Dyslexia and metaphor comprehension in academic texts

Metaphor engages cognitive processes that are crucial for a comprehensive understanding of text, and “reaching full-fledged metaphor skills represents an important achievement in language development” (Tonini et al., 2022). This study specifically targets university students with dyslexia, a population witnessing a steady increase in enrollment in higher degree programs, as highlighted in the ANVUR report for Italy (2022). There is a growing emphasis on addressing the specific needs of these learners, extending into adulthood. Despite frequent efforts to implement compensatory or alternative measures during exams or educational activities, little attention is paid to their actual proficiency in comprehending academic texts (Pedersen et al., 2016). Academic texts present unique linguistic challenges for individuals with dyslexia, including anaphoric references, logical connectors, and passive sentence structures (Vender, 2017; Cardinaletti, 2018; Simi, 2021). According to a study by Steen (2010), metaphors comprise approximately 18.5% of academic texts. Therefore, if university students with dyslexia struggle to grasp metaphorical meaning, it could further hinder their comprehension of study materials. In the field of education, metaphors have long been recognized as effective tools for facilitating discovery, enabling learners to visualize and recall abstract concepts (Duit, 1991). However, previous research on the use of metaphors as pedagogical aids has not explicitly addressed the need for inclusive teaching practices tailored to students with dyslexia. This research study aims to evaluate the influence of metaphors in academic texts on text comprehension in university students, comparing those with and without dyslexia. Therefore, the primary research question revolves around whether metaphors in academic texts hinder text comprehension or facilitate it. To address this question, participants were presented with either a literal or a metaphorical version of two academic texts specifically created for this study. Subsequently, they completed a comprehension task. In addition to this, participants underwent a standardized assessment of general reading comprehension and cognitive abilities, including reading speed, reading accuracy, and working memory, which are closely linked to the dyslexic profile. A total of 58 university students took part in this study. The dyslexia group consisted of 28 young adults (7 males, 21 females, mean age = 22.75, SD = 3.85) with developmental dyslexia and no associated comorbidities. The control group comprised 30 young adults (9 males, 21 females, mean age = 24.33, SD = 5.1) with no learning difficulties. For the comprehension task, four experimental texts were specifically created for the study to simulate scientific research articles. Two texts were tailored for the metaphorical condition, while the other two served as corresponding literal counterparts, developed subsequent to the metaphorical versions. The novel metaphors utilized in the metaphorical texts were drawn from Mastroianni (2016) and Di Ricco et al. (2016). The chosen topics of the two texts were deliberately interdisciplinary and of a general nature, aimed at minimizing potential effects primarily associated with participants' background knowledge or field of study. In both the metaphorical and literal conditions, consistency in the readability of the texts was maintained concerning factors such as word length, word frequency, syntax complexity, and vocabulary complexity. Each participant received two texts, one in the literal condition and the other in the metaphorical condition. Comprehension was assessed using a multiple- choice task comprising eight questions for each text, with identical questions presented across conditions. All questions were designed to assess participants' overall understanding of the topic. As a concluding task, participants were requested to p