’Metaphor in the Curriculum’ opens up university research to schools

A new online schools resource and app, all about metaphor, have been launched by researchers at the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow. The materials aim to "open the minds" of secondary school pupils, "put ideas into their heads" and "build up" their knowledge of the English language - metaphorically speaking. Called "Metaphor in the Curriculum" (or MetaphorIC), the resource can be found at www.glasgow.ac.uk/metaphoric and is freely available to all. The app is available in the Google Play and App Stores online. The research project was funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council). "One thing we found while talking to teachers in schools was that some pupils really struggle with understanding and identifying metaphor in literature, let alone in more 'everyday' texts such as newspapers," said Dr Wendy Anderson, lead researcher of the Metaphor in the Curriculum project. She added: "Researchers have previously suggested that between 8% and 18% of communication in English is metaphorical so its importance in our language cannot be overestimated.