Teachers' and learners' images for coursebooks

Abstract

If, as has been widely claimed, our attitudes and beliefs are reflected in the language we use, it should be possible to gain some insight into teachers' views of English-language coursebooks from the metaphors they use to describe them. A small collection of teacher metaphors (and similes), drawn largely from Hong Kong, is presented and discussed. This is then compared with metaphors supplied by secondary school learners in the same context. The conclusion is drawn that there is value in teachers researching their learners' beliefs and attitudes—in relation to coursebooks and other aspects of the teaching-learning environment—and reflecting on and comparing these with their own. Metaphors may be a conveniently economical way of focusing such reflection.