Can Second Language Metaphorical Competence Be Taught Through Instructional Intervention? ——A Meta-analysis

For a long time,the traditional view regarded metaphor as a rhetorical device that served to enrich the linguistic expression.It was until the 1980 s,when Lakoff proposed the conceptual metaphor theory,that the cognitive function of metaphor gradually came into people’s insight.Metaphors carry the specific culture of a country or region.They are ubiquitous in our daily lives,manifesting themselves in all aspects of people’s language,thoughts,and actions.With the continuous development of cognitive linguistics,foreign language educators began to realize the important role of metaphor in foreign language education.The value of metaphor teaching for language learning such as vocabulary acquisition and idiomatic comprehension has been proven.Scholars generally supported that metaphorical skills can be taught just like language skills.The question of how to develop metaphorical skills has then become an issue for teachers and educators to consider.There is an overwhelming trend of theoretical research on the development of metaphorical skills.However,the practical aspects are still in their infancy.This paper synthesized current empirical research on metaphorical teaching competence through meta-analysis to draw a general conclusion about the effectiveness of pedagogical intervention for developing metaphorical competence.Based on a previous literature review,this study proposed the following two questions: 1)Can second language learners’ metaphorical competence be taught significantly through explicit instruction? If so,what are the effects? 2)What moderating variables potentially impact the effects of the intervention? To what extent are the effects? After a rigorous literature search and selection process,a total of20 studies with 51 effect sizes were included in this meta-analysis.Comprehensive Metaanalysis 3.0 software was used to analyze the literature for publication bias and heterogeneity tests to maximize the accuracy and validity of the meta-analysis results.The effect size tests revealed that the metaphorical instructional intervention was significantly effective in general and that the instructional intervention produced a large effect size（d=0.888）on the improvement of learners’ metaphorical abilities.Subgroup analyses and meta-regression analyses were conducted to further analyze the potential effects of moderating variables on the intervention effects.The following conclusions were drawn: 1)The instructional intervention produced different effect sizes on different types of metaphorical ability,with significant effects on metaphorical comprehension（d=0.762）,production（d=1.286）,and the overall metaphorical ability（d=1.425）,followed by metaphor recognition ability（d=0.448）.The smallest effect size was found in metaphor interpretation ability（d=0.295）;2)For metaphorical production ability,the measuring method influenced the effect size.Learners generally performed better on the metaphor density task compared to complicated sentence tasks;3)The presence or absence of a control group in the experimental design did not have a significant moderating effect on the intervention effect;4)There was a significant moderating effect of literature source on the intervention effect.Journal articles usually reported significantly larger effect sizes than thesis papers;5)Nation/Region had a significant moderating effect on improving L2 metaphorical competence,with the effect sizes of international studies being significantly higher than studies in China;6)The length of the intervention as a moderating variable impacted the effect of improving metaphorical ability.The regression equation showed that this positive effect was not significant.This might be due to the influence of the frequency of the intervention.Teaching interventions should last for at least one semester to achieve better results.In today’s language education,people are no longer satisfied with the transfer of language knowledge but regard language as a medium and seek to develop the ability to use language flexibly.The author believes that improving learners’ awareness and ability in the second language metaphor needs long-term efforts.Before receiving explicit metaphor instruction,learners usually have little understanding of metaphors,and it is difficult to break the habit of long-term reliance on mother tongue thinking patterns in language learning.However,a growing body of research has shown that instructional interventions that combine prolonged input of metaphorical concepts with reinforcement of metaphorical practice can help second language learners develop metaphorical competence.This has huge implications for language teaching in the future.Metaphorical instruction puts forward higher demands on teachers and the educational environment.The current syllabus,textbook content,and teacher awareness are all in need of improvement,which will necessitate the collaboration of syllabus writers,experts,and teachers.Hopefully,the results of this study could provide useful suggestions for future metaphorical teaching.