THE EFFECTS OF AUTHENTIC, METAPHOR-LADEN PROSE ON THE READING COMPREHENSION OF EFL STUDENTS AT THE COLLEGE LEVEL.
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TextDescription: 318 pSubject(s): Language, Linguistics | Education, Bilingual and Multicultural | Education, Reading | 0290 | 0282 | 0535Dissertation note: Thesis (PH.D.)--INDIANA UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1998. Summary: People throughout the world seem to use metaphor, and current psycholinguistic research suggests that metaphorical statements are accessed and processed as easily as literal ones by native speakers. Non-native speakers, however, may find that culture-specific elements of metaphor in the target language pose a challenge to understanding; or conversely, that their own cultural schemata cause them to misread the metaphor. For such reasons, classroom teachers may hesitate to teach or use metaphor, and many ESL and EFL textbooks are deliberately excerpted or specially written to avoid it.Summary: There is much research regarding metaphor comprehension in the first language, but studies of metaphor comprehension among non-native speakers have remained less numerous. Moreover, the latter rely primarily upon short reading passages devised especially for the experiment. These allow for experimental control but lack the ecological validity of continuous, authentic texts which learners must inevitably encounter as they approach native speaker ability.Summary: The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to introduce the variable of authentic context in passages such as college students might actually read in classes or on their own. Volunteers read one passage relatively literal and one passage relatively marked by novel metaphor. For the sake of comparison, they also read two sets of teacher-made passages, one with metaphor and one without. Following each reading, they answered eight comprehension questions.Summary: Two groups of students, 73 in China and 57 in Turkey, completed the four comprehension tasks. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that for these samples the authentic passages taken from published materials proved significantly more difficult (as measured by the number of incorrect responses) than the teacher-made passages; furthermore, both authentic and teacher-made passages containing metaphor proved to be more difficult for volunteers than corresponding literal ones. Finally, the authentic passage containing novel metaphor proved to be significantly more difficult than any of the other tasks. The pattern of these results held regardless of nationality or linguistic background.Summary: This study emphasizes the challenge of metaphor for the EFL teacher, not only in authentic, published text (as expected) but even in teacher-made class materials.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 59-04, Section: A, page: 1136.
Adviser: PATRICK HARTWELL.
Thesis (PH.D.)--INDIANA UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1998.
People throughout the world seem to use metaphor, and current psycholinguistic research suggests that metaphorical statements are accessed and processed as easily as literal ones by native speakers. Non-native speakers, however, may find that culture-specific elements of metaphor in the target language pose a challenge to understanding; or conversely, that their own cultural schemata cause them to misread the metaphor. For such reasons, classroom teachers may hesitate to teach or use metaphor, and many ESL and EFL textbooks are deliberately excerpted or specially written to avoid it.
There is much research regarding metaphor comprehension in the first language, but studies of metaphor comprehension among non-native speakers have remained less numerous. Moreover, the latter rely primarily upon short reading passages devised especially for the experiment. These allow for experimental control but lack the ecological validity of continuous, authentic texts which learners must inevitably encounter as they approach native speaker ability.
The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to introduce the variable of authentic context in passages such as college students might actually read in classes or on their own. Volunteers read one passage relatively literal and one passage relatively marked by novel metaphor. For the sake of comparison, they also read two sets of teacher-made passages, one with metaphor and one without. Following each reading, they answered eight comprehension questions.
Two groups of students, 73 in China and 57 in Turkey, completed the four comprehension tasks. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that for these samples the authentic passages taken from published materials proved significantly more difficult (as measured by the number of incorrect responses) than the teacher-made passages; furthermore, both authentic and teacher-made passages containing metaphor proved to be more difficult for volunteers than corresponding literal ones. Finally, the authentic passage containing novel metaphor proved to be significantly more difficult than any of the other tasks. The pattern of these results held regardless of nationality or linguistic background.
This study emphasizes the challenge of metaphor for the EFL teacher, not only in authentic, published text (as expected) but even in teacher-made class materials.
School code: 0318.
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