Knowledge is a river and education is like a stairway: An eye movement study on how L2 speakers process metaphors and similes

Henri Olkoniemi,Raymond Bertram,Johanna K Kaakinen

doi:10.1017/s1366728921000869

Henri Olkoniemi, Raymond Bertram + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728921000869

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Abstract

AbstractVery little is known about the processes underlying second language (L2) speakers’ understanding of written metaphors and similes. Moreover, most of the theories on figurative language comprehension do not consider reader-related factors. In the study, we used eye-tracking to examine how native Finnish speakers (N = 63) read written English nominal metaphors (“education is a stairway”) and similes (“education is like a stairway”). Identical topic–vehicle pairs were used in both conditions. After reading, participants evaluated familiarity of each pair. English proficiency was measured using the Bilingual-language Profile Questionnaire and the Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English. The results showed that readers were more likely to regress within metaphors than within similes, indicating that processing metaphors requires more processing effort than processing similes. The familiarity of a metaphor and L2 English proficiency modulated this effect. The results are discussed in the light of current theories on figurative language processing.

Highlights

Metaphors are an essential and necessary part of human communication (Ortony, 1975)
Three different reading time measures were computed for the VEHICLE, SPILLOVER REGION, and EXPLANATION REGION from the eye movement data: gaze duration, go-past time, and regression out proportion
The measures reported are the same as in Ashby et al (2018). Using these measures in combination with the analysis of different regions allows for direct comparison with the results of that study alongside a detailed assessment of the time course of simile and metaphor processing

Summary

Introduction

Metaphors are an essential and necessary part of human communication (Ortony, 1975). Metaphors refer to one thing by mentioning another as in ‘knowledge is a river’ and are used very frequently by native (L1) speakers. Operating in daily life in one’s nonnative language may be challenging in general, but may come with specific costs in case of metaphor processing; for example, it has been shown that international students in UK often do not understand metaphors used in lectures leading to misunderstanding of important concepts (Littlemore, Chen, Koester & Barnden, 2011). It is important to know how L2 speakers process figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, and at the same time to determine to what extent this processing depends on L2 proficiency. These are the objectives of the present article

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