"The Foreign Language Classroom is Like an Airplane" Metaphorical Conceptualizations of Teachers’ Beliefs

Abstract

 Drawing on constructivist perspectives, this study aimed to investigate the tacit knowledge of pre-service English teachers regarding the foreign language classroom by discovering their belief systems mainly through a metaphor analysis. The participants consisted of two pre-service teachers, who enrolled in a practicum class of a one-year intensive teaching certificate course offered at an English-medium foundation university located in Istanbul, Turkey, during the spring semester of 2012-2013 academic year. The possible effects of practice teaching period on the metaphors were also explored. In so doing, the participants were requested to reflect on the metaphors they generated. In this exploratory design, the data collection tools included a metaphor completion task, a semi-structured interview, and follow-up e-mails. The results suggested that pre-service teachers do not enter teacher education as a tabula rasa and that the use of metaphors to reveal previous knowledge was a useful instrument. It was also found that real teaching experience seemed to influence the metaphors expressed prior to practicum. Implications and applications for teacher education and suggestions for future research are discussed.