The promotion of figurative thinking in Japanese university students

Professor Jeannette Littlemore is working with partners in Japan to explore ways of promoting figurative thinking in Japanese university students who are attending English language programmes. The aim of research, which has received funding from the Japanese DAIWA Foundation (Professor Littlemore as the Principal Researcher), is to contribute to the development of creative thinking in Japanese learners of English. She has worked with her Japanese co-researcher to develop techniques designed to promote figurative thinking among university-level Japanese learners of English. They have tested the relative effectiveness of these techniques and published their initial findings in a Japanese journal called the JACET Kansai Review. Professor Littlemore is now working with colleagues in China to explore the use of creative figurative language by Chinese university students of English.