2002 - " Metaphors as a tool for action research and self-directed language learning

The purpose of this study is to explore whether metaphor is a valid tool for action research. Since Lakoff and Johnson showed how the Metaphors We Live By (1980) influence our thoughts, traditional rhetoric has found new applications, including didactics. Along these lines, we have set up an exploratory experiment with our second year undergraduate science students at Grenoble University. The quantitative results were shown to be consistent with the qualitative analysis of the metaphors contained in the free answers, both stressing a need for opening out onto the world. Building on these results, we suggested guidelines in order to adapt a self-directed language learning scheme to our students' profiles, therefore showing how metaphors can mediate between students' representations of learning, and the actual process of acquiring a language.