A paper dealing with the comprehension of metaphor and a second paper addressing the ramifications of the first paper's ideas for teaching practices are contained in this report. The opening section of the first paper explains why language theorists and scholars in a number of disciplines are interested in metaphor. Its next section deals with metaphor and meaning, explaining the three predominant views of metaphor: the substitution view, the comparison view, and the interaction view. The paper's third secton establishes a framework for understanding comprehension in general as prelude to the survey of empirical research that comprises the paper's next section. The paper's conclusion summarizes the main points of the article and outlines future research in the area of metaphor. The second paper in the report relates the understanding of metaphor expressed in the first paper to current and future teaching practices. It concludes that starting with literature children already know and reading to them is the best way to help them develop the skills they need to comprehend metaphor. (JL)