Elementary School Teachers' Use of Multiple Meaning Expressions

This study examined the frequency of occurrence of several types of multiple meaning expressions in the oral speech of teachers. Three types of lessons (math, language arts, and reading) taught by 2 different teachers at each grade level from kindergarten to grade 8 were studied. Thirty-six percent of all utterances contained at least one multiple meaning expression. Indirect requests occurred most frequently with 27% of all utterances being indirect. There was no statistically different frequency of use across grades or type of lesson. At least one idiom occurred in 11.5% of all utterances and idioms were used with increasing frequency as grade increased. Similes, metaphors, and irony occurred very rarely. Teachers should be made aware that multiple meaning expressions are commonly used and may be difficult for the language-impaired child to process. Further, treatment of the school-age language-impaired child might include emphasis on developing an understanding of multiple meaning expressions, particularly indirect requests and idiomatic expressions.