Cognitive research in pedagogy: conceptual metaphor in CLIL-economics

The paper analyses a prominent topic of current research into implementing cognitive findings in pedagogy. The study pursues a threefold purpose. It aims to review research literature on the instructional application of cognitive research in general and Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) in particular. Conceptual metaphor investigation is a broad strand of cognitive research that has promised to discover new insights in methodological approaches applicable to different specialist subjects including economics known for ubiquitous use of metaphors. The second focus of this study is to review research papers on the use of cognitive findings including Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) which names cognition as one of its key components indispensable for content and language coordination. The paper aims to ascertain whether conceptual metaphor research plays any role in CLIL pedagogy and whether the pedagogical potential of language and theory-constitutive metaphors is used in CLIL-economics instruction. This study finds that conceptual metaphor as a property of both language and thought ensuring the convergence of learning economic language and content has not yet been translated to CLIL practice despite its great potential. Thirdly, the paper looks into the pedagogical implications of CMT findings in CLIL-economics. The paper argues that conceptual metaphor agrees with the tenets of integrated economic language and content learning. A cognitive interface between metaphor-based economic language and content which ensures their integration in CLIL methodology is postulated. Some steps in applying a metaphor-based approach in CLIL-economics are suggested.