ekiz, merve istanbul aydın üniversitesi - sosyal bilimler enstitüsü - ingiliz dili ve edebiyatı bölümü, Turkey , kesen mutlu, aynur medipol üniversitesi, Turkey

A Study of the Learners Metaphorical Perceptions of Literary Genres

15365

The perception of language has been studied from various aspects to date, whereas how students perceive literature remains today a less researched area. The quantity of qualitative research concerning the perception of literature needs to be increased. The present study aims to fill this gap by exploring students’ perception in respect to the concept of literary genres through the use of metaphor as they reflect the way we perceive the world and shape our professional ideas and attitudes. In addition, the study investigates whether there is a difference in perceptions between junior and senior learners in regard to their perception of literary genres. The study participants were 58 first and 43 fourth grade ELL students enrolled in İstanbul University, Turkey. The data were collected through the use of semi structured interviews, multiple-choice questionnaire and metaphor elicitation papers. The metaphors of literary genres exhibited both the positive and negative perceptions of the learners. The Ring, Narnia, detergent concentrate, veritaserum (‘iksir’ in Turkish) and pomegranate were some of the unique positive metaphors of the learners. Some metaphors seem to be negative such as Pandora’s Box, dark hole, ivy and labyrinth.

155

Perception of Literature , Literary Genres , Metaphorical Perceptions , Conceptual Metaphors

Mediterranean Journal Of Humanities

168