Metaphor Analysis: A Qualitative Study of Iranian High School and Language Institute Learners’ Ideas and Beliefs in the Current and Ideal Situations of Teaching and Learning Abstract The present study was an attempt to conduct a metaphor analysis on the metaphors stated by language learners in contexts of high school and language institutes in Iran. This qualitative analysis was based on the metaphors collected from 100 language learners about language teaching and learning using the prompts “A teacher is/should be like a...” and “A learner is/should be like a...”, which were then analyzed and categorized according to the guidelines laid down by scholars in the field. The results demonstrated the school learners’ reluctance to the behaviouristic principles running in their classes and their preference to enjoy the guidelines of cognitive view of learning. Standing on a higher step, were the institute learners who favoured situtative type of learning to their present cognitive mode of learning. Keywords: Conceptual metaphor, High school, Language institute, Linguistic metaphor, Metaphor analysis

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