Exploring Pre-service And In-service Teacher’s Metaphors Of English Teaching In Middle Schools

Metaphor is not only a figure of speech, but also a useful way for teachers to do self-reflection and to explore their hidden teaching beliefs (Cameron&Low,1999; Lakoff&Johnson,1980). The majority of the previous studies which employed metaphors either focused on the teacher-produced images or student-produced ones. This study aims at the both pre-service and in-service teachers’ metaphors about English teaching and English teachers in middle schools to find the similarities and differences and to explore the underlying teaching beliefs. A questionnaire about how they think of English teaching and English teachers in middle schools was distributed to50students in Central China Normal University (CCNU). After analysis, the author finds that both in-service and pre-service teachers tend to use inanimate things to describe middle schools and teachers and students there. The slight difference between them is that the majority of pre-service teachers hold a more positive view toward future. Besides, a follow-up interview has been done to get detailed information. Through talking with those teachers, the author gets to know that most of the teaching beliefs of those teachers who share similar metaphors are nearly the same. A few people hold an opposite teaching belief though they produced similar metaphors. There are three causes that lead to the contradictions between them. They are cultural influence, self-experience and social pressure. Metaphors of teachers in this thesis can be divided into four categories. The first group is about "water". The second is about "action". The third is on "sheep and cultivation" and the last one is on "power". Different teaching beliefs under those metaphors are discussed. There are mainly two kinds:metaphors about "water" and "power" belong to behaviorism and metaphors about "sheep" and "action" belong to constructivism.Through this study, the author hopes that this study can make supplement for the studies of using metaphors to explore teachers’ inner world and that it can be helpful for the design of teacher education program.