Analysing Metaphorical Political Discourse in the L2 Academic Classroom

The purpose of the following paper is to show a practical solution for analyzing metaphors in political discourse in accordance with the Conceptual Theory of Metaphor (Lakoff 1980) integrated into teaching an L2 upper-intermediate academic class. In view of the fact that the lesson was developed and conducted with military students, the material for analysis was chosen from President Obama's 2013 speech on Syria. Students’ task was to formulate metaphors on the basis of metaphorical expressions distinguished in bold in the speech by the teacher. As a result, orientational, ontological and structural metaphors were properly created, which constituted further basis for the interpretation of the discourse sample. In order to assess the relevance of such classes, a post-lesson survey was conducted directly after the lesson. Obtained results point to the usefulness of learning metaphors to facilitate the comprehension of political discourse. Additionally, their importance for the professional career in the army was revealed.