Cultural and instructional influences on figurative language comprehension by inner city children

Ortony, Andrew; Turner, Terence J.; Larson-Shapiro, Nancy

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/31271 Copy

Description

Title

Cultural and instructional influences on figurative language comprehension by inner city children

Author(s)

• Ortony, Andrew
• Turner, Terence J.
• Larson-Shapiro, Nancy

Issue Date

1985-05

Keyword(s)

• comprehension
• figurative language
• cultural influences
• instructional influences
• Harlem
• language experience
• cognitive constraints
• playing the dozens

Abstract

"This study examined cultural and instructional influences on the comprehension of figurative language by elementary school children in Harlem, New York. Specifically, it examined children's exposure to and participation in the creative, verbal street game called ""sounding"" or ""playing the dozens,"" and it studied the effects of a program of creative writing instruction provided by visiting writers. The results indicate that the special instruction tended to improve the figurative language comprehension of the children. Also, those children who frequently engaged in sounding comprehended figurative language better than those who did not. This latter effect could not be accounted for by differences in general language ability. The results are taken as support for a ""language experience"" view of the development of figurative language comprehension in preference to any strong form of a ""cognitive constraints"" view."

Publisher

• Champaign, Ill. : University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for the Study of Reading.
• Cambridge, Mass. : Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc.

Series/Report Name or Number

Center for the Study of Reading Technical Report ; no. 335

Type of Resource

text

Language

eng

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/31271

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 1985 Board of Trustees University of Illinois

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