Picture This! Using Visuals to Teach Metaphors

Let’s face it: metaphors, though fun, can be tricky little creatures. They sneak into our everyday language, making things more colourful, but for many EFL learners, they can be as comprehensible as muddy puddles.

Yeah, that wasn’t my best comparison.

The thing is, metaphors are not just fancy linguistic accessories. They’re key to the way we think and communicate. But how do we make students grasp the concept without turning it into a dry textbook lecture? Simple: by showing, not just telling.

Visuals can make abstract metaphors tangible, fun, and way easier to understand. So, let’s come up with some creative ways to bring metaphors to life through images, drawings, and mind maps.

Why Visuals Work

Cognitive science confirms that our brains love pictures. Around 65% of people prefer visual ways of learning. What’s more, studies show that pairing words with images helps retention. That’s why using visuals for metaphor teaching is like adding a GPS to a road trip, it makes the journey smoother and more enjoyable.

Metaphors, by nature, rely on comparisons. We link something unfamiliar with something known. When we show these connections visually, the aha! moment happens much faster.

Where to Find Ready-Made Visual Metaphors

Before we start working with DIY creations, I want to talk about materials. I am a fan of drawing, sculpting and basically making artistic mess, but if you and your students would rather work with digital materials, you can use some ready-to-use resources:

• Unsplash & Pixabay: free high-quality images
• The Noun Project: a treasure trove of icons
• AI-Generated Art Tools (like DALL·E or Deep Dream): a great way to experiment with creating surreal, metaphor-based images
• Canva: perfect for creating custom metaphor-based posters, collages, and infographics

DIY: Creating Metaphors with Images & Drawings

Alright, I hope you’re now feeling adventurous enough to try some hands-on activities to get your students have literal fun with metaphors.

Metaphor Sketching

Give students common metaphors like “time is money” or “a rollercoaster of emotions” and ask them to draw literal interpretations of these phrases. The results? Usually insightful and pretty funny.

Mind Maps with a Metaphorical Twist

Mind maps are great for visualizing connections, and I’m sure you’ve used them as vocabulary activities. Pick a simple metaphor (e.g., learning is a journey), write in the centre of a board, then branch out with related ideas, drawings, and keywords. This will not only help your students remember the metaphor but also revise vocabulary and come up with some new connections.

Literal vs. Figurative Photo Challenge

Divide your students into groups and ask them to find or create two images: one showing the literal meaning and one illustrating the metaphorical sense. For example: A pile of money (literal) vs. a clock made of coins (figurative for time is money). Once your students have some examples ready, encourage them to guess the metaphors presented by other groups.

Storyboard Your Metaphor

This is a great project idea. Ask students to pick a metaphor and create a short comic strip or storyboard that tells a story based on it. It’s a great way to mix creativity with comprehension, and it makes students learn through creative play – something our brains love.

Digital Collage: Metaphors in Pop Culture

If your students prefer digital resources, ask them to create a collage of metaphorical imagery found in ads, movies, or music videos. Then you can discuss how these metaphors influence emotions and messages. You may create various boards with the positive, negative and neutral metaphors and compare the visualisations.

Making It Stick: Follow-Up Discussion & Reflection

These activities sound all fun and games, but it’s important to include some reflections on the topic. For example, you may ask the following questions:

• Which metaphor was the easiest/hardest to visualize? Why?
• Do different cultures interpret metaphors differently? (A fun cross-cultural discussion!)
• Can they come up with original metaphors and represent them visually?

The more students engage with metaphors in a hands-on, visual way, the more natural and intuitive they become. Who knows, they might even start slipping some into their everyday English without realizing it. And that’s when you know they’ve nailed it!

Now it’s your turn – try one of these activities with your students this week and share their best metaphorical creations. Whether it’s a hilarious sketch, a brilliant digital collage, or a deep classroom discussion, I’d love to hear about it! Post your experiences, student work, or reflections and tag me so we can celebrate metaphorical thinking together!

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