THE PERCEPTION OF PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC SUBJECTS THROUGH METAPHOR BY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

The article tackles the problem of the perception of professional academic subjects through metaphor by university students, i.e. the modelling of mental representation of the given academic subject by association. The choice of a metaphor as a method of research was based on the fact that metaphor is widely studied in didactic (pedagogical) discourse, which is proved by a long list of academic works on the topic. In the given article it is pointed out that metaphor is also both a means of modeling a conceptual image of the surrounding world, and a means of influencing the speech and cognition of a student. Whereas the focus of such research papers is the process of knowledge transition, the given article suggests having a look at how a certain academic subject is seen by a student. For this purpose an experiment was conducted; three Bachelor Degree groups of students (third year of studies, PSPU and PSU universities) were asked to answer some questions concerning metaphorical representation of professional academic subjects or English for Specific Purposes.For comparison they were offered a question without metaphors: why do they need this or that subject in future career. The results showed that, firstly, students mainly possess the so-called metaphoric competence, which helps them model one’s perception of an academic subject through a metaphor. Secondly, metaphors allow to reveal key concepts (both for groups and individuals) that characterize an academic subject. It can help receive feedback on the academic subject for a professor and predict the effectiveness of new academic subjects as well as the effectiveness of alternations in the current ones.