition of the metaphor for the foreign language classroom will be
generated in the first chapter using the strengths of existing definitions. In a second part, the
didactic potential of metaphors for foreign language learning will be systematically worked
out. Thirdly, the current status of metaphors in foreign language classrooms will be identified
by means of an extensive analysis of textbooks in use at German secondary school in North
Rhine-Westphalia for the first four or five years. In the last part, based on the results of the
textbook analysis, a number of suggestions for a more extensive work with metaphors in
foreign language classrooms will be developed and exemplified using the potential of
metaphors to foster the learners’ language abilities in various domains.