The Difficulties of Students’ Understanding on Figurative Language and Feasible Suggestions

Abstract

Figurative language of creativity is common in our daily life. It is due to the ubiquity of it in written and spoken texts that a second language learner is likely to inevitably encounter all kinds of figurative expressions. Learners of English who come from different cultural background are likely to have great difficulties in understanding figurative language in texts. Based on American former president Trump’s speech, this essay identifies the figurative language which could pose difficulties for a learner of English in the text, especially focused on learners from China and explains why learners may experience these difficulties. The essay suggests that using the context, literal meaning and corpus lines may be helpful for learners to aid comprehension and overcome metaphor difficulties.