Abstract
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 Mayıs 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. Key words: Internet, metaphor, prospective English language teachers, perception.
Highlights
Internet is an indispensable part of our casual and professional lives
As this study focuses on the participants‟ perceptions of the „Internet‟, metaphorical analysis technique turns out to be a feasible way to draw details from the collected qualitative data
These are Internet as „something that provides escape from real world‟, Internet as „something that commands people‟, and Internet as „something that reflects the user‟. In addition to these new categories, some interesting metaphors like infobesity, nuclear energy, pawnshop, sour plum, and big party that have not been covered in the earlier-cited studies are freshly introduced in relation to the Internet under this study. This qualitative study that aimed to explore prospective English language teachers‟ opinions concerning the „Internet‟ through metaphorical analysis was carried out with the participation of 143 freshman and sophomore students studying in the English Language Teaching (ELT) Programme at Ondokuz Mayıs University
Summary
Internet is an indispensable part of our casual and professional lives. Since the turn of the 21st century and development of the „information era‟ concept, Internet has become an integral part of our lives. We send emails instead of letters, receive „likes‟ instead of oral compliments, employ e-banking instead of waiting in queues, share selfies instead of showing printed photos, read e-books instead of going to the library, and so on. This list can be extended to a number of pages.
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