The current COVID-19 situation has affected almost all walks of life, including language education. As a result, remote teaching practices have become the mainstream offering in many settings. However, how students respond to this transition needs to be grasped to develop a deeper understanding of the educational practices at this period. Metaphor analysis was used as a methodology to unpack how language learners conceptualize learning and instruction during the emergency remote teaching (ERT) in a COVID-19 context. To this end, an open-ended questionnaire in which the participants provided their background and a semi-structured form through which their metaphorical images were captured were used. Elicited metaphor analysis was used to analyze the data gathered from 208 English majoring students studying at a state university in northeastern Turkey. The results suggest that a great many students have unfavorable dispositions towards ERT, even though some reported that they cherish these opportunities as they help them keep track of their own learning. Several suggestions are made in the light of the findings.