Figurative language and multicultural education: metaphors of language acquisition and retention

Linguistics has long recognised that figurative language in the form of metaphorical expressions structures and communicates attitudes towards the ideas and concepts being expressed and that multilingual students also employ linguistic figures frequently in their writing. In this study, multilingual students use figurative language to both critique and describe experiences related to language acquisition and retention. Faced with the task of using three or more languages, the L3 English language students studied often turn to metaphor to describe the relationships between their languages and the different contexts in which they use the linguistic resources available to them. The following article examines the English writing produced by nine immigrant students in an all immigrant Norwegian upper secondary school class. The students employ spatial figures to describe the complex linguistic landscape they inhabit, drawing upon the domains of architecture and embodiment to represent their experiences in multilingual Scandinavia.