Enhancing EFL students’ proverb comprehension through the conceptual metaphor approach: A cognitive linguistic perspective

Proverbs in English pose a challenge for EFL learners due to their metaphorical nature. This study compared three approaches to enhance EFL students’ proverb comprehension: Conventional-based, Pictorial-based, and Conceptual Metaphor-based. Pre- and post-tests were conducted on 70 EFL students divided into three groups. The Conventional-based Approach was used with 22 students, the Pictorial-based with 25, and the Conceptual Metaphor-based with 23. A one-way ANOVA revealed significant differences among the groups. The Conceptual Metaphor-based group outperformed the Conventional-based and Pictorial-based groups. It is recommended that EFL teachers adopt the Conceptual Metaphor-based Approach to deepen proverb understanding and retention. This approach enables learners to uncover the cultural values within proverbs, fostering language proficiency and critical thinking.