METAPHORS OF EMOTIONS AS LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGY

This research is based on the assumption that comics, as a multimodal discourse of verbal and visual representations can be regarded as language learning and teaching tool. In this article it is aimed to analyse conceptualization of emotion, presented in Lithuanian comics albums. The research is based on the theoretical framework elaborated by Forceville (2005a), Earden (2009) in their earlier findings on the visual representation of the Idealized Cognitive Model of anger in the "Asterix”, album "La Zizanie”, Bart Eerden’s finding of anger investigations in ,,Anger in Asterix: The metaphorical representation of anger in comics and animated films”, as well as insights made by Kazuko Shihara and Yoshihiro Matsunaka in “Pictorial metaphors of emotion in Japanese comics”.

In this presentation, we aim to extend Forceville’s view to the concept of emotion and examine pictorial manifestations of other emotion categories, such as happiness, love, shame, etc. The methodological basis for this type of investigation is based on the identification of conceptual metaphors which are manifested via pictorial or visual signs. The target domain of the conceptual metaphor is emotion, which belongs to a more abstract domain of psychological experience. In this kind of metaphor, the picture can be interpreted as representing emotion of certain kind. Data for the analysis are taken from Lithuanian comic books and Internet sites, where comics have been presented. The data and the analysis we are providing in this article aims to reveal that visually represented conceptual metaphors serve as an effective instrument for Lithuanian language teaching and learning. The investigation presents the data collected from the questionnaires answered by ErasmUs students, studying at Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty.