Using Metaphors in College Medical English Scenario Writing: Taking the Cardiovascular System as an Example
Abstract
It is quite common for doctors to use metaphors in their therapy. In the process of therapy, one goal for therapists is to develop metaphors which can present the client’s problem as a solution. The solution metaphors should be as close as possible to the client’s own language. Here metaphors can be seen as a tool to explain to and communicate with the clients. Therefore, in order to investigate the students’ medical metaphor production, after watching a video of the nervous system which is recorded by CTE Skills.com (Career and Technical Education), three students from the instructor were required to write a short essay according to the given scenario relating to the cardiovascular system. Students could use metaphorical sentences in their essay. The analysis of these sentences show that, structural metaphors, including conduit metaphors were used in their writing. According to this research, metaphor enriched scenario writing could be adopted as an approach to put students in the position of the therapists and inspire them to make use of metaphors in their future treatment for clients.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18686/ahe.v6i24.5555
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