The Effect of Using Figurative Language on Enhancing Students’ Skills in Iraqi Schools

Abstract

The conducted research is a brief qualitative study on the process of figurative language teaching within schools of different levels. The purpose of the study is to validate to what extent figurative language is being taught during the Iraqi school system. Different approaches are explored for the purpose of successful mastery of figurative language. The results that has explained in previous studies in the conceptual, single unit, synonymic, relevance, contextual approaches are also provided, but also provide additional approaches in the constructional and exposal approaches.  Mostly, the different approaches of teaching figurative language are described as being “multi-approaches” and are used in addition to other approaches. The results of the study are based on data collected from a survey questionnaires distributed among schools of different levels. The results indicate that figurative language teaching tends to be disregarded by English teachers working in elementary schools. English teachers in secondary schools differ in their intentions for teaching the subject, but do encounter figurative language and touch upon it anyway. In secondary schools, English teachers vary as to which aspects of figurative language they teach, but they actively involve figurative language in their teaching.

Keywords: figurative language nature, metaphor and idioms teaching, constructional approach, idiomatic expressions