Using cognitive linguistic principles to encourage production of metaphorical vocabulary in writing

Learners in academic English environments face considerable demands on their lexical knowledge. The problem is more than just the acquisition of a large vocabulary; they must also develop an awareness of the range of meanings that words can convey. Academic discourse is known to make frequent use of metaphorical vocabulary to express abstract notions. This article reports on a two-semester investigation into learner production of conventional metaphorical vocabulary in an anthropology course. Analysis of written output revealed that control group metaphor use correlated strongly with overall proficiency, but that experimental group learners responded to the treatment in a more complex fashion.