The Comprehension of Metaphor in English Contemporary Songs by English as a Foreign Language Learners
Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna, Thailand
ABSTRACT
Nowadays, metaphor becomes a part of our conceptual system which expresses cultures consisting situation, culture and language in particular period of time. In the second language classroom, teachers rarely teach metaphors because of their complicating meanings .In order to interpret metaphor, students have to comprehend and realize culture background knowledge in the particular countries .Metaphor is not only about meaning but also about giving reasons . The purpose of this study was 1) to explore the ability of EFL students to comprehend metaphorical expressions, and 2 (to investigate the problems in interpreting metaphorical expressions of EFL learners .Five English contemporary songs released in 2016-2017 were used in the study .The participants were 30 undergraduate students majoring in English for International Communication Program at Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna (RMUTL) .The data were analyzed by document analysis, questionnaire and interview .The findings show that most of the students were able to interpret “Active metaphor” at 76.87%, “Mixed metaphor” at 55.26%, and “Personifying metaphor” at 45.0% respectively. From the questionnaire and interview, they were found that the students encountered learning problems most. Culture also influenced the metaphor translation of the EFL learners. Lastly, creative skills problem also found because students’ background knowledge were different so the students can interpret differently.
KEYWORDS
metaphor, metaphor comprehension, EFL, English contemporary song