Provides a brief history of the use of metaphor and its potential usefulness with children. Describes eight strategies for using metaphors with children, offers a systematic approach for constructing interwoven metaphors for children, supplies a case example, and lists some of the limitations of metaphorical language in counseling. (RJM)

Describes a unit in a writing-intensive course on reading in the content areas in which students take a familiar fairy tale and rewrite it in a modern context. Describes the four class sessions, including class activities and writing assignments, noting figurative language, elements of fairy tales, and critical reading, thinking, and writing…

Explores the potential of cognitive linguistic notions such as conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonym for comparing the figurative phraseologies of English and Malay and anticipating second language learner difficulty. A comparative analysis is undertaken that identifies six types of relationship between figurative expressions in the two…

Discusses whether it is worthwhile to refer the literal sense or origin of an unfamiliar figurative expression as it is encountered by a language learner in specialized reading. Cognitive semantic tools were applied to reading economic discourse. The hypothesis that an enhanced metaphoric awareness on the part of language learners can be…

Plagiarism is a complex, culturally loaded concept which causes much anxiety for both academics and students. Exactly what constitutes plagiarism is dependent on a number of contextual factors. Despite the difficulties associated with defining and detecting plagiarism, it is said to be on the increase, and students from "other cultures"…

In the mid-1960s, the foundations of Participatory Research were being laid in Tanzania and around the world through the work of muckraking adult educators--President Julius Nyerere, Marja-Liisa Swantz, Orlando Fals Borda, Rajesh Tandon, Budd Hall and many more of their friends and colleagues. At the same time, a bunch of American kids were over…

Three studies investigated how 24-month-olds and adults resolve temporary ambiguity in fluent speech when encountering prenominal adjectives potentially interpretable as nouns. Children were tested in a looking-while-listening procedure to monitor the time course of speech processing. In Experiment 1, the familiar and unfamiliar adjectives…

Older and younger adults' abilities to use context information rapidly during ambiguity resolution were investigated. In Experiments 1 and 2, younger and older adults heard ambiguous words (e.g., fires) in sentences where the preceding context supported either the less frequent or more frequent meaning of the word. Both age groups showed good…

This paper reports how metaphor theory was used to explore pre-service mathematics teachers' beliefs about mathematics and the learning and teaching thereof. Furthermore, it outlines how this theory was mobilised to engender self-critique and professional development with these teachers. The core of the paper reports findings from an analysis of…

This article looks at the way language subtly shapes and constrains the way we perceive reality. It examines one term-parental involvement. This apparently simple and democratic term serves as a portfolio of meanings that separate and divide. It illustrates two of these meanings, which take the form of a conjoined metaphor of "full/empty", or…

This is a series of light-hearted reflections from a person who has worked in special education her entire career. After moving from the United States to New Zealand, she uses her experience adjusting to her new country, to better understand the perspectives of the children and young people with whom she works.

This teacher-research study examines the roles of talk and metaphorical representation in the construction of personal and social literary interpretation. Over three years, the investigator collected data from fourth-grade children's sketched interpretations about literature, their written commentaries, and conversations that occurred before,…

"Illiteracy" is still a powerful concept in adult literacy education. St. Clair and Sandlin examine the use of the term and the policies and programs it currently justifies. The authors argue that the concept of illiteracy should be avoided due to its inherent deficit focus.

Individuals with Asperger Syndrome (AS), a high functioning variant of Autism, are often noted to possess intact language ability, yet fail to use this language capacity to engage in interactive communication. This difficulty using language in a social context has been referred to as a deficit in pragmatic language. In particular, difficulty…

This narrative explores how picture books can be used in the literacy classroom for pupils aged between 11-12 years. It discusses the links children can make when interpreting pictures and then returning to text. It highlights pupils' ability to understand metaphor and narrative structure when reading picture books, and how they can show their…