Metaphors on the Concepts of “ Reading ” and “ Listening ” Created by the Secondary School Students

This research aims to examine the metaphors on the concepts of reading and listening of the secondary school students and is based on phenomenology. 390 randomly selected secondary school students participated in this study in the 2016–2017 academic year in Turkey. The study includes all the grades (5, 6, 7, & 8th) at the secondary school level. “Reading is like ..................., because .....................”, “Listening is like ..............., because ..................” were the two sentences given to the students and they were asked to fill in the blanks. The data were analyzed by the content analysis. The students created 385 metaphors about the concept of reading and 329 metaphors about the concept of listening. Metaphors on the concept of reading were divided into 11 categories: A source of knowledge/learning, development, necessity, imagination, life, finding peace, sincerity, boredom/suffocation, eternity, guidance, enjoyment. Metaphors on the concept of listening were divided into 9 categories: A source of knowledge/learning, necessity, imagination, life, finding peace, communication, boredom, guidance, enjoyment. In this research, metaphors were used to reveal the thoughts of secondary school students on the concepts of reading and listening.


Introduction
Understanding is a process that takes place through reading and listening.Elkonin (1963) states that comprehension, which is often regarded as a fundamental content of the reading process, arises as a result of the correct pronunciation of the words and those who can create the sound can read even if they do not understand what they read.According to this statement, the pronunciation of the words is not enough to understand what you read.Kintsch and Kintsch (2005) also define reading as a competence that requires the ability of decoding and comprehension.Whereas decoding is an isolated skill that can be taught and evaluated directly, comprehension is a complex skill that depends on various factors, contexts, and reading purposes, on which both learning-based elements and text-based elements play an essential role.
According to Francis et al. (2002), three broad categories represent the output of understanding what you read.These outputs are a) information that includes a successful understanding of the content, the integration of the new content with previously stored information, and the critical evaluation of the information; b) application that reflects the level of usefulness of the content when applied to real problems and tasks; c) engagement that reflects the interaction of ideas, experiences, and the style of the text (Francis, Fletcher, Catts, & Tomblin, 2005).
According to Thorndike (1917), in the correct reading (1) each word produces a correct meaning; (2) to each element of the meaning the correct emphasis is given when comparing to the others; (3) the resulting ideas are examined and confirmed in order to ensure that the aim of the act of reading is satisfactory.meanings through the manipulation of concepts already possessed by the reader.The reader organizes the resulting meanings in the form of thought processes in line with the adopted goals.
Listening is the other branch of the ability of comprehension.Mackay (1995) claims that listening, which we spend a great deal of our time on, is one of the most important skills we have.However, it is also the least known skill of ours.He mentions that people confuse the act of hearing with listening, but in fact, listening involves much more than only hearing.Clark and Clark (1977) describe the formation of the listening process step by step as in the following.The listener takes the raw speech, creates an image of it in his/her mind, tries to organize this representative picture in parts, creates meaning links between these parts, builds a continuous hierarchy of these links, and after these connections are defined, working memory becomes clear, and the process starts once again.Rost (1994) emphasizes the importance of understanding how the hearing mechanism works to the comprehension of language and how hearing contributes to this.He also indicates that listening is fundamental to the perception of the language, and that perception is also the basis for listening.Along with this, it can be understood that thought and interpretation processes complete what is being understood by listening.
Effective listening involves a wide range of skills.In the face-to-face talk, the elements that are thought to constitute the listening process are: 1) Speech signals should be defined among the sounds surrounding it.
2) The continuous flow of the speech has to be divided into the parts of known words.
3) The structure of the word must be grasped, and the meaning intended by the speaker should be understood.4) Linguistic knowledge should be applied to give a correct and appropriate answer to what is being said (Anderson & Lynch, 2003).
As Mackay (1995) states, there may be many reasons to listen to, such as to be informed, to be criticized, to participate in someone else's story, to take advantage of others' experiences and understandings, to dominate a subject, to expand our horizon, to create a relationship, to evaluate others and to show respect.
According to Anderson and Lynch (2003), listening is not a skill that we can judge immediately or completely in the early stages of our life.Listening skill continues to develop over a longer period than one thinks.Even for those who listen in their native language, listening exercises are suggested both for improving listening and reading skills.
Reading and listening is the core of education, especially in teaching the native language.Metaphors may be useful in revealing the thoughts of these core values.Metaphors are similar or analogous structures that are connected to each other.George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (2010) have proposed that the core of metaphors is to comprehend something through understanding and experiencing something else.According to Patton (2014), metaphors are a tool for explaining certain properties of an object or event.Kittay (1987) states that the metaphors are composed of sentences that consist of two interrelated components, which are largely related to each other rather than the isolated words.Metaphors also allow the resembled words to be more functional and understandable.
Metaphors can be used in various fields, and have been increasingly used in education.The reason for this increase according to Cameron (1996) is that the metaphors have the potential to be a powerful tool for learning, reorganizing knowledge for communities, groups and individuals.Clarken (1997) states that there are two basic principles of the use of metaphors in education: Passing from known to unknown and concrete to abstract information by explaining abstract things through concrete examples.Lakoff and Johnson (2010) propose that abstract ideas can only be understood by concretizing them.It is clear that one can grasp something with the understanding of another concept already known or comprehended.The human's process of thinking and perceiving the world is mostly metaphorical.For this reason, they argued that one could reveal the thoughts of another person by looking at how he/she uses the metaphors.
Metaphors are very useful not only for descending deep into the thoughts of people but also for facilitating the teaching of the concepts in difficult subjects by resembling them to some other things.According to Carter (1990), metaphors are needed in education as they are useful in describing the mental activity that is required to be taught in teaching.
Due to all the features mentioned above, there is a need for research on the use of metaphors in the field of language skills.There are many types of research conducted on metaphors (Ross, 1987;Gammelgaard, 1998;Gilbert, 1997;Paulson & Armstrong, 2011;Lule Mert, 2013;Bozpolat, 2015;Ulusoy, 2013;Karakus & Kozcetin, 2016).However, there is only a limited number of studies involving metaphors for language skills (Ross, 1987;Paulson & Armstrong, 2011;Lule Mert, 2013;Bozpolat, 2015;Ulusoy, 2013;Karakus & Kozcetin, 2016).Ross (1987) investigated literary expressions used by the librarians in the late nineteenth century and showed that especially the two metaphors "Reading is a ladder."and "Reading is eating."configure the thinking on reading.Paulson and Armstrong (2011) investigated the metaphors of reading and writing created by new university students; Lule Mert (2013) and Bozpolat (2015) investigated the metaphors for the four basic language skills (reading, listening, speaking, writing) of the Turkish language teacher candidates; Ulusoy (2013) investigated the class teacher's metaphors, and Karakus, Kozcetin (2016) investigated the metaphors of Turkish language teacher candidates regarding reading.The literature search showed that there are very few metaphor studies on reading and listening and none of them is for secondary school students.
The importance of primary and secondary school education in mother tongue teaching has always been emphasized.For this reason, here it was aimed to reveal what secondary school students that are constantly exposed to reading and listening think about these two themes using metaphors.

Method
In this research, the phenomenology which is one of the qualitative research methods was used.According to Patton (2014), the most basic philosophical assumption of phenomenology is "we only know what we are experiencing" giving our attention to the perceptions and meanings that arise our conscious awareness and first of all, all our understandings stem from the sensory experiences of phenomena, but this experience must be described, explained and interpreted.
The study group of this research consisted of 390 students studying at a secondary school in Turkey in the 2016-2017 academic year.94 of secondary school students were in the fifth, 93 were in the sixth, 100 were in the seventh and 103 were in the eighth grade.
The reason for using metaphors as data collection tools in research is to try to go deep into the thoughts for describing a concept.Metaphors are data-reducing, pattern-forming and perfect decentralization tools that sum up many pieces into a single general term.Moreover, they are being used for linking theories to findings (Miles & Huberman, 2015).
It is stated that "like" expression can be used in research with metaphors (Kittay, 1987;Cameron, 1996;Vosniadou & Ortony, 1982;Winner, 1979;1980).In this study, the data collection tools were formed as "Reading is like .................." and "Listening is like ............".According to Pinder and Bourgeois (1982), it is not enough to resemble a concept to something; there is also a need for an explanation so that the necessary conclusions can be made.That is why the students were asked to give a "because" statement to indicate why they used the metaphor they have written.A data collection tool consisting of these two samples was created "Reading is like .. Pre-testing was done with 10 secondary school students before the actual testing.Feedbacks were received from the participants that there were no incoherent meanings in the statements and the duration of the application was determined as 20 minutes.Data were collected from 390 secondary school students in the actual testing.
Content analysis method NVivo 11 Pro program was used in the analysis of the data.The sentences formed by the students were transferred to the computer without making any changes.The sentences were read one by one, and the statements that were irrelevant to the related metaphor and or not explained at all were eliminated (such as: "Reading is like honey; because it is so good" and "Listening is like a light; because it gives a lot of light").5 out of 390 metaphors related to the concept of "reading" and 61 out of 390 metaphors related to the concept of "listening" were not included.In total, 385 metaphors about the concept of "reading" and 329 metaphors about the concept of "listening" were included in the analysis.These metaphors were directly taken without any abstraction.The data of the secondary school students were categorized.
Metaphors have been classified into the categories considering the explanations of the students.Following the categorization, sentences were reviewed, the appropriateness of categorization was rechecked, and sample sentences were selected for each category to be presented in this article.
As stated by Yildirim and Simsek (2011), detailed reporting of collected data and an explanation of how the researcher reached the results are an important criterion in the qualitative research.For this reason, to be valid, the results were revealed by explaining every step of the research in detail and full quotations were included in this article.
The data were independently analyzed by two different experts and 23 different metaphors related to the concept of "reading" and 17 metaphors related to the concept of "listening" were placed into different categories by these two experts.According to the compliance percentage formula (Reliability=Number of agreements/Number of agreements+disagreements) (Miles & Huberman, 2015), the reliability is 0.94 for the concept of "reading"; 0.95 for the concept of "listening".The differences were discussed and reduced to a minimum level.

Results
In this section, the frequency and percentage values of the metaphors created by the secondary school students on the concepts of "reading" and "listening" as well as direct expressions of the participants were included.

Findings Related to the Concept of "Reading"
Secondary school students on the concept of "reading" have formed 385 metaphors.
Table 1.Frequency and percentage values of metaphors formed by secondary school students for the concept of "reading" according to categories In the source of the information/learning category, 68 (17.66%) metaphors were formed.In this category, the participants viewed reading as a source of information and learning, and the students mostly used the metaphors of information, treasure, and treasure hunt.Some expressions included in this category are: In the life category, 45 (11.69%) metaphors were formed.In this category, the participants viewed reading as a theme related to life, and the students mostly used the life metaphor.Some expressions included in this category are: "Reading is like life; because when I read, it reminds me of the memories of my life."(24), "Reading is like the life science; because it tells us about our lives."(135), "Reading is like life; because we can read life and find out about the reality."(205), "Reading is like the real world; because the reality of life is explained."(309) In the category of finding peace, 25 (6.49%) metaphors were formed.In this category, the participants viewed reading as a tool for finding peace.Participants used music and sleep metaphors at most.Some expressions included in this category are: "Reading is like sleeping; because we are resting both while sleeping and reading."(28), "Reading is like peace; because I find peace when I read" (100), "Reading is like listening to music; because those who come to my mind while I am reading comfort me like listening to music does."(179), "Reading is like therapy; because reading rests our mind."(182), "Reading is like resting; because reading provides inner peace."(199), "Reading is like resting our body and soul; because while reading people isolate themselves from life and get away from the things that tire them."(236) In the sincerity category, 22 (5.71%) metaphors were formed.In this category, the participants viewed reading as an element of sincerity.The secondary school students mostly used the friend and the best fellow metaphors.Some expressions included in this category are:

Findings Related to the Concept of "Listening"
Secondary school students on the concept of "listening" have formed 329 metaphors.
Table 2. Frequency and percentage values of metaphors formed by secondary school students for the concept of "listening" according to categories  Category 9. Enjoyment f % Mother (1), Honey (1), Honey and butter (1), Cartoon (1), Ice cream (1), Ferris wheel (1), Emotion (2), Entertainment (6), Energy (1), Hazelnut (1), Laughing (1), A good memoir (1), Meatball (1), Bird voice (2), Happiness (3), Game (1), Toy (1), Story (1), Cheese (1), Watch (1), Love (5), Joy (4), The sound of water (1), Milk (3), Poetry (4), Television (2) 48 14.59 Total 329 100 49 (14.89%) of the metaphors formed by the students were categorized into the source of information/learning category.In this category, the participants viewed listening as a source of learning/information. Participants used mostly the metaphors of understanding, information, book, and learning.Some expressions included in this category are: "Listening is like a dictionary; because I learn a new word from its every word."( 24), "Listening is like learning; because listening teaches us something at the same time."(31), "Listening is like understanding; because people understand as they listen."(39), "Listening is like a notebook; because when we listen, we note that information in our mind."( 56), "Listening is like visualizing new horizons; because listening is learning positive or negative, good or bad information."( 177), "Listening is like information; because information is learned as we listen."( 236) 13 (3.95%) of the metaphors formed by the students were categorized into the necessity category.Participants in this category considered listening as a necessity.The students mostly used the reading metaphor for this category.Some expressions included in this category are: "Listening is like breathing; because there is no breathless life and we can not communicate without listening."(123), "Listening is like the sun; because humanity is in need of listening."( 294) 70 (21.28%) of the metaphors formed by the students were categorized into the imagination category.In this category, the participants viewed listening as a mean of imagination.The participants mostly used the metaphors of dream, tale.Some expressions included in this category are: "Listening is like birds; because I fly to my dreams."( 6), "Listening is like a dream; because it appears when we close our eyes."( 15

Discussion and Conclusion
Metaphors that are reflections of the thoughts of the people are the basis of this research.This research was planned to be conducted as there are only a limited number of research on metaphors for language skills.The secondary school students participated in this study have formed 385 metaphors on the concept of "reading".Eleven categories have emerged within this study (the source of information/learning, development, necessity, imagination, life, finding peace, sincerity, boredom/suffocation, infinity, guidance, enjoyment).On the other hand, Bozpolat (2015) has determined 7, Lule Mert (2013) 11, Ulusoy (2013) 9 and Karakus and Kozcetin (2016) 10 categories in their researches.Some of the categories of Bozpolat's study (2015) (information/learning tool, guidance, means of freedom); as well as the categories of Lule Mert's study (2013) (necessity, the source of life, a difficult and boring action); and the categories of Karakus and Kozcetin's study (2016) (guidance, proximity, necessity, comforter, boredom, freedom) present similarities with categories of this present research (information/learning source, necessity, life, finding peace, sincerity, boredom/suffocation, infinity and guidance).
There is no similarity with the categories found in Ulusoy's (2013) study.Paulson and Armstrong (2011) classified metaphors as product/process categorization, negative/non-negative categorization and semantic categorization.The metaphors in this research have also been evaluated semantically.There has not been any study that found similar metaphors to the following categories of this study: Development, imagination, and enjoyment.
The metaphor of "Reading is eating" in Ross's study (1987) was also formed in this research while the metaphor of "Reading is a ladder."was not formed by any student; Paulson and Armstrong (2011) have similarities only in the metaphors of "College reading is like a bus trip, college reading is a journey, reading is like water."The categories with the highest number of metaphors are information, imagination, the source of information/learning and enjoyment.The most commonly used metaphors are information, imagination, story, adventure, tale, life, friend, teacher and enjoyment.The categories with the least number of metaphors are development, infinity, and boredom/suffocation.The participant's explanation of "Reading" as the source of information/learning, resembling it with life, seeing it as a necessity, enjoyment, for finding peace and dreaming show that students have positive thoughts towards reading.However, in addition to these views, the expressions in the boredom/suffocation category also indicate that arrangements should be made for encouraging reading to the students.The students who have negative metaphors for reading can be encouraged by giving them short reading texts, group reading activities or books that may attract students' attention.It has been seen that in the study students used at most imagination metaphor for reading, this is a sign that reading increases imagination and opens new horizons.
On the concept of "listening" the secondary school students have formed 329 metaphors.There are 9 subcategories which are information/learning source, necessity, imagination, life, finding peace, communication, boredom/suffocation, guidance, enjoyment.In the studies of Bozpolat (2015) 7, Ulusoy (2013) 9 and Lule Mert (2013) 11 categories have been formed.There are some similarities between the research categories formed in this study: The source of information/learning, necessity, imagination, life, communication, boredom/suffocation, and the categories formed in Bozpolat's (2015) research: Information/learning tool, empathy building tool, imagination tool; and the categories formed in Lule Mert's research (2013): Listening as a necessity, listening as a communication item, listening as a difficult and boring activity, listening as a source of life.
There is no similarity between this study and the categories formed in Ulusoy's research (2013).The following categories formed in this study do not resemble with any other categories formed in other researches: Finding peace, guidance and enjoyment.The categories with the most metaphors formed are finding peace, imagination, information/learning source and enjoyment.The categories with the least number of metaphors are guidance and necessity.The most used metaphors are in learning, imagination, tale, music, water and sleep.The most used categories with the most number of metaphors are learning, imagination, tale, music, water and sleeping reflect the positive qualities of listening in the inner world of the students.
The data analysis on the metaphors formed by the students of secondary school has been done after elimination of 5 metaphors on the concept of "reading" and "61" on the concept of "listening".The fact that the high number of eliminations on the "listening" concept suggests that students can think less about listening.This may be because there is less emphasis on listening in the education system.This problem can be solved by giving importance to listening texts, listening activities and by effective listening of the students in schools.
It is observed that the following categories are found in both for the concept of "reading" and "listening": The source of information/learning, necessity, imagination, life, finding peace, boredom, guidance, enjoyment.It is determined that the categories; development, finding peace, sincerity and eternity only exist for the reading metaphors; and the communication category was included only in the listening metaphors.
In conclusion, the findings of this research reveal that the study has similar and different aspects when compared with other researches and at the same time the metaphors of reading and listening also present similar and different aspects.

Category 8 .
Guidance f % Mother and father (1), Lamp (2), Advice (3), Eraser (1), Guide (1) 8 2.43 Reading is like the internet; because you can access the information you want."(194),"Reading is like a book; because man adds something to his life as he keeps reading."(234)In the category of development, 17 (4.42%)metaphorswereformed.In this category, the participants resembled reading to a developing element.Students mostly formed only one metaphor in this category and they have mostly used the success metaphor.Some expressions included in this category are:In the necessity category, 28 (7.27%) metaphors were formed.The participants viewed reading as a necessity.In this category, the school students used the water and food metaphor at most.Some expressions included in this category are:"Reading is like water; because water is the main source of life.Reading is the basis of Turkish."(122),"Reading is like water; because as we can not live without water, we can not live without reading as well."(175),"Reading is like air; because the air we breathe is very important for us, and so is reading."(186),"Reading is like food; because we feed our brains by reading, but then our brains need new knowledge as our tummy needs food" (208), "Reading is like a market; because I can get something from it whenever I want.In the imagination category, 90 (23.38%) metaphors were formed.In this category, the participants viewed reading as an element of imagination.Participants mostly used the following metaphors: Another world, dream, imaginativeness, story, adventure, tales.Some expressions included in this category are: Reading is like a computer; because the computer knows everything.Reading gives us information."(72),"Reading is like traveling; because we learn about the places we can not go and the legends we can not hear."(129),"Reading is like a treasure gate; because as you enter through the door you will learn new things, and you will find new treasures that will benefit you in the future."(148),"Reading is like treasure hunting; because as you read, great values will be found."(151),"Readingislikeasource of information; because we learn something from everything we read."(154),"Reading is like a dictionary; because as I read the book, I learn the words I do not know."(159),""(215),"Reading is like eating food; because food feeds our body and reading feeds our soul."(227),"Reading is like a necessity; because we use reading in every area of our life."(228)"Reading is like a story; because as we read, it feels like we are living in it."(27),"Readingis like watching television; because the things I read revive in my mind."(48),"Reading is like imagination; because I seem to live the story when I read it."(60),"Reading is like a fairy tale; because it is as if I am living what I am imagining."(64),"Reading is like flying; because when we read, we fall into the dreams and fly."(171),"Reading is like a series or film; because while reading the events get alive in our minds.It feels like watching something, not reading something."(374) 11 (2.86%) of the metaphors formed were categorized into the category of infinity.In this category, the participants viewed reading as eternity.Almost all of the secondary school students have used only one metaphor in this category.Some expressions included in this category are: Reading is like a lifelong friend; because reading cheers us up like a lifelong friend."(1),"Reading is like the best fellow; because I share many things with him."(99),"Reading is like a friend; because we meet him before going to sleep and during the lunch break."(105),"Reading is like a mother; because the mother is the one to whom you tell everything and the one you understand."(323)In the boredom/suffocation category, 5 (1.30%) metaphors were formed.In this category, the participants were overwhelmed by reading.Participants used suffering, boredom, a tiresome job, and tyranny metaphors.Some expressions included in this category are:"Reading is like an ordeal; because it feels bad and I get bored."(17),"Reading is like being bored; because I do not have any fun while I am reading."(127),"Reading is like being bored; because I feel squeezed when I read too much."(140),"Reading is like tyranny; because we get sleepy or drowsy."(200),"Reading is like a tiresome job; because I get tired while I am reading."(317)because it guides us."(210),"Reading is like a proverb; because reading shows us the mistakes in our life, it is a tool to correct those mistakes."(233)51(13.25%)metaphorsformedby the students were categorized into the category of enjoyment.In this category, the participants seem to have enjoyed reading.Students mostly used the metaphors of love, ice cream, entertainment, playing a game.Some expressions included in this category are:"Reading is like enjoyment; because there are excitement and enjoyment in it."(38),"Readingis like trilece; because it is as sweet as a trilece and as wonderful as tasting it."(67),"Reading is like kadayif; because it is as sweet as kadayif."(84),"Reading is like an amusement park; because it is a lot of fun." (86), "Reading is like happiness; because reading will make people happy."(118),"Reading is like a computer game; because reading is as much fun as playing computer games."(169),"Reading is like playing a game; because people will be happy to play and happy to read books."(334) 96 (29.18%) of the metaphors formed by the students were categorized into the category of finding peace.In this category, the participants regarded listening as a mean of peace.Participants mostly used resting, peace, music, lullaby, spirit, water, song, sleep metaphors in this category.Some expressions included in this category are: ), "Listening is like a theater; because the things I listen to are alive in front of me as if there is a scene in front of me." (59), "Listening is like a dream; because in the dreams I start imagining.WhenI  listen, I start imagining."(60),"Listeningis like a tale; because when I listen, I feel like I am a part of the story."(162),"Listening is like a dream world; because when you are listening, you get lost in dreams as if you are a part of the told story."(268),"Listening is like imagination; because listening is like being sometimes in the caves, sometimes on the plain, sometimes among the clouds.Listening extends our imagination."(317)14 (4.26%) of the metaphors formed were categorized into the life category.The participants in this category viewed listening as an element of life.The students used mostly the life metaphor in this category.Some expressions included in this category are: "Listening is like experiencing; because it is in many parts of our lives."(11),"Listening is like life; because you are well aware of all that you encounter in life, you will be well aware of all the goodness while listening."(206)