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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/7283 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Faulkner, Leigh A. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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