'Learning French Is Like Trying to Skate': Constructing Identity through Metaphor

This study explores the identities that Grade 8 early French immersion students construct as learners of French within school-based communities of practice. It suggests a model by which metaphors on language learning can be considered a form of narrative used to both elicit and analyze metacognitive representations of their socially situated identities as language learners. As part of a larger study regarding French immersion students' investment in French, 31 participants constructed 85 similes concerning learning and speaking/writing in French. These were grouped into seven conceptual metaphors: perseverance, challenging physical and cognitive limitations, the experience of embodied change, transformation of self, embodied discomfort, falling short, and affect. Samples of student discourse demonstrate how the co-construction of metaphor created interpretive space for the development of their identities within their school-based communities of practice. Finally, the pedagogical relevance of metaphor to developing students' investment in learning French is considered.