Using pictures in teaching metaphorical expressions to Arabic-speaking EFL learners

Abstract

This study compares the effectiveness of using pictures to that of using online dictionaries in teaching metaphorical expressions to 50 Arabic-speaking EFL learners studying English (2) at Al Ain University in the United Arab Emirates. The study adopts a pre- and post-test experimental design to measure the participants’ comprehension of English metaphorical expressions before and after the treatment. To this end, the participants were divided into two treatment groups: Group A (25 participants), which was exposed to the learning material using an overhead projector and pictures; and Group B (25 participants), which was exposed to the material using an online dictionary and matching exercises. A comprehension test that required the participants to provide meanings to the target metaphorical expressions was employed as the pre- and post-test. The results reveal that while both groups improved on the post-test, Group A outperformed Group B as demonstrated by the results of a paired sample t-test. The results also show that all participants found certain types of metaphor particularly challenging, i.e. Type 6, and this is ascribed to the conceptual and linguistic differences between L1 and L2. The study concludes with some recommendations for future research.