Andrew J. Gallagher, Ph.D.
I have been teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) for more than 30 years. After finishing a degree in Anthropology, I served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin, West Africa, where I developed a passion for teaching. Returning to the States, I obtained Master’s degrees in Adult Education and Linguistics, and later a Ph.D. in English. I currently teach classes in ESL, ABE (Adult Basic Education) and GED (General Education Development) at a Walla Walla Community College in southeastern Washington State.
When I am not teaching or writing, I love to be involved with music. I play guitar and sing whenever I can. I have been a singer, board member and past president of our local choral society. I also do small woodworking projects when I have the time. Otherwise I enjoy spending time with family and friends.
I’d love to hear feedback about this blog from fellow educators and linguists. Feel free to leave a comment here or email me at andrewgallagher2012@gmail.com.
Hello, Dr. Andrew J. Gallagher,
I Liked the Blog, it’s a wonderful and very helpful
I a a student of English translation at a university in the Sultanate of Oman.
I have a question on the subject of the metaphor, because I want to write graduation research on this topic.
What do you think is the appropriate topic to write about metaphor? Politics; media or what exactly?
Will you help me with some references that could help me?
Thank you very much..
Hello! Sorry for my late reply. I have had many family obligations for our Thanksgiving holiday here this past week. As for your questions, I am not sure if you want to study metaphors in English used in your country or in the native Arabic. I would be very curious as to how metaphors are used in political discussions in Arabic, or how English metaphors are translated into Arabic. As for references, I have a long list in my Bibliography page on my blog. I am not sure what other reference you would need. I would be happy to help you with any part of your research. Let me know if you have any more questions. Please let me know if you get this message.
Hello Dr. Gallagher,
I hope this messages reaches you well.
I would like to know if you’ve made any publications regarding your studies on metaphors that I can purchase either via E-book or in any physical bookstore. I’ve recently become overly intrigued with the study of metaphorical language and I would love to further my knowledge on the matter.
Kind regards,
Andrew Tria
Hello!
Thanks for your supportive comment. Unfortunately I do not have any publications on metaphors yet. I have an article forthcoming in the Journal of the International Linguistics Association, but I am still in the process of finding a publisher for my book. For now, my research is only available through my blog. I will certainly make a post when I have anything in publication. In the meantime, please check out my bibliography page on the blog for a list of great references on metaphors. If I can help you with anything specific, please let me know. Thanks for reading!
Dear Prof Gallagher,
I hope this email reaches you in good health. I am teaching semantics and would like to include some part of the figurative LANGUAGE, especially metaphor and idiom in my class discussion. I found your discussion on metaphor and idiom interesting. I hope you don’t mind letting me use your discussion in my class, for sure I will acknowledge accordingly.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely
Rio. Moehkardi
Of course! I always hope that my blog posts are helpful to students learning linguistics. Where do you teach? Are you teaching undergraduate or graduate students? Let me know if you have any specific questions about the posts or a particular metaphor. Thanks for your comment!
Dear Dr. Gallagher,
I believe this letter gets you in a good health.
I really admire your blog – it is very useful for my work and me personally.
Now I do my reseach in methodology of teaching English in schools and the main aspect of my work is teaching students metaphors and their use in the language. I found your experience in teaching metaphors and their undestending rather intresting and fruitful. Can you give me some recommendations in this theme. I also hope you don’t mind me using your thoughts in my scientific and teaching work.
Thank you very much.
Best wishes.
Anastasia Khlyzova
Hello Anastasia! Sorry for my slow response. Thank you for your kind words about the blog. I am so glad that you find it useful. You are welcome to use any of my blog posts in your research and teaching. I ask only that you cite my blog as you would a book, article or any Internet source. See my page on “Citing the Blog” for more details. I am not sure if I understand what you mean by the theme of my blog. If you are looking for suggestions for using it in teaching, I can suggest that you go over the metaphors that I have analyzed with your students, but then ask them to do original research on their own. There are hundreds of political metaphors in everyday news broadcasts, magazine and newspaper articles and political speeches. Just finding the metaphors is a difficult task, and then categorizing them and analyzing them are additional challenges. Please let me know if I can help your students with any of their metaphor research. Thanks for the comment! Dr. G
Hi Andrew, I have recently discovered your website and it’s been very helpful. I really appreciate how clearly it’s been organised.
I am writing my MA thesis at the moment on political discourse. I also started off in ESL, having taught English in Asia for several years before continuing my education. I was wondering, do you have links to any published works of yours? Any articles or books? Also, are there any academic journals that you recommend? Thank you kindly 🙂
Dear Lauren,
Thanks for your nice comments about the blog. I am glad you are finding it useful. Unfortunately, I have not any books or articles on metaphors published. I simply maintain this blog and hope to find a publisher for my reference guide to metaphors some time in the near future. However, here are a few other recommendations:
In my opinion, anyone studying metaphors needs to start with the work of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson including Metaphors We Live By, and Philosophy in the Flesh, as well as Johnson’s The Body in the Mind and Lakoff’s Don’t Think of an Elephant. You can also see the latest thoughts of George Lakoff at his blog at http://www.georgelakoff.com. Two other important books on political discourse are Jonathan Charteris-Black’s Politicians and Rhetoric (2nd ed.) and Michael P. Mark’s Metaphors in International Relations Theory. I have a bibliography as part of the blog along with some notes on metaphors and politics if you need further information (Metaphors 101 and Politics 101 on the top menu).
As for journals, you are probably familiar with all of these already but here are the top three that I have used in my research. The premiere journal for linguists is simply called Language. The journal for using linguistics for other applications is the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, the journal of the AAAL, the American Association of Applied Linguistics. And, of course, for teaching ESL/ELA you can use the TESOL Journal. Finally, there is a journal dedicated to the study of metaphor. It was formerly called the Journal of Metaphor and Symbolic Activity. Now it is known simply as Metaphor and Symbol. It has changed publishers many times and is difficult to access but that is an option as well.
I am not sure what you are specializing in for your MA thesis. Otherwise I might be able to recommend other books or journals. If I can help with your research in any other way, please let me know!