Exploring Prospective English Language Teachers' Perceptions of the "Internet" through Metaphorical Conceptualizations

• Published in: Educational research and reviews Vol. 11; no. 8; pp. 499 - 507
• Main Author: Yaman, Ismail
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Academic Journals 23.04.2016
• Subjects: Computer Simulation; Content Analysis; English (Second Language); Figurative Language; Foreign Countries; Information Sources; Internet; Language Teachers; Phenomenology; Preservice Teachers; Qualitative Research; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Student Attitudes; Teacher Education Programs; Turkey; Turkey
• ISSN: 1990-3839; 1990-3839
• DOI: 10.5897/ERR2016.2681

This qualitative phenomenological study aims to explore prospective English language teachers' perceptions of the "Internet" through metaphors. The study has been conducted with the participation of 143 Grade 1 and Grade 2 students attending the English Language Teaching (ELT) Programme at Ondokuz Mayis University. A form with a simple Internet-related metaphor question has been employed as the major data collection tool and metaphorical analysis has constituted the chief data analysis technique. The reliability of the study has been calculated as 91%. The first stage of the qualitative analyses carried out under this study has yielded a total of 127 valid metaphors and, following the unification of the identical ones, 79 distinct metaphors produced by the participants. The metaphor with the highest frequency has been "Internet is 'an infinite world'" (f = 12). The second stage of the qualitative analyses has yielded 9 conceptual categories of metaphors: Internet as "something that damages people", Internet as "an enormous realm", Internet as "something that helps people", Internet as "a real source of information", Internet as "something that contains both positive and negative things", Internet as "something that provides escape from real world", Internet as "something that commands people", Internet as "something that connects people", and Internet as "something that reflects the user". These findings have been discussed in relation to the existing literature; and considering the limitations of this study, suggestions have been introduced for prospective studies.