The teaching of metaphor and vocabulary used in financial advertising

Abstract

Metaphor is widely used in financial advertising discourse. In this paper I intend to show how metaphor can be used to help business English students learn the figurative language used to advertise loans. Banking is probably one of the most relevant didactic units in a business syllabus. Banks require qualified workers to deal with the many British clients now residing in Spain. My aim is to teach vocabulary concerning loans from the cognitive point of view. In order to raise students´ awareness of metaphors I will propose a linguistic analysis between Spanish and English. I also intend students to fix the terms related to the interest rates and repayments of bank loans by means of the following cognitive schemes: UP, DOWN, UP and DOWN, FORWARD and ABSENCE OF MOVEMENT. I believe that in this way, the students’ ability to retain and use these terms will improve. I will put forward different exercises based on banking leaflets distributed in the summer of 2001.