The role of metaphors in the teaching of German as a foreign language

Philosophers and linguists have always been aware of the importance of metaphor in the development of thought and language. However it was the founders of cognitive theories of metaphor Lakoff and Johnson (1980), who first focused their analyses on metaphors in everyday language. Their work generated great interest in many disciplines including psycho-linguistics where recent studies regarding first and second language acquisition have engaged with the role of metaphor in these processes (Mandler 1992, 2000, Butzkamm and Butzkamm 1999, respectively).

Within the ambit of foreign language teaching research, studies on metaphor have led to an orientation towards objectives regarding not just verbal fluency but also conceptual metaphoric fluency (Beißner 2002; Bellavia 2007, 2011; Boers and Lindstromberg 2008; Danesi 1993, 1995, 1998; Lazar 1996; Rösler 1985).

This work is based on the assumption that a language pedagogy in line with the results of this research in linguistics and psycho-linguistics must consider its objectives to include the development of schemata and metaphorical associations as stable contents of learner memory to be drawn upon during the comprehension and production of texts. It will also offer several exercise types aimed at the development of “metaphoric competence” in German as a foreign language.