Speaking Power into Being: Figurative Language, Authority, and Student Agency in EFL Classrooms
Abstract
This study examines how figurative and nonliteral language mediates power in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. It focuses on how lecturers use metaphor, analogy, ambiguity, hyperbole, rhetorical questions, contrast, and register shifting to explain content, evaluate understanding, correct behavior, and shape lecturer-student relationships. A secondary qualitative analysis was conducted on 18 archived semi-structured interviews involving three lecturers and fifteen students in an English Education Program at an Indonesian university. A hybrid inductive-deductive thematic analysis combined data-driven coding with sensitizing concepts from language-and-power theory. Coding moved from recurrent expressions to interpretive codes, themes, and a conceptual model. Five themes were generated: contextual figurative scaffolding; ambiguity as productive challenge and epistemic gatekeeping; hyperbolic correction as disciplinary power and face threat; register shifting as relational power; and negotiated student agency under proficiency-sensitive conditions. Figurative language was productive when it connected abstract material to students' lives and invited interpretation, but restrictive when ambiguity exceeded students' linguistic resources or when hyperbole was used to shame. All students valued simplified explanation when comprehension failed, all evaluated analogy positively, and nearly all rejected excessive corrective language. Lecturers should use figurative language as calibrated scaffolding rather than as an unmarked test of intelligence. Analogies should be contextualized, ambiguity should be followed by clarification, correction should target the task rather than the learner's identity, and formal-informal register shifts should be used strategically to balance academic legitimacy with approachability. The article proposes a Figurative Power Cycle showing how linguistic form becomes pedagogical, epistemic, disciplinary, or relational power and how student responses feed back into lecturers' subsequent choices. The model positions figurative language not merely as ornament or vocabulary content, but as a mechanism through which authority and participation are negotiated in EFL interaction.
Downloads
References
Alipour, J., & Ranjbar, M. (2024). A metaphorical advantage for bilingual children? Understanding figurative meaning by L2 and L3 EFL learners. Journal of Child Language, 51(2), 339–358. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000923000065
Boers, F. (2000). Metaphor awareness and vocabulary retention. Applied Linguistics, 21(4), 553–571. https://doi.org/10.1093/APPLIN/21.4.553
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). Thematic Analysis : A Practical Guide. Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide, 1–100.
Brooks, C. F. (2016). Role, Power, Ritual, and Resistance: A Critical Discourse Analysis of College Classroom Talk. Western Journal of Communication, 80(3), 348–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2015.1098723
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press.
Cameron, L. (2003). Metaphor in educational discourse. Continuum.
Chin, C. (2006). Classroom Interaction in Science: Teacher questioning and feedback to students’ responses. International Journal of Science Education, 28(11), 1315–1346. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690600621100
Clark, A. (1999). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Traditions, by John W. Cresswell. In Western Journal of Nursing Research (Vol. 21, Number 1, pp. 103–105).
Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2017). Thematic analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(3), 297–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1262613
Fairclough, N. (2023). Critical discourse analysis. The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis, 11–22. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003035244-3
Hanks, W. F. (2005). Pierre Bourdieu and the practices of language. Annual Review of Anthropology, 34(Volume 34, 2005), 67–83. https://doi.org/10.1146/ANNUREV.ANTHRO.33.070203.143907/CITE/REFWORKS
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage.
Littlemore, J., & Low, G. (2006). Figurative thinking and foreign language learning. Palgrave Macmillan.
Naeem Sarwar, M., Shahzad, A., Ullah, Z., Raza, S., Wasti, S. H., Shrahili, M., Elbatal, I., Kulsoom, S., Qaisar, S., & Faizan Nazar, M. (2024). Concept mapping and conceptual change texts: a constructivist approach to address the misconceptions in nanoscale science and technology. Frontiers in Education, 9, 1339957. https://doi.org/10.3389/FEDUC.2024.1339957/BIBTEX
Oral, Y. (2013). “The Right Things Are What I Expect Them to Do”: Negotiation of Power Relations in an English Classroom. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 12(2), 96–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2013.775877
Proudfoot, K. (2023). Inductive/Deductive Hybrid Thematic Analysis in Mixed Methods Research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 17(3), 308–326. https://doi.org/10.1177/15586898221126816;ISSUE:ISSUE:DOI
Qoyyimah, U., & Bargallie, D. (2026). Student-centered pedagogy and power relations in Indonesian EFL teaching. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2026.2642142
Walsh, Steve. (2011). Exploring Classroom Discourse: Language in action. Https://Eprints.Ncl.Ac.Uk, 239.
Copyright (c) 2026 Markus Deli Girik Allo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
By submitting the article/manuscript of the article, the author(s) agree with this policy. No specific document sign-off is required.
License
The use of the article will be governed by the Creative Commons Attribution license as currently displayed on Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author(s)' Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by the stated author(s), has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author(s).
User/Public Rights
Under the Creative Commons license, users are allowed to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work. Users will also need to attribute authors on distributing works in the journal and other media of publications. Unless otherwise stated, the authors are public entities as soon as their articles got published.
Rights of Authors
Authors retain all their rights to the published works, such as (but not limited to) the following rights;
- Copyright and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,
- The right to use the substance of the article in own future works, including lectures and books,
- The right to reproduce the article for own purposes,
- The right to self-archive the article,
- The right to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the article's published version (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
Co-Authorship
If the article was jointly prepared by more than one author, any authors submitting the manuscript warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to be agreed on this copyright and license notice (agreement) on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this policy. The journal will not be held liable for anything that may arise due to the author(s) internal dispute. The journal will only communicate with the corresponding author.
Royalties
Being an open accessed journal and disseminating articles for free under the Creative Commons license term mentioned, author(s) aware that the journal entitles the author(s) to no royalties or other fees.
Miscellaneous
The article will be published in the journal if the article’s editorial process is successfully completed. The editors may modify the article to a style of punctuation, spelling, capitalization, referencing, and usage that deems appropriate. The author acknowledges that the article may be published so that it will be publicly accessible and such access will be free of charge for the readers.
