In this paper, we present the Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit (MIPVU) for the reliable detection of metaphoric language that may be interpreted using extant vocational psychology theory. Metaphors are ubiquitous in communication and carry influential meaning for people. To illustrate MIPVU, we use transcripts of interviews…

This study employed a metaphor analysis approach to investigate instructor language as it relates to the positioning of agency within a college developmental reading course context. Agency, or the socioculturally mediated potential to act, is a crucial part of self-regulated, self-efficacious learning and contributes to identity formation and…

Much research is available that details student experiences of immigration and adaptation to receiving countries and schools, but few studies analyze the metaphors used by immigrant students (IS) when talking about the immigration experience, or offer a comparative lens through which to view identity negotiation in two very different contexts. The…

The present study aimed to examine whether agent-based instruction would privilege English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners any better than mainstream approaches (e.g. analogical reasoning, guessing from context, image formation, semantic analysis, etc.) when it comes to the teaching of English idioms. It also sought to explore whether…

Preservice teachers hold metaphors and personal beliefs about teaching that they carry with them into their first teaching experiences. These metaphors tend to persist through challenges. This qualitative study investigates five preservice teacher's metaphors and personal histories of education through three phases; university student,…

This study investigated comprehension of indirect meaning among learners of L2 Spanish via an original computer-delivered multimedia listening test. The comprehension of implied speaker intention is a type of indirect communication that involves the ability to understand implied intention by using linguistic knowledge, contextual cues, and the…

This paper examines the way Higher Education (HE) students use metaphors to make tangible the lived and living experience of learning. The article provides a contemporary development of the ethnographic paradigm by offering a new model termed "proximal ethnography" to capture the sense of inside-out-inside research, of being what one has…

English teachers encourage writing that opens college students to transformative learning through soul work as John Dirkx describes and develops the concept of soul work in his theory of transformative learning. This soul work involves the conscious attempt to bring to the surface myths, images, and metaphors from the unconscious through…

Despite the growing interest in examining the link between peer-peer collaborative dialogue and second language (L2) development in recent years (Swain, Brooks, & Tocalli-Beller, 2002), much of the empirical work in this regard focused on face-to-face communication, leaving the operationalization of collaborative dialogue in text-based…

Drawing on in-depth interviews with the third year students at a New Zealand university, we explore the ways in which students speak about studying mathematics, their relationship with the subject and how this has developed over time. These interviews were conducted as part of a project looking at undergraduate mathematics from the perspective of…

Thousands of U.S. faculty travel abroad each year to teach host-country students (George, 1995). This study explores the "teach-abroad classroom", defined as "the teaching and learning processes and interactions between faculty and students" in this learning environment (George, 1987, 1995; Slethaug, 2007). Faculty and student…

The paper draws upon empirical material from a two year qualitative research project. The paper briefly outlines the key research questions, research design and data collection strategies. The following sections draw on observational, interview and journal data from the learning sites and the teachers and students who work and learn in them are…

This study investigated the situation of teaching and learning idioms at a university level in Vietnam, a foreign language context. It also examined the evaluation of the idiom teaching process in three language classes over a 15-week period for pre-service teachers of English. The data were collected though questionnaires, in-depth interviews and…

The metaphorical nature of first-year calculus students' reasoning about limit concepts is explored using an instrumentalist approach. Analysis of written and verbal language reveals that, while these students used motion terminology profusely when discussing limits, it was typically not intended to signify actual motion and did not play a…

The growing presence of Latino students in U.S. colleges and universities is evident in foreign language (FL) classrooms. Latino students with a high proficiency level in Spanish are usually placed in advanced language or content-based courses along with other non-Latino students. This paper examines university instructors' beliefs and practices…