Comprehension of Metaphors by Typically Developing Arabic-Speaking Jordanian School Children

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of a study investigating the comprehension of Arabic metaphors by Jordanian school children. Thirty typically developing school children aged 6, 8 and 10 years old performed a metaphor verbal comprehension task based on 10 lexicalized metaphorical expressions incorporated into 10 short stories. Each short story ends with a target metaphorical expression and is followed by a question about identifying the referent of the metaphorical expression. The results show that old children were better at comprehending metaphors than young children. The study concludes that the comprehension of metaphor develops significantly with chronological age. Furthermore, the degree of the child’s familiarity with given metaphors plays a crucial role in influencing the comprehension of metaphors.