IDIOMS AND READING COMPREHENSION

Peter Edwards*

University of British Columbia

Abstract. Presents results from a study designed to determine whether idioms

cause difficulty for children in the reading and understanding of prose. Two
hundred and fifty-six grade eight children were randomly chosen from two high
schools and each child was tested with one of four tests which contained
increasing amounts of idiomatic expressions. The treatment effect was highly
significant, the means increased steadily, with the highest scores associated with
the test containing no idioms and the lowest scores associated with the test
containing idioms in all items. There was no significant difference between the
performance of boys and girls in the tests. An analysis of the four treatment
groups showed that there were significant differences between the means of all
groups except the two groups containing the greatest number of idioms in the test
items.

There is considerable evidence in education research to show that a great

many normal children have difficulty in understanding what they read. This study
was designed to test one reason why the reading difficulty may occur.
Several researchers have pointed out the vital role of idioms in the English
language. (Chafe, 1967; Makkai, 1969). A number of recent classroom studies have
illustrated the incidence of idioms in school texts and have suggested the need to
teach idiomatic language as part of the English language programs in school.
However, very few research projects have concentrated on the effect of idioms on
the ability of a child to understand a passage of prose.
By the time a child enters formal education in the elementary school he
'displays language performance which reflects a high degree of competence'.
(Ruddell, 1970). That is, most first graders can converse and 'process' or
understand what is being said to them. They therefore understand sentence patterns
and a variety of transformations: (e.g. commands, statements, questions, embedded
sentences, etc.). Strickland (1962) has earlier observed that children exhibited far
greater skill in using language patterns than was previously realized.

*Request reprints from the author, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver 8, B. C., Canada.
288 Journal of Reading Behavior 1974 VI, 3

Reading, however, is not merely word-calling. A perceptual process must

accompany the deciphering of graphic symbols. Dechant (1970) states this
admirably when he refers to the complete reading act being an involvement in
which the reader brings meaning to the printed symbols through his cultural and
experiential background. The perceptual process involves seeing the printed word,
recognizing the word, understanding its meaning, and relating the word to its
context.
But what if an adequate knowledge of vocabulary depends on what Pei
(1967) refers to as an understanding of stale metaphors, similes, and idioms, which
in the words of George Orwell, 'construct your sentences for you . . . . think your
thoughts for you . . . . and conceal your meaning even from yourself?
The problem is exacerbated if the child does not have a satisfactory home
environment where he can be exposed to a wide variety of language and reading
experiences. Ruddell (1970) mentions the fact that a young person's language
comprehension is directly related to his 'strategies and objects'. If the child has had
little or no experience in identifying and understanding the complexities of
idiomatic language, he will be at a disadvantage when confronted with idioms in his
reading material. A good understanding of metaphors will usually help alleviate this
difficulty. Familiarity with idioms and metaphors will also enable a young person
to cope more effectively with the changing nature of the English language.
It was the purpose of this study to determine whether idioms cause children
to experience difficulty when reading prose. A test containing a number of idioms
which are in common usage in English prose was constructed and administered to
randomly assigned grade eight students. It was then argued that the inclusion of
idiomatic expressions into prose content caused difficulty in understanding for the
students.

DEFINITIONS

Idioms. Idioms refer to expressions or phrases which are peculiar to a given

language and which carry either a literal meaning or a non-literal meaning
depending on the intent of the writer. In other words idioms, as the term is used
here, are ambiguous, and to be understood must either be known as a unit or
deduced from the context. That is, the intended meaning cannot be arrived at by
literal analysis. 'He kicked the bucket' can literally mean just that, but it usually
conveys its idiomatic meaning: 'he died'.

Standard English. This term will represent the written dialect of the educated users
of the language and will include idioms but will not include slang.

METHOD

Subjects. The study was conducted in two secondary schools in the North
Vancouver area. Four classes were randomly selected from each school.
Edwards 289

One hundred and twenty-eight grade eight children were used from each of
the two schools. The children were selected from heterogeneously grouped classes
and were not classified as "academic", "vocational", or "occupational" students. A
table of random numbers was used to assign the students equally into four
experimental conditions within each class. Thus I.Q. and sex were randomly
distributed over the four tests.

Materials. All students received a set of eighteen passages of prose, the same for
each experimental condition, except as follows:

N.L. 1 (Non-Literal 1) All passages contained idiomatic language. These were the
original eighteen passages chosen,
example:
After their wild goose chase, the two mounties returned to police headquarters to
write a report. •
What would the mounties' report state?
(a) They had arrested an escaped prisoner.
(b) They had taken a holiday.
(c) Their had been successful.
(d) Their mission had failed.
(e)
NX. 2 (Non-Literal 2) The same eighteen passages except that six of them were
rewritten in Literal English,
example:
After their useless search, the two mounties returned to police headquarters to
write a report.
What would the mounties' report state?
(a) They had arrested an escaped prisoner.
(b) They had taken a holiday.
(c) Their mission had been successful.
(d) Their mission had failed.
(e)
N.L. 3 (Non-Literal 3) The same eighteen passages except that twelve of them were
rewritten in Literal English.
LIT (Literal) All eighteen of the passages were rewritten in Literal English.

The sets of prose were made up into test booklets and questions were asked
about each prose selection. In order to answer the questions correctly, the students
were required to have an understanding of the idiomatic expressions, or literal
counterparts, in context. Four alternatives, (a), (b), (c), (d) were given for each
passage. The alternatives were expressed in Literal English and were identical for
the four sets. If the students didn't agree with any of the choices being offered,
they were told to write what they considered the best answer next to (e).
290 Journal of Reading Behavior 1974 VI, 3

The criteria for inclusion of the prose passages and alternatives were as
follows:

1. To obtain a correct answer to an item (other than by random choice), the

student must have understood the passage as a whole. This applied to both the
idiomatic and the literal versions.
2. It must not have been possible for a student who understood the idiom (or
its equivalent in the literal version) to fail to comprehend the passage as a whole.
The passage therefore had to be free of further language difficulties of any kind.
3. It should not have been possible for students to infer the meaning of a
passage if they did not comprehend the idiom (or its literal counterpart). If the
idiom or its equivalent in the literal version was not understood by the student,
comprehension of the passage should have been impossible and a wrong answer
must have ensued (except for guessing).
4. There should have been no opportunity for the student to perceive similar
wording or structural similarity between the prose passage and the correct multiple
choice alternative being offered.

A panel of four judges accepted the criteria and independently appraised each
alternative to determine whether a person responding with the keyed answer
displayed an understanding of the meaning of the passage while a person who
responded otherwise did not. One hundred percent agreement among judges was
required for each item to be included, thus contributing to content validity.
A total of eighteen idioms was used in the tests. This number was chosen
because it enabled three variations of the original test to be constructed. Other
multiples of three could have been used, but it was decided to concentrate on
eighteen items which exhibited good content validity and which could conveniently
be administered in the time available to the investigator.
The item stems were brief and were designed merely to facilitate an overall
understanding of the passage which contained the idiom or its literal counterpart.
Because of the brevity of the test stems, the student was unable to gain much
assistance from context clues.
The items containing idioms were evenly spaced throughout the tests in
which they appeared. No attempt was made to experiment with other arrangements
or combinations of idiomatic and literal items.

Procedure. The reading passages were timed to ensure that students could complete
the work in a normal school period. The schools used in the study were checked to
ensure that the class periods were uniform and of adequate duration. As an added
precaution, a pilot study was conducted in another school having the same period
length as the schools used in the study, to ensure that the tasks could be completed
in the time available.
 291
Edwards

The test booklets were given at similar times in each school. The study was
carried out in late January, as by that time the children had settled down after the
Christmas holidays and were not distracted by impending exams.
The' test booklets were constructed to look like normal class exercises. No
mention of the terms "literal" or "non-literal" was made at any time during the
testing. Regular staff members. conducted the tests in each school employing
instructions that were standard for all groups. _
Reading materials used in the test booklets were selected from, or were
similar to, resource materials designed for use by grade-eight students in British
Columbian schools.
The main analytic technique was a one-way ANOVA to test the hypothesis
that non-literal passages of prose would be more difficult to understand than literal
passages.

RESULTS

The summary of the analysis of variance is in Table 1.

Table 1

Summary of Analysis of Variance

Source of Variation S.S. d.f. M.S. F P

Treatment 245.43 3 81.81 23.25 .00001
Within cells (error) 887.025 252 3.52
Total 1132.455 255

In order to determine which means differed sufficiently to lead to rejection

of the overall hypothesis that all four means would be equal, a Newman-Keuls test
was performed.
The results of this procedure showed that there were significant differences
between all pairs of means except those for groups NLi and NL2 which had the
highest proportion of idiomatic items. (See Table 2)
Boys performed much the same as girls did in the tests.
The null hypothesis which stated that idioms would not cause difficulty to
children's understanding of prose was rejected. The treatments differed, with means
ranging from 13.00 for the NX.! test, to 15.59 for the LITERAL test. The
differences were significant beyond the .00001 level. Idioms, therefore, have
considerable effect on children's ability to understand prose, as defined in this
study. .
292 Journal of Reading Behavior 1974 VI, 3

Table 2

Summary of Newman-Keuls testa

(Underlining indicates significant
differences between means)

Order NLj NL2 NL3 LIT

Means (13.00) (13.58) (14.47) • (15.59)
NL, .58 1.47 2.59
NL2 0.89 2.02
NL3 1.13
a
Figures in the table are differences between pairs of means

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

The main purpose of this study was to attempt to determine whether or not
idioms had an adverse effect on children's reading and understanding of prose. A
highly significant effect was found. The results of the study showed that there was
a positive relationship between the incidence of idioms in test material and the
amount of difficulty experienced by the children.
Several areas for further research are indicated by the results of this study.
A great deal needs to be known about the incidence and type of idiomatic
language encountered by Canadian students in their prescribed and recreational
reading materials. Such information would be useful to educational authorities
involved in the selection of school text books and in curricula planning. Aspiring .
authors of reading material designed for schools, would no doubt also find the
information useful.
The effect of idioms on types of reading material other than prose remains to
be investigated. Perhaps the occurrence of idioms in the descriptive style of writing
found in many social studies books would produce similar results.
Various methods of teaching an understanding of idioms should be explored.
Should idioms be taught as isolated units, or should they be taught in context? Is it
possible to train children to discern idioms by the use of 'context clues', or should
idioms be taught through an understanding of metaphorical language? The answers
to these and other questions would be instructive to teachers in the classroom.

REFERENCES

CHAFE, WALLACE L. "Language as symbolization", Language. Baltimore, 1967,

43.
Edwards 293

DECHANT, EMERALD V. Improving the Teaching of Reading. New Jersey:

Prentice Hall Inc., 1970.
MAKKAI, ADAM. "The two idiomaticity areas in english and their membership: a
stratification view". Linguistics. Mouton: 1969, 50-53.
PEI, MARIO (et al). Language Today. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1967.
RUDDELL, ROBERT B. "Language acquisition and the reading process",
Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading. I.R.A. Newark, 1970.
STRICKLAND, RUTH G. "The language of elementary school children: its
relationship to the language of reading textbooks and the quality of reading
of selected children", Bulletin of the School of Education. Indiana
University, 1962, 38.