The aim of this study is to reveal the perceptions of fourth-grade primary students about "mathematics lesson" through metaphors and to investigate whether main categories identified regarding the common characteristics of the metaphors differed by gender. A qualitative research design was employed in the study. The study was carried out…

Learning idioms is an uphill battle for many language learners. Thus, this quantitative study aims to shed light on English as Foreign Language (EFL) college students' attitudes towards idiom learning. Specifically, the study is interested in revealing their attitudes towards (1) the importance of idiom learning, (2) the difficulties of idiom…

Chinese idioms are mostly four-character phrases and are called Quadra-syllabic Idiomatic Expressions (QIEs). It has long been reported that learning of Chinese QIEs poses a great challenge for both young L1 speakers and adult L2 learners as the condensed form is often associated with complicated figurative meanings. The present study explored the…

Purpose: Most EFL textbooks suggest the use of vivid pictures and verbal explanations in teaching English prepositions. However, this word class appears in collocations, and rote-learning does not really help learners retain and use this word class successfully. Cognitive linguistics (CL) has implications for English language teaching as it rests…

This quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of applying cognitive linguistics (CL) to teaching English prepositions. The pretest-posttest between-group design was adopted. The participants were selected according to their previous learning experiences, regular out-of-class exposure, eagerness for joining the study, and…

Teaching metaphor is an important phenomenon which can be used to determine teachers' perceptions regarding their job and their workplace (Turunen, 2003). This study was aimed to explore the metaphors of junior and senior teacher educators to get insights of what teaching was for them. A comparative analysis between the junior and senior teacher…

Medical students often face problems in using and understanding metaphors when communicating with a patient or reading a scientific paper. These figures of speech constitute an interpretative problem and students need key strategies to facilitate metaphor comprehension and disambiguation of meaning. This article examines how medical students'…

This article presents a didactic experience carried out in the Degree of Translation and Interpreting (English) at Pablo de Olavide University in Seville and it is part of a project of Innovation and Teaching Development. The main objective is the development in students of a metaphoric competence -- metaphorical awareness and strategies to…

Thermodynamics, and in particular entropy, has been found to be challenging for students, not least due to its abstract character. Comparisons with more familiar and concrete domains, by means of analogy and metaphor, are commonly used in thermodynamics teaching, in particular the metaphor "entropy is disorder." However, this particular…

The National Israeli Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Program that called for the "adaption of the educational system to the 21st century", has been implemented in Israel since 2010. The program's purpose intended to introduce an "ICT culture" in the educational system--pre-schools and lower-level schools, as well…

In science teaching, metaphors are important tools for understanding meaningful learning and conceptual formation by the help of daily life language. This study aims to evaluate how the concepts of heat, temperature and energy are perceived by students in secondary school science classes and how the perceptions of these concepts vary in terms of…

Employing a quasi-experimental design, this study examined the efficacy of humorous idiom video clips on the achievement of Iranian undergraduate students studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Forty humorous video clips from the English Idiom Series called "The Teacher" from the BBC website were used to teach 120 idioms to 61…

Drawing on Vygotsky's notion, developed by Bruner, of learners growing into "the intellectual life of those around them", this paper reports on a small-scale questionnaire survey of teachers' thinking about poetry writing and their instructional practices of teaching it. Thirty-three teachers, with a range of teaching experience and…

The role of analogies as tools for teaching difficult science concepts has been widely discussed in science education. The application of analogies in the context of sustainable education involves richer potential. The purposeful use of appropriate analogies can facilitate analogical thinking and transfer skills, as well as develop abilities which…

In this paper the authors wish to examine kinesthetic forms of learning involving the body and the physical realm. The authors look at two particular techniques; using Legos to build metaphorical models and living the physical experience of metaphors in the shape of labyrinth-walking and its attendant activities. The authors begin by discussing…