Teaching metaphors based on conceptual metaphor theory in teaching Turkish as a foreign language

This study aims to develop and implement a teaching based on conceptual metaphor theory for the problem of metaphor teaching- learning within the scope of teaching Turkish as a foreign language. Since a process is followed for the solution of the research problem, the study has an action research pattern, one of the qualitative methods. In this study, first of all, the problem situation was revealed, and then the teaching application, planned by the researcher for the teaching of conceptual metaphor, was carried out. The data collection phase of the research was composed by taking three stages into consideration in terms of before the application, during the application and after the application, and multiple data collection was made in the form of observation, interview and document analysis. These data were obtained from the course material of Turkish as a foreign language, 25 students at B2 level and 7 instructors. In the pre-implementation phase, the related course material was examined to determine the problem, a metaphor exam was applied to the study group, and interviews were held with the instructors. Afterwards, research diaries were kept by the researcher and students by applying the teaching activities developed by the researcher during the application. In addition, at this stage, the lessons were recorded to make an observation. Lastly, in order to evaluate the process, the metaphor exam was re-applied after the application, compared with the previous metaphor exam, and interviews were conducted with the students. All the data obtained in this context were examined in detail with content analysis, and research findings were reached. As a result, it has been seen that due to the fact that metaphor teaching, based on conceptual metaphor theory, includes the systematic structure in conceptualization, it is very effective on objectives in teaching Turkish as a foreign language such as understanding, interpreting and producing metaphors and contributes to students' metaphorical competences, as well.