QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF METAPHORICAL LANGUAGE COMPETENCE ON SCIENTIFIC TEXT COMPREHENSION IN ESL LEARNERS: A QUASI‑EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Abstract

Recent debates in second‑language pedagogy question whether training learners to recognize and deploy metaphors aids or hinders scientific reading. To address this debate, a quasi‑experimental study was conducted with undergraduate engineering students enrolled at two universities in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pre‑ and post‑tests measured scientific text comprehension, metaphorical competence and linguistic competence. A treatment group (n ≈ 180) received metaphor‑focused instruction, while a control group (n ≈ 180) studied identical materials without explicit metaphor awareness. Statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics, linear regression and Hayes’ PROCESS mediation models, were used to assess the relationship between linguistic competence and scientific text comprehension and to examine whether metaphorical competence mediated this relationship. Results revealed that both groups improved on the post‑test, but regression models showed no statistically significant association between linguistic competence and scientific text comprehension in the pre‑test and only modest relations in the post‑test (R ≈ 0.158–0.170, p = 0.053–0.037). Hayes’ mediation analyses found confidence intervals crossing zero, indicating no mediating effect of metaphorical competence. These findings suggest that while metaphor‑focused instruction does not impede performance, improvements in scientific reading may arise from multiple factors beyond explicit metaphor training.