The Development Of Chinese Students' Metaphoric Competence

Metaphor is fundamental to human cognition. It is an indispensable aspect of how humans think and express themselves. While many studies suggest that metaphoric competence is as crucial as linguistic and communicative competences since it is tightly linked to the ways in which the world is conceptually organized in a culture, that it is a fundamental component of overall language proficiency, a potentially useful educational tool, and that it is of considerable relevance for second language learners, little is known about the development of metaphoric competence of Chinese students. The present research is an attempt to explore the development of Chinese students'metaphoric competence. Specifically, the following three questions were addressed in this dissertation:(1) What is the trend of metaphoric competence development from the quantity point of view?(2) What is the trend of metaphoric competence development' from the quality point of view?(3) How do targets and instruction types affect the quantity and quality of metaphor production? How does metaphor type influence the mean ratings of metaphoric production in terms of quality?In this study, elicitation tasks in the form of questionnaires were adopted to elicit participants' metaphoric creations. The questionnaires, written in its simplest form (The first type, also known as the nominal condition, is in the form of "A topic is a vehicle", and the second type, also known as the comparative condition, is in the form of "A topic is like a vehicle"), were selected, modified, and patterned after the previous metaphoric competence studies, and all were quite similar to each other in format in which a list of nine common actions and that of nine common emotions were prepared. The actions, both individual and interpersonal, were chosen with the criterion that they are familiar to children in mind, and the basic emotions commonly experienced by children were selected for the same reason. Altogether1600participants in four age groups were involved in the study among whom four hundred elementary school students with a mean age of9.9, four hundred junior high school students with a mean age of14.3, four hundred senior high school students with a mean age of18.4, and four hundred university students with a mean age of23.5were recruited to participate in the questionnaire survey.The focus of the present research is the development of metaphoric competence of Chinese students. The research findings can be summarized with reference to the research questions posed. The first research question addresses the quantitive aspect of development of metaphoric competence, the second one is concerned with the qualitative aspect of development of metaphoric competence (i.e. the comprehensibility, appropriateness, and novelty of the metaphors produced), and the last research question deals with the factors that influence the participants' metaphoric performance, including target types (actions versus emotions), elicitation types (nominal versus comparative conditions), and metaphor type (transparent versus opaque metaphors).The following findings have been obtained in this study. First of all, students of all age groups demonstrated the ability to create metaphors for both emotion and action targets under both comparative and nominal elicitation structures. There exists an inverse U-shaped curve. Developmental curve goes up from elementary to the junior high schools, and slightly goes down as participants grow even older. Elementary students produced remarkably more figurative expressions than expected, and this increasing trend continues for junior high school students, but declines for senior high school and university students.Secondly, metaphors produced by older participants are considered to be more comprehensible, more appropriate, but less novel than those produced by younger participants.Thirdly, the study finds that both "Elicitation Types" and "Target Types" have significant effects on metaphoric production. With regard to "Elicitation Types", the comparative condition elicited more figurative productions than the nominal condition, and in terms of the target types, more metaphoric expressions were produced under emotion targets than action ones among participants of all age groups in the present study:(a) in terms of the quality of metaphoric production, transparent metaphors were judged as more comprehensible, more appropriate, but less novel than those opaque ones;(b) the comparative condition elicited metaphors that are rated as more comprehensible and more appropriate, but less novel than those that the nominal condition elicited;(c) metaphors produced for the emotion targets are judged as more comprehensible, more appropriate, but less novel than those for action targets. In sum, the most comprehensible and appropriate metaphors are the transparent ones produced by older participants under the comparative condition and for the emotion targets, while the most novel metaphors are the opaque ones produced by younger participants under the nominal condition and for the action targets. The present study centers on the development of metaphoric competence in the Chinese culture. It may contribute to existing research on the developmental progression of metaphoric creativity in that it shows that there is possibility that nine year olds'metaphoric performance may be far higher than people expect and that it also shows the developmental patterns of metaphoric competence of Chinese students as an original finding.The results of the present research contribute theoretically, methodologically and pedagogically to cognitive linguistics and education. Theoretically, the results of the study further show that there are really differences between metaphors and similes, and this finding may be a contribution to cognitive linguistic theories. Pedagogically, this study has implications for language and literacy education as well as foreign language education. It also has implications for education in terms of the cultivation of Chinese students'creativity.