Metaphor research has become widespread. However, students’ understanding of metaphor in informational text has received little study. With increased use of informational trade books in the classroom, research in this area is needed. Fifty-five grade six students with Canadian English as their first language participated in the study. Their understanding of metaphors in excerpts from three recently published informational trade books was examined by the use of the reading think aloud technique and multiple choice activities. One think aloud was completed by each student in both individual and dyadic conditions. Multiple choice activities were completed individually after reading, but with the text available. The think-aloud protocols were examined using specific-trait analysis, holistic scoring, and miscue analysis. The multiple choice activities were scored against anticipated adult-like understanding and the results were subjected to standard statistical tests. Level of understanding of metaphors varied widely among students, with the overall average being about 65%. Contrary to prediction, understanding was significantly higher in the individual condition compared to the dyadic condition. Although part of this difference could be attributed to differences in passage difficulty, the anticipated scaffolding effect of reading with a partner was not found. The reading think aloud was a rich source of information about both the meaning students constructed and the meaning-construction process. The study suggested that the think aloud could be used in the classroom as an effective learning device, particularly in that it allowed less-capable readers to participate as equal partners in what might otherwise have been a frustrating reading task. Overall, there emerged a picture of students at various points along the path to full adult mastery of metaphor, with some students already demonstrating an adult level of understanding. Level of text understanding was consistent with level of metaphor understanding. The only metaphor-type effect identified was for metaphors with copula-verb syntactic-frame structure. Abstractness of the words in the metaphors did not affect meaning construction; however, conventionality of the metaphorical expressions did influence understanding.

Metaphor research has become widespread. However, students’ understanding of metaphor in informational text has received little study. With increased use of informational trade books in the classroom, research in this area is needed. Fifty-five grade six students with Canadian English as their first language participated in the study. Their understanding of metaphors in excerpts from three recently published informational trade books was examined by the use of the reading think aloud technique and multiple choice activities. One think aloud was completed by each student in both individual and dyadic conditions. Multiple choice activities were completed individually after reading, but with the text available. The think-aloud protocols were examined using specific-trait analysis, holistic scoring, and miscue analysis. The multiple choice activities were scored against anticipated adult-like understanding and the results were subjected to standard statistical tests. Level of understanding of metaphors varied widely among students, with the overall average being about 65%. Contrary to prediction, understanding was significantly higher in the individual condition compared to the dyadic condition. Although part of this difference could be attributed to differences in passage difficulty, the anticipated scaffolding effect of reading with a partner was not found. The reading think aloud was a rich source of information about both the meaning students constructed and the meaning-construction process. The study suggested that the think aloud could be used in the classroom as an effective learning device, particularly in that it allowed less-capable readers to participate as equal partners in what might otherwise have been a frustrating reading task. Overall, there emerged a picture of students at various points along the path to full adult mastery of metaphor, with some students already demonstrating an adult level of understanding. Level of text understanding was consistent with level of metaphor understanding. The only metaphor-type effect identified was for metaphors with copula-verb syntactic-frame structure. Abstractness of the words in the metaphors did not affect meaning construction; however, conventionality of the metaphorical expressions did influence understanding. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

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Learning to use prepositions in English as a second language (L2) has been widely acknowledged to pose significant difficulties to learners, especially within metaphorical contexts. Difficulties relate to the complex distributional patterns of prepositions in discourse, namely, the variety of collocations requiring their use, as well as cross-linguistic differences both at the structural and conceptual levels. Studies in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has thus far described learner usage of metaphorical prepositions as “errors”, without placing much detailed attention upon the lexical, conceptual and contextual nuances that may impinge on their uses. Furthermore, scarce attention to the value of learners’ semantic and conceptual patterns in preposition phrasal collocations has led to ineffective memorization-driven instruction. While it is acknowledged that prepositions are difficult for L2 learners, more or less difficulty in learning metaphorical collocations of prepositions within specific prepositional phrases has scarcely been researched, for which this study attempted to provide an initial understanding. This dissertation included a mixed methods and cross-sectional design, where instances of preposition use within two types of metaphorical constructions were explored by means of a semi-structured interview. Extents to which participants may have engaged in spatial thinking while using prepositions metaphorically were also explored through the design of a spatial priming task. The two types of metaphorical constructions focused upon in the study were prepositional phrases complementing the copula (PP-copula constructions) and prepositional phrases complementing prepositional verbs (PP-prepV constructions). Participants included learners of English with L1 Spanish ranging from low intermediate to advanced proficiencies, as well as English native speakers as a comparison group. From a syntax and semantics perspective, both PP-copula and PP-prepV constructions were be deemed to pose difficulties to learners, but to different extents and in relation to several phenomena such as knowledge of conventionality, potential metaphorical conceptualizations, and L1 influence. The study explored patterns and changes in metaphorical preposition use across groups within the two construction types of interest, illuminating trends in conventionality, as well as persistence and changes in metaphorical conceptualizations across proficiencies (“trajectories”). Interrelationships between L1 influence and the incorporation of L2 English patterns were identified in learners’ interlanguage collocations, and were compared across proficiencies. Additionally, potential relationships were explored between participants’ metaphorical preposition uses, and aspects of language experience collected by means of a language background questionnaire. Results suggest that metaphorical PP-prepV constructions tend to contribute more to learners’ repertoires of lexical collocations as proficiency increased compared to metaphorical PP-copula constructions. Conventionality in preposition use was observed to increase with proficiency, especially within metaphorical PP-prepV constructions. Linguistic and conceptual “trajectories” revealed that learners worked with networks of conventional and unconventional preposition collocations. Some unconventional collocations persisted across proficiencies in reference to specific abstract notions, while others shifted toward NS lexical and conceptual conventionality when referring to other abstract notions. The study also shed light on participants’ engagement in spatial thinking while processing prepositions in metaphorical contexts. The discussion highlights lexical and conceptual networks relative to particular abstract notions, as well as L1 and L2 influence in learners’ interlanguage collocations. This study could be relevant to language teachers in offering insight into patterns and changes in L2 learners’ metaphorical preposition use within specific domains of discourse. Findings could provide possible conceptual and lexical starting points among intermediate and advanced proficiencies in relation to specific prepositional phrase constructions, from which teachers could provide scaffolding to promote expansion of learners’ L2 lexical repertoires.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Over the course of five weeks, three children were engaged in various exercises involving the observance and creation of metaphors. Before and after the exercises, the children were asked a series of questions designed to determine their understanding of and ability to express their understanding of five abstract concepts. It was found that working with metaphor enhanced their abilities to grasp the concepts, in various and surprising ways. It was also found that their abilities to express their understanding was enhanced subtly.

This thesis addresses the problem of teaching and learning vocabulary in English as a Second Language (ESL), and proposes that a vocabulary based on the process of metaphoric extension could be taught directly. Despite the fact that an inadequate vocabulary is one of the main obstacles for intermediate-level ESL students, both ESL teachers and applied linguists have emphasized other aspects of English more than the study of vocabulary teaching and learning. Consequently, ESL students have few strategies for learning vocabulary other than reliance on the dictionary, and the predominant strategy for teachers is to present words rather unsystematically in the reading curriculum. In an effort to overcome this inadequacy, current vocabulary research is identifying central patterns of word usage, including lexical phrases and other 'chunks', core words, and semantic fields. One central pattern of usage that has not yet been researched is metaphoric extension. Since the so-called 'dead' metaphors produced by that process are lexical items expressing either literal or conventional meaning, they are also candidates for direct teaching.