A Study on Primary School Children's Development in Comprehension of Metaphor with/without Literal Meaning

The research studied the features of children's development in comprehension of metaphor with or without literal meaning,among 168 students of Grade Two,Four and Six from a city primary school.Results show that: 1) primary school students' metaphoric comprehension was at the low level throughout the entire primary school period,even lower to metaphor without literal meaning;2) the low-and middle-grade students' understanding of metaphor with literal meanings was significantly better than those without literal meaning,while the high-grade students showed no difference in understanding metaphor with or without literal meaning;3) primary school pupils were making rapid progress in understanding metaphor with or without literal meaning,and greater improvement was found in understanding metaphor without literal meaning.