Effect of linguistic context and transparency on the comprehension of idioms in Cantonese-speaking children

Abstract

The present study investigated the adoption of literal interpretation and contextual strategy on comprehension of three types of idioms namely, highly transparent, transparent and opaque idioms in Cantonese-speaking school-aged children. Thirty eight children at Grades 2, 4 and 6 were asked to interpret the idiomatic meanings of 15 idioms embedded in linguistic contexts (stories) incongruent to the idiomatic meanings. The children were assessed in multiple-choice format in which story-dependent and literal-meaning responses were two of the five choices. The result showed a larger extent of use of contextual strategy than literal interpretation among all the children. Contextual strategy and literal interpretation are commonly used for interpretation of opaque and literal idioms respectively. Children at grade 6 were found more readily to use literal interpretation than grade 2 and 4 when highly transparent idioms are presented. Pedagogy of idiom teaching using story context was suggested.