Candles lighting up the journey of learning Teachers of English in Iran

1. Candles lighting up the journey of learning
Teachers of English in Iran
Martin
Cortazzi
Lixian
Jin
Shiva
Kaivanpanah
Majid
Nemati
M. Vedad Taghavi

3. Since ideas of teaching and learning are
central to language classrooms, topics of:
•good teacher
•what learning English is like for
learners
are important in English Language Teaching
(ELT).

4. Ideas about teaching and learning vary
enormously around the world,
• students can have quite different
expectations of teachers
Moreover,
• engagement with learning English,
compared to other subjects and
disciplines, often exposes students to
different methods or cultural ways of
learning
therefore

5. Researching Iranian students' perceptions of
good teachers is important for 2reasons:
• To make them available for discussion
between students and their teachers in
Iran or, in fact, elsewhere.
• To make explicit what are usually implicit
notions

6. This study uses metaphor analysis.
This is an innovative research method which
we have been developing for some years.
Culturally, metaphors resonate
throughout Iranian civilization: The Persian
language is noted for wide uses of idioms and
rich metaphors, while Persian poetry has
many mystical or spiritual themes often
expressed in metaphors.

7. This study investigates perceptions of good
teachers largely from students' viewpoints in an
effort to derive models of their beliefs.
This picture, we suggest, gives insights for ELT
both inside and outside Iran.
While EFL teachers and students in Iran
undoubtedly learn from the wider ELT world,
in this case, the wider world may gain
thought-provoking insights from Iran.

8. Metaphor Analysis
• The analysis of metaphors is a classical research
theme in linguistics, but has received very little
attention in psychological research so far.
• Metaphor analysis—as conceptualized in
cognitive linguistics—is a qualitative method for
psychological research.
• The multifaceted properties of metaphors
allow for the study of micro-interactions
between cognition and culture in open and
qualitative research designs.

9. • They also enable the bridging of the gap
between quantitative-experimental and
qualitative approaches in psychology.
• Because metaphors are of high plausibility in
everyday experience, metaphors are a
valuable tool for interventions in applied
fields of research such as organizational and
work psychology.

10. Teachers of English in Iran might be seen as:
bridges between local, national and
international tendencies
There is currently a thirst for English
The growth of private
language institutes that
teach English
That is the reason for

11. Study
Employment
personal &
cultural
development
Students are
well aware that
skills in English
are useful for:

12. The list of the qualities of a good English
teacher is likely to include:
• Having requisite knowledge and skill in English and
pedagogy
• Demonstrating the ability to sustain learners'
motivation and engage them productively in
interaction
• Being able to introduce students into ways of
thinking and cultural practices and helping them to
reflect upon their own practices
• Some personal or professional characteristics, such
as patience

13. • of a good character
• open-minded
• friendly
• flexible
In Iran a teacher is expected to be:
• caring towards learners
• there are different orientations towards different
aspects of teachers' roles from gender
perspectives, which may reflect nuances of
tensions between tradition and modernity

14. Samples:
393 university students of English in two universities
179 undergraduates; 214 postgraduates; 105 male and
288 female students
Students all spoke Persian as their first language
they completed the metaphor tasks in English

15. Methodology:
• According to metaphor theory, we examine both
students' metaphors and the entailments which
they give
• We asked students to give their own metaphor to
complete 'A good teacher is...' and then to give
their own reasons '... because...'
• Simply collecting metaphors is not enough in itself,
though, because as researchers we do not always
know what the metaphors imply. We need the
participants' own explanations because we want to
get insiders' views of ELT in Iran.

16. Metaphors for journeys of learning English
(N=66 students)

17. • The students' journey of learning is presented as 'most
beautiful... most precious', an endless 'adventurous
voyage of discovery' 'to unexplored lands' because 'it
leads to success' and 'leads us to different areas of the
city of language.‘
• The path is difficult, 'it is an uneven way of living, with
lots of ups and downs, but it is the best way' and 'by
learning things you can step through the darkness and
light up your way.’
• The end point and process of learning cannot really be
envisaged in advance since 'the more you explore, the
more you find' and 'until we travel along this way we do
not understand the effect'.

18. Metaphors for the teacher as a guide
(N=94 students)

19. • Teachers are 'guides' but they are also 'leaders', 'prophets' and
'angels'.
• As 'guides to happiness', 'teachers guide people to be
educated and lead them from darkness to light'; 'they show
you the way for learning new things', 'conduct us towards the
door of science' since 'without a guide we can't understand
the map'.
• These 'leaders of our hearts' 'can help us to solve problems
and lead us to fortune'.
• They 'show us the correct way of living in order to reach
salvation'. 'With their beautiful example they lead you and
make you go higher and higher', 'they only deliver the
message and it is up to you to understand it and apply it'.
• They sacrifice to give us knowledge'; 'they bring you to a
paradise, if you love them, and yet they can make your life like
hell, if you hate them'. As 'angels' they are 'a sign from
heaven: they will raise you up there'; they 'guide learners to
happiness', 'towards softness and peacefulness of knowledge.'

20. Metaphors for the teacher as a parent or friend
(N=80 students)

21. • As 'kindly parents' and 'good friends', teachers
are caring, show concern and provide guidance.
• They are seen to have moral qualities which
they share with learners: 'they help us in
education and direct our positive manners and
moralities'; 'they share their knowledge,
morality and whatever they believe is worth
having'.
• Their "behaviour has an impact on others - you
may see your teacher more than your family.

22. Metaphors for the teacher as a candle
(N=86 students)
The candle metaphor is one of a set of metaphors of
light: the teacher is light, the sun, the moon, a star, a
lantern or beacon.

23. Metaphors for the teacher as light
(N=111 students)

24. A metaphor network for teachers as 'light'

25. A metaphor network for teachers as people with
different roles

26. A metaphor analysis model of the ideal EFL teacher in Iran
(N=393 students)

27. share knowledge and
guidance to develop
students' skills in English
in cognitive terms
showing care and
kindness
in affective terms
showing beautyin aesthetic
terms
show students the
straight path and
the right way
moral and
spiritual
dimensions

28. They reveal teachers' devotion and self-
sacrifice (as candles, teachers burn so
that students learn).
These metaphors from Iran give insights
into teachers and learning that are seldom
featured in ELT research and discussions of
practice.

29. • These metaphors enable us to see a different
reality of teachers and of how they help learners
make their journey of learning. We can cross this
bridge and see teachers as candles lighting up the
journey of learning - and much more.
• These aspects, perhaps idealized, which are clearly
significant for language learners in Iran and surely
highly suggestive in the ELT world beyond: they
indicate how we might consider ELT in more holistic
terms. An Arabic saying, familiar in Iran, suggests 'a
metaphor is a bridge to reality‘

30. The End