Analogy and multi-modal exploration in the teaching of language theory

This article reports on an experiment in teaching at Huddersfield University (UK) in the context of the first year of a single honors English Language degree program. It took as its basic premise the idea that some kinds of learning of theory would be aided by the use of analogy explored by multi-modal means rather than the purely textual or discoursal. This article combines the insights of research into analogical thinking and into multimodal cognition to suggest that analogical experimentation using exploratory methods with nonlinguistic modes of representation may be able to help students in understanding and learning complex theoretical concepts.