Metaphor Comprehension by Language Learning Disabled and Normally Achieving Adolescent Boys

Abstract

The ability of language learning disabled (LLD) and normally achieving (NA) adolescents to interpret metaphors embedded in semantically appropriate verbal contexts was examined. The effects of response mode (verbal explanation and paraphrase selection), order of response mode, and type of ground (perceptual attributes and psychological characteristics) were also analyzed. Thirty-two male subjects (16 LLD and 16 NA), ages 16 to 18 years, interpreted 24 metaphors in which the task-specific vocabulary was controlled. The LLD subjects provided significantly fewer correct metaphor interpretations than the NA subjects. The magnitude of difference between the LLD and the NLA subjects was twice as large when the initial mode of response was paraphrase selection. For both groups, metaphors were easier to interpret by paraphrase selection than by verbal explanation, and perceptual metaphors were easier to interpret than psychological metaphors, but only in the explanation condition. The two groups' performance showed no striking qualitative differences. The relatively poor performance of the LLD adolescents was not related to general vocabulary knowledge or to knowledge of task-specific vocabulary. The possible roles of impoverished or poorly organized semantic knowledge and of deficient inferential skills in the LLD subjects' poor performance are discussed.