A rhetorical analysis of texts in ELT coursebooks in terms of figurative language

Language is a tool of communication and interaction among speakers/hearers, authors/readers and the texts that are evolving, dynamic and creative (Suleiman, 1996). One of the integral creative part of language mechanisms is figures of speech which are used in speech and writing to evoke images beyond the literal meanings of the linguistic utterance to bring in other thought patterns decoratively (Pollio, 1973). By having power of implicitness and creativity, figures of speech have been prevalently used by individuals and groups in societies to meet diverse communication needs and functions in verbal and written texts. Thus, there is a growing awareness that figures of speech have various functions more than their artistic functions since they have been considered as prominent elements in a language by which people can reflect and understand each other's thoughts in different forms and concepts. Although figures of speech had been regarded as the elements of literature and poetics until the 19th century, studies held in recent years have indicated that figures of speech can also be effectively employed to nonliterary texts in different contexts, such as academic writing, political speech, advertisements, mass media and language teaching (Gibbs, 1994). Although there have been various studies analyzing figures of speech from different aspects within language teaching contexts, studies involving a thorough rhetorical analysis of figures of speech in English language teaching course books seem to be scarce. In this respect, the study investigates the types of figures of speech employed in the reading texts (n: 273) of eight ELT course books and attempts to examine figures of speech at conceptual level based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Key Words: Figures of speech, rhetorical analysis, conceptual metaphor theory