Metaphor interpretation task

It was also hypothesized that the metaphor classes might improve students’ metaphoric competence by helping students learn to correctly and accurately interpret English metaphors. To test students’ abilities to interpret metaphor in their L2, students were given a quotation task in which they had to choose one of six short quotations containing metaphor, write a paragraph identifying and explaining the metaphor, and then write another paragraph giving their own response to the quotation (see Appendix B and C). The students were given a score of 0 – 5 on their ability to identify and interpret the metaphor, as well as their ability to give their own opinion of the quotation (see Appendix F). The results are summarized in Tables 17 and 18 below.

As the tables show, while all the groups improved except the ESL reading/writing control group, the experimental groups improved more than the control groups. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to compare the pre-test and post-test scores for each group, and significant results at p<.05 are marked with an asterisk below. It can be seen that the ESL reading/writing

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experimental group and the EFL experimental group improved significantly in all areas, the EFL control group improved significantly in some areas, the ESL listening/speaking groups did not improve significantly, and the ESL reading/writing control group decreased significantly in metaphor identification. In addition, when each experimental group was compared with its respective control group using the independent samples Mann-Whitney U test, only the ESL reading/writing groups were found to differ significantly from each other on the pre-test. In other words, the scores of the ESL reading/writing experimental group were significantly lower than all the scores of the ESL reading/writing control group on the pre-test, but not significantly different from each other on the post-test.

Table 17: Median Scores on Metaphor Quotation Task in EFL Groups (* = significant at p<.05)

EFL Control Group (n = 9)

EFL Experimental Group (n = 9)

Pre-Test Post-Test Pre-Test Post-Test

Median Metaphor Identification 2.5 (2.1) 3 (2.9) 2.5* (2.1) 3.5* (3.4) Median Metaphor Interpretation 2* (1.7) 3* (2.9) 2.5* (2.2) 3* (3.3)

Median Student Opinion 3*

(2.8) 3.5* (3.5) 2.5* (2.3) 3.5* (3.7)

Median Overall Score 1.8*

(2.2) 3.2* (3.1) 2.5* (2.2) 3.5* (3.4)

Difference Overall Score +1.4*

(+0.9)

+1.0* (+1.2)

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Table 18: Median and Mean Scores on Metaphor Quotation Task in ESL Groups (* = significant at p<.05)

ESL RW Control Group (n = 12) ESL LS Control Group (n=9) ESL RW Experimental Group (n = 11) ESL LS Experimental Group (n=12) Pre- Test Post- Test Pre- Test Post- Test Pre-Test Post- Test Pre-Test Post- Test Median Metaphor Identification (Mean) 2.75* (2.75) 2* (1.9) 3 (2.8) 2.5 (2.8) 1* (1.2) 1.5* (2) 2.25 (2) 2.75 (2.3) Median Metaphor Interpretation (Mean) 2.75 (2.8) 2.5 (2.3) 3 (2.7) 2.5 (3.2) 1* (1.2) 2.5* (2.5) 2.5 (2.2) 3 (2.8) Median Student Opinion (Mean) 2.75 (2.8) 2.5 (2.5) 3 (3) 3.5 (3.2) 1.75* (2) 2.5* (2.8) 2 (2.1) 2.9 (2.6) Median Overall Score (Mean) 2.8 (2.8) 2.3 (2.3) 2.7 (2.8) 3 (3.1) 1.1* (1.4) 2.4* (2.4) 2.3 (2.1) 2.9 (2.6) Difference Overall Score (Mean) -0.5 (-0.5) +0.3 (+0.3) +1.3* (+1.0) +0.6 (+0.5)

Figure 5 below shows a boxplot of the EFL students’ overall metaphor quotation task scores. It can be seen that the two groups had a large range of scores on the pre-test, particularly the EFL experimental group. However, on the post-test, there was a much smaller range of scores, with most students scoring between 3 and 4 points. In addition, both groups improved a fair amount on the post-test, with just a few outliers.

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Figure 6 below shows a boxplot of the ESL students’ metaphor quotation task scores. The ESL students’ scores show a lot more variability than the EFL students’ scores. In addition, it is obvious that the largest gains were made by the reading/writing experimental group while only the reading/writing control group’s scores decreased. The only outliers were two students from the reading/writing experimental group who scored relatively high on the pre-test.

Figure 6: Boxplot of ESL Students’ Overall Metaphor Quotation Task Scores

Overall, since two out of three experimental groups showed significant improvements, the results suggest that the metaphor classes may have helped students learn to interpret and respond to metaphorical expressions in their L2. However, neither the listening/speaking control group nor the listening/speaking experimental group improved significantly on the post-test. This might indicate that the instruction of the reading/writing classes was better for improving

metaphor awareness and competence. Students in the reading/writing classes were asked to identify and explain new metaphorical expressions in reading passages while students in the listening/speaking classes were usually asked comprehension questions about specific

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metaphorical phrases that had already been identified for them. Perhaps giving students transcripts of the listening passages and asking them to identify, interpret, and discuss new metaphorical language in the listening passages might have helped them improve more significantly on the metaphor quotation task.

Next, some common problems that appeared in the first paragraph of the students’ quotation interpretation responses are shown in Table 19 below. First, instead of directly

identifying and explaining the metaphor in the quotation, several students simply wrote about the general topic, as shown in the first example. Another common mistake was trying to apply a literal interpretation to metaphorical expressions, as shown in the second example. Several participants in both the control and experimental groups tried to interpret the quotation below literally to mean that pollution causes diseases for people rather than mapping characteristics of incurable diseases onto the problem of environmental pollution. Finally, participants

occasionally misinterpreted the quotation in a way that was very different from the original meaning of the metaphorical language. For example, a few students interpreted the third quotation below to mean that the government should ignore the environment and only focus on the economy, the complete opposite meaning of the original quote. However, as these mistakes were more common for all groups of students on the pre-test than on the post-test, it is unlikely that the metaphor instruction alone affected the students’ performance on the quotation task. It could be that the students improved simply due to general development in their English skills over the course of the semester or the session.

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Table 19: Examples of Common Problems on the First Paragraph of the Quotation Interpretation Task Not Identifying Metaphor Literal Interpretation Wrong Interpretation Quotation “Water and air, the two

essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”

“Environmental pollution is an incurable disease. It can only be prevented.”

“We don’t have to sacrifice a strong economy for a healthy environment.”

Student Example

“In these days more and more people are distribute in the environmental pollution. Because they do not have that resposibility to preserve on their environment on the right way. They cut down the tree and factories through out their trash in the sea. Also, people can pollute their environment by their cars. Thus, they do not have motivation to keep the environment clean. Moreover, they do not follow their government’s rules.”

“Indeed, the author states that an environmental pollution is considered one of the most serious issues that affects negatively human life around the world.

Wherefore, this issue may bring a lot of disease to people. Thus, an environmental pollution must be prevented through putting the policies that can protect the people in the future.”

“The author means the environment needs a huge work and money to be healthy and government doesn’t need to spend a lot of money on

environment because that can affected economy in negative way. Author describes environment be healthy is like get A+ without hard study.”

In the second paragraph giving their response to the quotation, participants had similar problems, especially if they had not explained the quotation correctly in the first paragraph. First, some participants wrote about the topic generally instead of responding directly to the quote, as shown in the first example in Table 20 below. Next, students who had interpreted the quotation literally in the first paragraph responded literally to the quotation in the second paragraph, as shown in the second example below. In this case, the student has interpreted the metaphor “incurable disease” literally, so mistakenly discusses medicine, health, and death in their response rather than discussing what makes pollution an “incurable disease.” Finally, students

who had misinterpreted the metaphorical expressions in the first paragraph also responded to this incorrect interpretation in the second paragraph, as shown in the last example below. In this case, the student has misinterpreted the metaphor and believes that he disagrees with the quote when he actually agrees with it.

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Table 20: Student Examples of Common Problems on the Second Paragraph of the Quotation Interpretation Task

Not Responding Directly to the Quotation Responding to a Literal Interpretation of the Metaphor Responding to a Misinterpretation of the Quotation

Quotation “Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.”

“Environmental pollution is an incurable disease. It can only be prevented.”

“We don’t have to sacrifice a strong economy for a healthy environment.” Student

Examples

“I totally agree with the author in his words. Because when people starts to use the

environment in the wrong way, its going to hurt the people eventually. People can’t live without a good environment because the life of people depends on the environment itself.”

“Environmental pollution it can kill people and animals, and woods. If people live in country it has a lot of pollution he will deid because the disease it hard to find the good medicine to feel good healthy. The government should find anything to stop this

pollution and no one will be killed by pollution.”

“Although economy is important for developing a country, our environment is more important than economy. If we keep destroying our environment for business, our future generation will be able to live on healthy environment. Therefore, we need to take action for protecting our environment immediately. Overall, I disagree with author’s point.”

In general, these examples show not only that students must first understand a

metaphorical expression before they can respond to it, but also that students who either interpret a metaphorical expression literally or misinterpret its meaning will not be able to give an

appropriate response. That is, raising students’ metaphor awareness and helping them learn to identify metaphorical expressions will also help improve their metaphoric competence, or ability to understand and interpret metaphor. In addition, as with the first paragraph, the metaphor instruction did not have a clear impact on students’ written responses as students from all groups improved on the post-test, perhaps since they both improved on the first paragraph and

developed their general English skills during the course.

One positive impact of the metaphor instruction was that it made students more aware of metaphor in general. The experimental groups made more explicit references to metaphor on the post-test than on the pre-test while the control groups made fewer explicit references to metaphor on the post-test than the pre-test. In addition, several students in the experimental groups began

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to evaluate the effects of the author’s use of metaphor, as shown in the two examples below.

These two students could not only identify the metaphor, but also explained that they like the metaphor because it was “strong” and gave the reader a “best picture.” This shows that these two students not only developed their ability to understand metaphor but also critically evaluate how a writer is using them in their L2.

Table 21: Examples of Explicit References to Metaphor on the Quotation Interpretation Task from ESL Experimental Listening/Speaking Group

Quotation “Forests are the lungs of our land.”

“Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.”

Student Example

The author use this metaphor for a stronger impact on the reader. Comparing forest with the lungs gives us best picture of what happening in the nature.

What I like about this quote is the metaphor that the author use. He defined nature as something that the human need in his life. In my opinion, the metaphor he used was strong enough to show people how nature is something we need to take care of, so it makes us alive.

To sum up, the metaphor instruction had a modest impact on student performance on the metaphor interpretation task. Statistically significant improvements from the pre-test to the post- test were found for the EFL experimental group as well as the ESL experimental reading/writing group, showing an improvement in the students’ metaphoric competence, or ability to

understand, interpret, and respond to metaphorical expressions, after the metaphor instruction. However, it was also noted that students in the listening/speaking experimental class did not improve significantly on the post-test metaphor quotation task, and it was suggested that giving students transcripts of the listening passages and asking them to find, interpret, and explain new metaphorical phrases on their own might have helped them improve more on the post-test quotation task. Next, participants in all groups showed a reduction in common mistakes on both paragraphs of the quotation interpretation task. Moreover, the common mistakes identified on the metaphor interpretation task may also suggest common issues teachers might address during targeted metaphor instruction.

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