METAPHORS OF LITERARY GENRES: A STUDY ON PERCEPTIONS OF LEARNERS

Abstract

The perception of language has been studied in various aspects up to now whereas the perception of literature is still a less researched area. Therefore, the amount of qualitative research on perception of literature needs to be increased. The present study aims to fill this gap by exploring students’ perception with respect to the concept of literary genres through the use of metaphor as they reflect the way we perceive the world and shape our professional ideas and attitudes. In addition, the study investigates whether there is a difference in perceptions of junior and senior learners in regard to their perceptions of literary genres. It also searches into the difficulties learners claim to experience while reading literary genres. The study consists of 58 first and 43 fourth graders of ELL students of İstanbul University. The data were collected with semi-structured interviews, multiple-choice questionnaires and metaphor elicitation papers The metaphors of literary genres exhibited positive and negative perceptions of the learners. The Ring, Narnia, concentre detergent, veritaserum and pomegranate are some of the unique positive metaphors of the learners. Some metaphors seem to be negative such as Pandora’s box, dark hole, ivy and labyrinth.