Instructors Perspective towards the Significance of Metaphor and Metonymy Through Literary Texts in Teaching Persian to Non-Persian Speakers

This article aims to determine the importance of metaphor and metonymy as indices in teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers by applying a survey method through literary texts. A questionnaire containing eight items of metonymy and six items of metaphor in three levels of language proficiency was prepared to achieve this goal. Using a non-random available and judgmental method the questionnaire was sent to 94 Iranian instructors, experts in teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers, and also acquainted with Persian literature. The data were analyzed with SPSS, calculating one-way Chi-square, Friedman, and Mann-Whitney statistical methods. Part of the achieved results suggests that the sample population considers all the indices relevant to metonymy and metaphor as ‘insignificant’ for both beginner and intermediate levels. This result challenges the belief that metonymy, due to high frequency, is a type of ‘norm’ in teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers. The sample population also considers the index of ordinary metaphors as ‘insignificance’. However, those instructors lacking the experience of teaching literature emphasized the significance of these indices. On one hand, this approach reveals the effectiveness of experience in teaching literature when encountering literary metaphors; on the other hand, it indicates removing the border between language pedagogy and teaching literature in case of metaphor is a technique of creating literariness.