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Introduction English for young learners (EYL) in China involves at least 60-million
primary school children (China Education 2013) starting English at
the age of 7 or 9 years old, and there is a trend to expand this further
by lowering the starting age; this is promoted by state schools, private
schools, after school English classes, kindergartens, and parents.
However, EYL is a neglected research topic in China, even though
this stage is foundational for later levels of study. The few published
Chinese studies mainly relate to curriculum and organizational
matters and teachers’ viewpoints, or focus on immediate practices (for
example Ma and Feng 2011). There is also little empirical research
reported in this area. Thus, little is known about young learners’
views on their motivations for learning English, although learners’
perspectives are important in order to understand their language
learning and, as officially advocated, to develop more learner-centred
approaches.
Research This project uses both established and more innovative research
methodology for methods to bring out the motivations, expectations, and experiences of
this study Chinese primary school learners of English, together with those of their
parents. This article focuses on the metaphor data analysis undertaken
(a more recently developed qualitative research method).
Participants and The participants taking part in the metaphor data collection were
data collection of from four inner-city primary schools. Sample schools cannot
this study represent all features of Chinese primary schools, given the
many potential variables which could be considered, for example
schools in different sized cities and rural areas; or key schools,
state schools, and private schools. The project team focused on
four contrasting city schools with different social and educational
features (see Table 1).
The four schools had similarities and differences in their history,
school size, class sizes, curriculum speciality, and children’s family
backgrounds. Only Year 1 and Year 3 pupils were chosen, since
primary schools in China start teaching English either from Year 1
or Year 3. So the team chose two schools starting English teaching in
Year 1 and two in Year 3, respectively. Pupils’ motivational views were
investigated after one term of EL. Thus the data do not represent all
stages and aspects of their English language development.
Interestingly, the chosen primary schools represent a range of
historically established schools which mirrors many schools in China.
QPJ is from the pre-1949 era, established before communist China
table 1
Summary information for
the participating schools
was founded; WLL was set up in the 1950s with a strong promotion of
Chinese socialist ideology; FJP started in the 1960s during the Cultural
Revolution when the domination of the working class was stressed
and education was violently damaged; and LJS was created in the
1980s when China’s open-door economic policy developed. LJS may
represent the most recent wave of Chinese educational and economic
development, as this school has the highest number of migrant
workers’ children and it offers smaller classes for all children, which is
unusual in a city with 10-million residents.
Data collection was given ethical approval by our UK and Chinese
universities, and by local educational authorities, supported by all four
school head teachers and class teachers; all parents of participating
children gave their written consent. Children from the participating
classes were randomly chosen with a consideration of gender balance.
Findings from the The research team members transcribed and translated the data
elicited metaphors and categorized the metaphors by identifying naturally occurring
and entailments themes. The following findings present the metaphors based on
learners’ attitudes (Figure 1), types of metaphors created (Figure 2),
and emerging patterns of reasons for learning English through their
entailments for understanding their EL motivation (Figure 3).
Attitudes towards EL Metaphors given by pupils are classified according to both metaphors
through metaphors and entailments into positive, negative, neutral, or ambivalent
metaphors to indicate their attitudes towards EL.
Example 1
Metaphor Entailment
A happy game Because games are a great fun, so is learning
English.
Example 2
The tiger ran into a If the little rabbit made the effort and escaped
little rabbit from the attack of the tiger, it is like being
reborn. However, if the little rabbit cannot
survive the attack, it will be swallowed and stay
in the tiger’s stomach forever.
Pineapple Some teachers start from the easy parts, but
(like eating a pineapple) bitterness comes first
and then the sweetness. Difficult parts should
be learned first then easy ones.
Example 3
A rainbow A rainbow has many colours just like our
learning. The teacher teaches us how to make a
dialogue (in English). Conversation is like the red
colour. Learning the alphabet is like the orange
colour; playing games is like the yellow colour.
Example 4
Gathering honey Gathering honey is not easy, you have to take
the risk of being stung.
Like flower is dying If the flower is drowned in water, it will die.
Types of metaphors The types are grouped according to the superordinate category of the
created by metaphors given by pupils. There are mainly just seven types of metaphors,
participating pupils among which the category of ‘Food and drink’ has the highest number of
instances. Figure 2 shows the numbers of metaphors for each type.
Categorizing metaphors-2
120 101
100
80 60 50 62
60 25 20 44
40
20
0
figure 2
Different types of
metaphors
Living things
This group of 62 metaphors referred to animals, birds, people, plants, and
flowers (Table 4). Pupils’ feelings for English emerged through these items.
Metaphor Entailment
A high-speed train Because it can take us to travel in the UK and
USA.
Driving You need to learn English carefully, like driving;
if you are not careful, you will have a ‘crush’, a
car accident.
Running Everyone starts from the same starting line, it is
easy first; then becomes hard.
table 2 Swimming If you don’t learn it well, you will sink and also
Examples of travel and my mum will be happy to see me studying
movement in metaphors English.
Metaphor Entailment
Rice Because people need to eat food; otherwise we
will starve.
Cabbage Because I don’t like eating cabbage.
table 3 Mango Because mango has a unique flavour. It’s sweet
Examples of food and tasty just like English.
metaphors Eating ice cream [I’m] Very happy.
Metaphor Entailment
Dancing English learning is as fun as dancing.
Spring outing When we had a spring outing, Mom said that
mountains are layer upon layer just like learning
Metaphor Entailment
A river Because English words can never be
finished. The water in the river can never
be exhausted.
The sun Learning English is like the sun, because the
sun represents happiness.
An ocean Because the knowledge of English is as deep
and wide as the ocean.
Stairs One can take the stairs step by step ... English
learning is fast. Walking up the stairs step by
step can also be very fast.
Clothes We have to read and listen to English
everyday, just as we must put on clothes
table 6 every day.
Examples of metaphors A book Because it teaches me much more
for the remaining types knowledge.
Interpreting pupils’ Examining the entailments for all the metaphors shows pupils’
perceptions through motivations for English learning (EL) may be interpreted from four
examining the aspects: perceptions of EL processes; affective factors; objectives,
entailment purposes, or goals of EL; and achievable outcomes.
Examples for the perceptions of EL processes can be seen in the
entailments in Table 7 whereas those in Table 8 state the outcomes/
achievements of EL. Examples of entailments which explain the objectives/
purposes of EL are shown in Table 9 and entailments describing the
emotion/feeling of EL are in the following example (Table 10).
The metaphor data can be classified and analysed further, for
example some groups of metaphors reveal that learners are talking
Metaphor Entailment
Metaphor Entailment
Cabbages Because cabbages can provide us with nutrients,
just as English learning can provide us with
knowledge.
A fast leopard The leopard runs fast; I make a great progress in
table 8 language learning.
Examples of entailments Swimming If you swim well, you can reach the terminal point
stating outcomes/ very fast. Teacher will praise you for your good
achievements of EL performance.
Metaphor Entailment
Metaphors Entailment
A flower I am like a little bee, collecting knowledge on the
flowers every day.
A sea I am like a dolphin, swimming in the sea.
table 11 Lighter I am like a candle, I never learnt English before;
Examples of other it [lighter] sparks with English knowledge to pass
possible ways of it to me.
classifying metaphors A honeycomb I store the collected knowledge in the
and entailments honeycomb.
stressing that the children were able to give interesting metaphors, and
that such rich metaphor data help researchers to probe a deeper level
of children’s thoughts and feelings. This method appears to be more
revealing than a standard interview format.
Firstly, after six months of EL, pupils showed their enthusiasm of EL with
a high percentage (55 per cent) of positive metaphors and entailments.
They often associated this positive feeling with the food they liked,
for example EL is like eating ‘hamburgers’, ‘noodles’, ‘ice-creams’,
‘watermelons’, or ‘lollipops’ because they ‘like them most’ or ‘taste nice
or sweet’. This affective reason seems to relate to their EL motivation very
strongly, revealed by metaphors and entailments not only referring to
food, but also to travel, nature, or household items (see tables above). This
accords with recent studies (Enever op.cit.) showing that children may
be keen initially, but this may deteriorate later. Further, Y3 pupils have
notably more ambivalent views towards EL, for example 12 per cent of
metaphors produced by Y3 pupils were ambivalent, while only 1 per cent
of Y1 metaphors showed ambivalent attitudes towards EL. Perhaps the Y3
pupils are more dynamic and cognitively mature, more able to reflect on
their learning experiences, and more capable of expressing their thoughts
about possible EL difficulties or barriers; nevertheless they feel able to
Conclusion We conclude that the Elicited Metaphor Analysis has achieved its potential;
it arouses learners’ interest and here played a crucial role in ascertaining
the motivational insights of Chinese young learners of English,
complementing other research methods. There are possible pitfalls,
such as a need to improve the elicitation methods, to avoid mis- and
over-interpreting the data, and making stereotyped judgements; further
exploration may concern variables of gender, social, and educational
backgrounds, and cross-checking with other quantitative and qualitative
findings.