ABSTRACT

Keywords: metaphor, idiom,

idiom, teaching, English, Croatian
TITLE: The role of conceptual metaphors in idiom learning: an experimental study
The potential positive role conceptual metaphors might play in the retention of figurative language in
foreign language teaching has already been recognised by other researchers in the past. Several
studies were conducted into the potential facilitative effect of the cognitive semantic view upon the
learning of idioms by non-native speakers of English (Irujo 1986, Kvecses and Szab 1996, Deignan
and Potter 2004, and others). A general hypothesis which was put to a test in the experimental study
outlined in this article is whether or not EFL learners who are made aware of the existence of
motivational mechanisms behind certain English idioms are better equipped to learn other idiomatic
realisations of those mechanisms which have been previously taught to the learners. An experimental
study was conducted involving 40 Croatian learners of English at the upper-intermediate and
advanced level. The participants were divided into two groups and each group was subjected to
testing in the form of a questionnaire which included 6 sets of idioms grouped according to the nature
of the motivational mechanism behind it: set 1 and 2 (shared conceptual metaphor between L1 and
L2); set 3 and 4 (conceptual metaphor not present in L1); set 5 and 6 (conventional knowledge not
present in L1). Group A was not made aware of the conceptual metaphors and they were taught to
memorise half of the idioms that appeared in the testing. Group B underwent a similar procedure with
the addition of being taught the motivational mechanisms behind half of the idioms that later appeared
in the testing. The study followed in the footsteps of the one conducted by Kvecses & Szab (1996)
to see what results would be obtained when research is conducted on pure idioms and not phrasal
verbs and when those idioms which are not necessarily motivated by a conceptual metaphor (but
rather some conventional knowledge specific to English) are also included in the testing. The data
that was obtained this way suggests that there is a facilitative role played by conceptual metaphor in
EFL teaching of figurative language.

REFERENCES
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Deignan, Alice, and Liz Potter. "A corpus study of metaphors and metonyms in English and Italian."

Journal of Pragmatics 36.7 (2004): 1231-1252.