Ambridge argues that the existence of exemplar models for individual phenomena (words, inflection rules, etc.) suggests the feasibility of a unified, exemplars-everywhere model that eschews abstraction. The argument would be strengthened by a description of such a model. However, none is provided. I show that any attempt to do so would immediately…

An utterance is neither seen nor touched but capable of making or marring an individual, group or a nation depending on how it is used. Thus, positive utterances ensure peace and tranquility in a society while negative utterances usually tear a nation apart. Language of insult is a negative utterance that usually produces, hatred, war, or disunity…

Language teaching is a practice of teaching a culture. What is learnt is not only a language but also the culture of the target language. It is important to examine the way learners perceive Turkish culture in this learning process. That is because the way they perceive the culture will affect their enthusiasm, attitude and motivation for language…

In this study of microteaching in a secondary English methods course, we intentionally stray from normative assessment practice, instead asking pre-service teachers to provide feedback on their peers' microteaching using assessment practices designed to orient them "figuratively." The term 'figurative' refers to 'figurative language':…

This paper explores the use of irony in narratives that focus on the problem of knowing what we do not know. Sometimes issues arise on a grand scale, as in the literature of Socrates, Pascal, and Descartes, where the question really is whether we can know anything at all or whether all that we can know is that there is nothing worth knowing that…

There was not one, singular childhood in socialist Czechoslovakia, but many and diverse, plural, childhoods. Spanning over 40 years (1948-1989), the Czechoslovak communist governance produced diverse conceptualisations of childhoods that remain often invisible, unexplored, and the current analyses are at best sketchy and refer mostly to…

Striving to better understand exemplification, this study examines the types of animal behavior references (anthropomorphic/non-anthropomorphic) and taxonomic groups featured in the examples given by an undergraduate biology instructor during a semester-long course. It is reported that instruction was dominated by anthropomorphic examples of…

Background: Assessment is an essential part of any learning process; however, it is often disliked by most students. A wealth of research is available on issues on assessment, such as washback effect and test anxiety, and yet we know little about what students conceive of assessment. The objective of this case study was to explore a group of…

Mathematics and science are important concepts that children's encounter in both daily and educational life. Early childhood is the time in which the first ideas of the mathematics and science developed. In this study, we investigated children's perceptions about mathematics and science through metaphors in terms of being able to provide rich…

The following study explores the way names and labels function as tropes in writing center work. Building on Lakoff and Johnson's work on metaphors, and using Kenneth Burke's concept of the trope, this study analyzes the way names and labels for writing center spaces, people, activity, and preparation function metaphorically, synecdochically,…

John Buethe draws upon the Netflix series "Stranger Things" and develops this paper's ideas by using it as an allegory for and education towards subjectivity along lines suggested by Gert Biesta in "The Beautiful Risk of Education", and Jaeggi in her work, "Alienation." Buethe observes that the show places a wager on…

Policy and program language in the UK and Australian higher education sectors consistently deploys the term aspiration in ways that adhere to the hegemonic neo-liberal ideal of the entrepreneurial competitor-individual, de-meaning and de-valuing 'other' personhoods. University Equity and Widening Participation (EWP) outreach programs that engage…

With the present forum contribution, I respond to the paper "Discerning contextual complexities in STEM career pathways--Insights from successful Latinas" by Alejandro Gallard Martínez, Wesley Pitts, Silvia Lizette Ramos de Robles, Katie L. Milton Brkich, Belinda Flores Bustos, and Lorena Claeys. I aim to augment the thoughts of Gallard…

The aim of this study was to determine middle school students' perceptions of physical education teachers (PETs) through metaphors and drawings. This was a qualitative study in which phenomenology and purposeful sampling were used. The study sample consisted of 200 middle school students in Ordu/Turkey in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 academic…

The present study was conducted to reveal high school students' feelings regarding their experiences of being deprived of their smartphones (nomophobia). The study group of the study was comprised of 158 students attending a high school in a city center in the central Anatolian region in Turkey. One of the qualitative research methods, namely the…