Children's Use of Metaphorical Language: an experimental study of the technique of guided fantasy in the secondary school English classroom |
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| Authors: | Marc Chevreau Leslie Smith |
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| Institution: | Department of Educational Research , University of Lancaster |
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| Abstract: | The technique of guided fantasy is being used in schools to stimulate creative writing. Children are given a planned opportunity to imagine a particular scene and then to use this experience as a stimulus for related imaginative writing. This study attempts to examine the apparent superiority of this technique over more conventional methods. Thirty third‐year pupils produced work under two contrasting conditions and the compositions were then assessed against a range of linguistic criteria, including the number and novelty of images produced, the number of words per essay, absolute vocabulary, unusual vocabulary, unspecific vocabulary and the degree of adverbial and adjectival modification and repetition. Additional criteria were time spent on the task and the number and quality of statements of feeling. The guided‐fantasy stimulus, however, did not produce the expected results. Possible explanations of this are discussed through the literature on children's learning. |
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