The applicability of Phraseodidactics in the teaching and learning of figurative language in learners with level 1 ASD: a scoping review

Abstract

People diagnosed with level 1 ASD stand out, among other features, for showing excessive literalism in the interpretation of all types of figurative language. This phenomenon has been studied from Psychology and Linguistics. Therefore, no papers have been found in which both disciplines are coordinated. Some scholars state that idiomatic PUs are considered to be a manifestation of the figurative language. Notwithstanding, they do not include the fields studying the nature and the didactics of these units: Phraseology and Phraseodidactics. Moreover, they consider it convenient to work on figurative language with this group from a pedagogical perspective. In this line, the objective of this scoping review is to establish theoretical principles from a multidisciplinary perspective in order to enable the teaching and learning of figurative language, considered as a challenge in social interaction for people with level 1 ASD. For this purpose, a scoping review has been carried out in which 79 publications have been selected from Scielo, SemanticScholar, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, Biblioteca Antonio Nebrija, PubMed and Biblioteca fraseológica y paremiológica about the figurative language in ASD from Psychology, Linguistics, Phraseology and Phraseodidactics and some lexicographic, phraseographic and paremiographic works have been consulted. The results of this review show that Phraseodidactics enables learners with ASD to work on figurative language, since the PUs include all manifestations of figurative language (metaphors, metonymies, humor, irony, sarcasm, hyperbole and Gricean implicatures).