A Study Of English Teachers’ Role From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Nowadays,English teachers’ role has changed from god to guide.English teachers are no longer simple providers of knowledge but helpers,councilors,facilitators,etc.There are many studies on English teachers’ role;however,so far there is still a dearth of studies on the metaphorical conceptualization of English teachers’ role.Meanwhile,nearly no study has ever explored the factors affecting the conceptualization of English teachers’ role.This study attempts to investigate the conceptualization of English teachers’ role in line with Lakoff and Johnson’s(1980)Conceptual Metaphor Theory and tries to answer the following three research questions:1.What kinds of conceptual metaphors are used by English teachers toconceptualize their English teachers’ role?2.How do English teachers metaphorically conceptualize their English teachers’role?3.What are the factors affecting the metaphorical conceptualization of Englishteachers’ role?In order to answer the above three questions,the author collected thirty metaphors through questionnaires and selected eight representative English teachers to have in-depth interviews.The findings of this study are as follows: firstly,according to source domains of the thirty metaphors,the author summarizes eight conceptual metaphors used by participants to conceptualize English teachers’ role.They are ENGLISH TEACHER IS TOUR GUIDE,ENGLISH TEACHER IS GUIDING LIGHT,ENGLISH TEACHER IS DIRECTOR,ENGLISH TEACHER IS HOST/HOSTESS,ENGLISH TEACHER IS GARDENER,ENGLISH TEACHER IS ACTOR/ACTRESS,ENGLISH TEACHER IS PLAYMATE,and ENGLISH TEACHER IS HANDS TO OPEN WINDOWS.Secondly,the working mechanisms of the metaphorical conceptualization of English teachers’ role are mappings from the source domains,“TOUR GUIDE”,“GUIDING LIGHT”,“DIRECTOR”,“HOST/HOSTESS”,“GARDENER”,“ACTOR/ACTRESS”,“PLAYMATE”,and “HANDS TO OPEN WINDOWS” to the target domain “ENGLISH TEACHER”.Mappings of the two conceptual systems are based on the similarities between source domains and target domains.Thirdly,social factors,teacher factors and school factors are three major factors affecting the conceptualization of English teachers’ role.Social factors include international relation,new curriculum reform,examination system and multi-media development,which provide macro-contexts and technical supports for the conceptualization of English teachers’ role.Teacher factors refer to teachers’ own personalities and learning experiences.School factors include students’ need,school activities and colleagues.As a metaphorical study of English teachers’ role,this study can not only have some implications for further linguistic studies on educational metaphors,but also make a contribution to a better understanding of the formation of teachers’ role and an improvement of the orientation of teachers’ role.