Metaphors in the media: Helping ESL students to overcome barriers to understanding media texts

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the application of the Systemic Coder software package, WAG (Workbench for Analysis Generation), to the language of an Australian media article used in a tertiary Economics assignment. The text is analysed for the occurrence of lexical, grammatical and complex metaphors, abstract and idiomatic terminology, and short-cut references to local and general background information. The second part of the paper outlines how results from such analyses can be used in advising ESL students on how to develop a broader understanding of the media articles which are required reading in some secondary and tertiary subjects, and as a basis for critical analysis.