Logos

Logos

Pages

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

The Creative Bag of Tricks #2 - Metaphor


“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” 


Using images or a selection of objects, encourage learners to create metaphors by brainstorming and seeing things in different ways.



What is this? 
Snow on grass? 
A bed of nails? 
Frosty stick men dancing?
Microscopic hairs on a snowman's arm?







And, what is this? 
A sunflower in a field? 
A tall man in a crowd? 
An excited fan sitting on someone's shoulders in the audience at a music festival?



Before creating metaphors in the target language:


  • Work on some examples. Ask learners to select the relevant plain speech description of an image from a mixed selection - including some red herrings - written in the target language:


  • Next, give learners a choice of possible metaphors for the image written in the target language. Ask them to decode the metaphors. Discuss the associations that are made and the effectiveness of these:
    • To which characteristics does it relate? 
    • Does it remind you of anything? 
    • Is it obvious or obscure? 
    • How does it taste, look, smell, sound, feel? 
    • Which do you prefer and why? 

When creating metaphors in the target language:
  • Free-associate: Ask learners to note all the things that they associate with the image or object including things with similar qualities.
  • Think outside of the box: the less obvious the association, the more interesting the metaphor!
  • This activity could lead on to writing "Ezra Pound Couplets" in the target language where the plain speech statement is followed by a metaphor. 


No comments:

Post a Comment