Unearthing Metaphors: Figurativeness in Teacher-Child Talk About Soil and Related Matters

This article reports an empirical study of an important but under-studied feature of learning practices with young children: the use of metaphors and other kinds of figurative language. The data consist of video-recordings of children (3–5 years old) and their teacher engaged in thematic work about soil. The analysis revealed that the teacher and the children use a rich repertoire of communicative tools of a figurative kind to carry out a number of important functions, such as describing, explaining, and visualising phenomena. Some important questions to pursue in future studies of young children’s learning are proposed.