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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding, and Strategies
Used in Processing, English Idioms by the Libyan Students
Noura Winis Ibrahim Saleh
University of Sebha, Sebha, Libya
Dr. Mohammed Hassan Zakaria
The University Teknologi Malaysia
Abstract
The field of idiomaticity is considered by many researchers as an important area,
especially when it comes to L2 and/ or EFL learners. Mastering idioms and the ability
to use them in the written and the spoken discourse is considered as a sign towards
proficiency. However, it is noticed clearly that there is not much research done in this
respect. Lazar (1996) states that figurative language is an area often neglected in the
teaching of vocabulary. In this respect, this study was conducted to investigate the
difficulties faced by 40 Libyan students in understanding idiomatic expressions.
Additionally, it was to shed light on some strategies employed by those students to
ease their way in understanding and using idiomatic expressions. The paper aims to
investigate problems and difficulties encountered by the Libyan students and
strategies used to overcome these problems and difficulties.
Keywords: idiomatic expressions, idiomaticity, literal and figurative meaning, Idiom
processing strategies
International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies
ISSN: 2308-5460
July-September, 2013
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
1. Introduction
This study aims to investigate the main difficulties faced by the Libyan students in
understanding idiomatic expressions in English. Idioms are considered by many
researchers as the colorful side of the language. Therefore, learners must see the
language through rose-colored glasses to learn every single item that leads to
proficiency. In fact, the level of command of idioms serves as an important indicator
of L2 proficiency. One of the main blocks of L2 idiom learning is that idioms are
often unpredictable in meaning, that is, their meanings cannot always be derived from
the literal meanings of the constituent parts. Above all, in the pedagogical sense,
teaching vocabulary must be inseparable part from teaching idioms.
Idioms, which are a type of phraseological unit and are largely figurative in nature,
are widely spread in human language. In fact, the level of command of idioms
indicates L2 proficiency. Although it is generally accepted that L2 learners of English
need to gain a good grasp of idioms, the teaching and learning of idioms in L2 is
considered a hard task. One of the reasons is that a considerable number of idioms are
figurative in nature-that is their overall meaning cannot be obtained by simply adding
up the literal meanings of the item. Added and related to these factors is the fact that
the traditional vocabulary listing methods adopted in most ESL / EFL textbooks
present each idiom entry and its meaning in such a way that the choice of each single
word in the idiom seems random, and the overall figurative meaning cannot be
explained. Taken together, these factors make idioms one of the most difficult aspects
of L2 teaching and learning.
In this respect, the present paper investigates the difficulties encountered by the
Libyan students while understanding idioms and the strategies employed by them
while processing the idioms.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Definition of Idioms
Defining idioms, however, has never been easy. Researchers in the field have made
various attempts to define what constitutes an idiom, but due to different theoretical
classification criteria adopted in the definition, phraseologists still are not able to
agree on a shared set of terms or describe the whole process clearly. An idiom is an
institutionalized construction that is composed of two or more lexical items and has
International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies
ISSN: 2308-5460
July-September, 2013
www.eltsjournal.org
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
the composite structure of a phrase or semi-clause. Moreover, it is considerably fixed
and collocationally restricted (Langlotz, 2006). An idiom is a fixed expression whose
meaning cannot be taken as a combination of the meanings of its component parts.
Thus, the common phrase kick the bucket has nothing to do with either kicking or
buckets, but means simply, “to die.” In other words, idioms are not literal expressions
(Ifill, 2002). Moon (2006) defined idiom as a fixed sequence of words which has a
meaning beyond that of the constituent parts.
‘An idiom is an expression whose overall figurative meaning cannot be derived from
the meaning of its parts’ (Marlies, 1995; p. 283). An idiom is a figurative expression
that usually can be interpreted literally but that takes a nonliteral meaning when used
in a specific context (Cain & Oakhill and Lemmon, 2005; p. 66).
2.2 The study of idiomaticity in a glance
The study of idiomaticity in language has been of long-standing interest to linguists.
Linguists intend on characterizing the internal structure of languages, and
psycholinguists, intent on characterizing the internal cognitive structure of language
users. Idioms are usually grouped within a larger class of linguistic expressions called
figurative or non literal language. In a second language learning classroom,
completely idiomatic teaching will not usually be offered and required; however, all
learners must be prepared to meet the challenge of idioms occurring frequently in
spoken and written English (Irujo, 1986). Pollio (1977) analyzed political debates,
psychology texts, novels, and psychotherapy sessions to investigate the overall use of
non-literal language. They found that “most English speakers utter about 10 million
novel metaphors per lifetime and 20 million idioms per lifetime. This works out to
about 3,000 novel metaphors per week and 7,000 idioms per week” (pp. 140).
Advanced L2 learners have the advantage of target language learning, but they also
have a disadvantage in not understanding idioms of the target language which will
appear in newspapers, movies, magazines, books and daily conversations. According
to Cooper (1999), idiom study presents a special language problem for all language
learners because the figurative meaning is unpredictable.
2.3 Problems in Teaching L2 Idioms
Idioms are not taught in L2 classroom due to the fact that teachers either do not know
many idioms in L2 or they do not know their origin. They may feel that their origins
International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies
ISSN: 2308-5460
July-September, 2013
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
need to be explained. (Mola, 1993) identified that idioms are not treated in L2
classrooms as regularly as might be, because of time pressures. Lennon (1998)
suggests that exercises of problem-solving nature can help learners to discover the
metaphors in idiomatic expressions. Furthermore, Lennon believes that students will
become highly motivated to translate their language’s metaphors into the target
language so as to share with the class their own culture method of metaphor encoding.
In light to what is mentioned above, it is important for EFL teachers to design various
activities for students to use with English idioms and subsequently acquire them
efficiently. Moreover, students learn better when they are provided with collaborative
activities. They can interact with peers and share fun in learning. Ultimately, when
teachers integrate listening, speaking, reading and writing activities together in
teaching English idioms, students, consequently, can be involved in the application of
English idioms in the four skills. Thus, it is effective to teach EFL learners English
idiom when they are provided with various activities to practice and utilize English
idioms in different contexts. According to Mantyla (2004) states that idioms should
not be taught directly at all. She considers the best policy of teaching to be a method
where the students’ attention is focused on the common characteristics of idioms.
2.4 Strategies Employed in L2 Idiom Processing
L2 speakers, just like L1 speakers, apply some strategies while processing the idioms
inspite of the lack of sufficient input in the classroom setting and the lack of language
contact as it is shown by research in the field of foreign/ second language (L2)
teaching. In order to interpret the meaning of idioms, L2 speakers recall the strategies
acquired during the first language acquisition. Bulut, & Yazici (2004) indicated that
they rely on the literal meaning conveyed in the context and guess what it means.
Furthermore, contextual clues are useful to learners in comprehending unknown
idioms. Cooper (1999) explored the comprehension strategies used by L2 learners
when trying to decipher the meanings of English idioms in one- or two-sentence
contexts. The most commonly used strategies were: guessing from context, discussing
and analyzing the idiom, and using the literal meaning. Overall, guessing from
context was the most successful strategy (Zyzik, 2009). Palmer and Brooks (2004)
pointed out that the interpretation of figurative language is mainly related to learner’s
background knowledge (schemata) in order to interpret the expression within context.
International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies
ISSN: 2308-5460
July-September, 2013
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
They stated “figurative language interpretation is based on student’s schemata;
therefore, direct or explicit instruction is often needed to provide the knowledge
necessary to understand not only the figurative language expressions but the context
surrounding them as well.” Instructions are needed to be provided for learners to
guide them to figure out the intended meaning of the figurative language.
Other researchers have turned the attention to a mnemonic strategy by stating its
effectiveness. A strategy which is mnemonic and whose effectiveness has been
established is encouragement of ‘‘dual coding’’ (Clark and Paivio, 1991), that is, to
help learners to form and process lexical understandings which have an imagistic
component as well as a component that is symbolic/ propositional in nature.
On the other hand, many researchers have studied the role of L1 in L2 idiom
processing, but it is a double edged sword. In other words, L2 learners' reliance on
their own L1 in L2 idiom processing may assist or hinder their understanding of L2
idioms. Such a phenomenon is termed the "interlingual factor" by Cornell (1999, p.6).
Irujo's (1986) study suggests that the use of L1 may assist L2 learners in their
comprehension of L2 idioms which are identical or similar to L1 equivalents. At the
same time, idioms that have no similar or identical L1 equivalents cause difficulty for
L2 learners.
2.5 The Role of Vocabulary and Culture in Understanding Idioms
Understanding the lexicon of English demands more than knowing the denotative
meaning of words, it requires its speakers to have connotative word comprehension
and more, an understanding of figurative language. Idioms fall into this final category
(Jacqueline Ambrose, 2003). It appears that it is easy to comprehend and interpret an
idiom when it is more familiar to someone. Exposure to a wide range of idioms may
play an important role in idiom comprehension. Therefore, more familiarity of idioms,
the more frequently are use (Fusté-Herrmann, 2008).
Word familiarity has an
important influence on word recognition Connine et al., (1990) and the
comprehension of new metaphors (Blasko and Connine, 1993). Schweigert (1986)
studied the relationship between familiarity and idiom processing. Reading rates for
sentences containing highly familiar idioms were shorter than those for sentences
containing low familiar idioms. The fact that highly familiar idioms were understood
more quickly than less familiar idioms as it is stated by Cronk and Schweigert (1992).
International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies
ISSN: 2308-5460
July-September, 2013
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
These studies reveal that idioms, like words, are processed more quickly depending
on the degree of experience a comprehender has with a particular phrase.
Nippold & Taylor (1995) stated that the frequency with which an idiom occurs in a
language is often defined as familiarity; however, frequency and familiarity are both
moderated by culture. Familiarity is relative and depends on such factors as
geographical location, linguistic background (including dialect), culture, and age
(Nippold & Rudinski, 1993). It appears that idiom comprehension is easier when an
idiom is more familiar to someone because less conceptual analysis is required
(Qualls & Harris, 1999). Exposure may play an important role in idiom
comprehension since having more experience with idioms may make those idioms
more salient (Norbury, 2004). Ultimately, more frequently used idioms may be more
familiar.
Glucksberg (2001) described idioms as a secret language and a language owned by a
culture that one has to be steeped in. In other words, idioms vary in frequency and
familiarity depending on variables like demographic characteristics and cultural and
linguistic identification.
2.6 The Role of Context in Idiom Comprehension
Cain et al., (2005) demonstrated that there are three factors in idiom comprehension:
familiarity, transparency and context. They state that idioms that are presented in texts
are easier to understand than those are presented in isolation.
Cain et al (2005)
maintain that ‘context might facilitate the interpretation of figurative language by
providing the necessary semantic information from which reader (listener) can extract
or infer the appropriate sense of expression’ (p. 67). For them, ‘contexts are important
for less common idioms whose meanings are not yet fully known, particularly for
unfamiliar opaque idioms whose meanings are not fully derivable through semantic
analysis of phrases’ (p. 67).
In this study, therefore, the focus is on the specific problems students have in
understanding and using idioms correctly, and the strategies used by them in order to
understand those idioms based on this theoretical framework.
2.7 Aims of this study
English idioms do not mean what they literally mean. Therefore, they are problematic
even for native speakers of the language. Keeping this view in mind, this paper sheds
International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies
ISSN: 2308-5460
July-September, 2013
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
light on the difficulties that Libyan students face in understanding those chunks. The
paper aims to investigate and find out why idioms are still unturned stone in their
way, as being amongst other issues, towards proficiency. In light of the above, the
paper also aims to find some solutions that can work as a key component to increasing
students’ motivation and involvement in learning English idioms. The use of idioms
and idiomatic English are both characteristic of advanced EFL learners. It seems that
due attention is not given to the learning of idioms, and students' competence in these
forms needs to be developed further not only on the recognition level but also on the
production level.
2.8 Research questions
There is a general belief that idioms are extremely difficult for nonnative speakers.
One of the major problems that L2 learners face in understanding idioms is the
frequency of idioms. Irujo (1986) pointed out that learners comprehend and produce
most easily and correctly the idioms that were frequently used in everyday speech and
were metaphorically transparent in that their literal meanings were closely related to
their figurative meanings. In her article on learning and teaching idioms, Irujo (1986)
stated that second language idioms are very difficult to learn because they are not
literal and do not mean what they say. Furthermore, another factor that is very critical
to understanding idioms is L1 transfer. A study conducted by Cooper (1999), showed
that the LI plays a role in L2 idiom processing even though L2 learners are less likely
to transfer LI knowledge when they perceive the meaning as figurative. Thus, it is
likely that L1 transfer may play some role in learners' processing of L2 idioms, but
there is a need to better understand when and how this and other comprehension
strategies are used in L2 idiom processing. Non-literalness could be another factor
that affects understanding of idioms.
Swinney and Cutler (1979) pointed out that an idiom is a string of two or more words
for which meaning is not derived from the meanings of the individual words
comprising that string. Thus, the idiomatic meaning of "kick the bucket" has little to
do with the meanings of either "kick" or "bucket"; similarly. The meaning of "by and
large" has little to do with the meanings of either "large" or "by." Another reason why
second-language learners do not learn idioms is that the teachers do not teach them
very well. Many second-language teaching materials either ignore idioms entirely or
International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies
ISSN: 2308-5460
July-September, 2013
www.eltsjournal.org
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
relegate them to the 'other expressions' section of vocabulary lists, without providing
exercises or other aids to learning. The exposure to idioms is also one of the reasons
that are considered of a vital importance. (Hussein et al., 2000), concluded that the
acquisition of idioms has thus far been a neglected variable in the EFL environment.
Further, they stated that learner's poor competence of English idioms can be related to
the fact that the study of lexis in general and idioms in particular was stated at a minor
position. With such background, the present study attempts to seek answers to the
following research questions:
1. What sort of difficulties do Libyan students encounter in using idiomatic
expressions both decomposable and nondecomposable?
a. Are they able to predict their meanings in different contexts?
b. Does low frequency of vocabulary matter in order to
understand idioms?
c. Does the difficulty arise from the vagueness of the constituent
parts or from the whole phrase?
2. What are the possible strategies that they may use to facilitate
understanding of the idioms?
3. Research Methodology
3.1 Participants
The study included 40 Libyan students of different majors in and outside UTM, Johor,
Malaysia. The participants were chosen purposively. Only proficient students took
part in the study. The questionnaire was distributed to these 40 Libyan students and
the data were collected, arranged and analyzed to draw appropriate conclusions.
4. Data analysis and discussion
4.1 Data Analysis
Data of this study was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science
(SPSS) software. The analysis of this data was based on the descriptive analysis,
mean and standard deviation. All these items were applied in order to fulfill the
objectives of this study. Questionnaire is to get the mean, and the average of the
problem size. For the questionnaire, the mean and standard deviation and frequency
were calculated using Social Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). All points were
International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies
ISSN: 2308-5460
July-September, 2013
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
analyzed statistically to get the findings of the study. The findings show what the
main difficulties that those students encounter in using the idiomatic expressions and
also reveal what strategies were used.
Figure: 1 Distribution of Participants by English Language Proficiency Level
This figure represents the total number of participants. Of the participants, 20% got
5.5, and 24% of them got 6 in the IETLS test. 46% of the participants were in the
intermediate level that is equal to 5.5 but without sitting for the IELTS test. Only 8%
of the respondents scored 6.5 in the IETLS test. The smallest percentage refers to
those who got 7 in the IELTS test. They were only about 2% of the total number of
participants.
Figure: 2 Distribution of Participants by Exposure to L2 Environment
International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies
ISSN: 2308-5460
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
Figure shows the percentages of the respondents who had been to English speaking
countries / environment. Only 19% of them pointed out that they had been to English
speaking countries or environment. The higher bar of 21% shows the number of
respondents that never been to English speaking countries or environment.
Figure: 3 Distribution of Participants by Contact with Native Speakers of English
International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies
ISSN: 2308-5460
July-September, 2013
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
This figure shows the participants who communicated with native speakers. More
than 25 of the total number of participants positively identified that they were in touch
with them. On the other hand, less than 15 participants negatively revealed that they
had not been in contact with native speakers.
Knowledge of Idioms (Difficulties and Strategies)
The analysis was to determine the participants’ knowledge of idioms that influence
the frequency experienced by the Libyan students. Analysis is based on frequency (f),
percentage (%) and mean value. The frequency of knowledge of idioms is: Strongly
Disagree, Disagree, Agree and Strongly Agree. Table 4.1 shows the results obtained
from section three of the questionnaire.
Table: 1 Participants’ Knowledge of Idioms
Frequency
1
2
S.Disagree Disagree
Knowledge
of Idioms
f
f
(%)
(%)
1-I’m good at
1
18
idioms.
(2.5)
(45.0)
2-I like to use
3
5
idioms.
(7.5)
(12.5)
3-Idioms are easy
1
19
to use.
(2.5)
(47.5)
4-Idioms are
9
7
difficult to
(22.5)
(17.5)
understand because
of the lack of
cultural
background behind
the idioms.
5-Idioms are
9
8
difficult because
(22.5)
(20.0)
they are not taught
well in class.
6-It is useful for me 4
9
to predict the
(10.0)
(22.5)
meaning of idioms.
7-I like to learn
13
2
idioms in context.
(32.5)
(5.0)
Std.
Mean Deviation
f
(%)
19
(47.5)
31
(77.5)
15
(37.5)
22
(55.0)
4
S.
Agree
f
(%)
2
(5.0)
1
(2.5)
5
(12.5)
2
(5.0)
21
(52.5)
3
Agree
2.55
0.639
2.75
0.630
2.6
0.744
2.43
0.903
2
(5.0)
2.4
0.9
27
(67.5)
0
(0)
2.58
0.675
25
(62.5)
0
(0)
2.3
0.939
International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies
ISSN: 2308-5460
July-September, 2013
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
8-Context plays a
13
5
22
0
2.23 0.92
crucial role in
(32.5)
(12.5)
(55.0)
(0)
understanding
idioms.
9-Verbal (textual or 10
5
25
0
2.38 0.868
audio) and visual
(25.0)
(12.5)
(62.5)
(0)
information help
activate my
knowledge of
idioms.
10-Guessing the
meaning of the
5
8
26
1
2.425 0.874
constituent words
(12.5)
(20.0)
(65.0)
(2.5)
leads me to guess
the overall
meaning.
11-I can often
figure out an idiom 3
11
24
2
2.575 0.747
from an equivalent (7.5)
(27.5)
(60.0)
(5.0)
one in my
language.
12-I translate the
literal meaning into
my L1 (first
language) in order
to understand
idioms.
13-I use many
different strategies
when learning
idioms
14-I like to know
what other
strategies I can use
to make better
sense of idioms.
15-I like to be
taught specific
strategies in
learning idioms in
foreign language
0
(0)
21
(52.5)
10
(25.5
9
(22.5)
2.7
0.823
6
(15.0)
8
(20.0)
23
(57.5)
3
(7.5)
2.58
0.844
13
(32.5)
1
(2.5)
26
(65.0)
0
(0)
2.33
0.944
12
(30.0)
4
(10.0)
24
(60.0)
0
(0)
2.3
0.911
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
16-I like to be
taught the skills
17
2
21
0
2.1
0.982
and processes
(42.5)
(5.0)
(52.5)
(0)
necessary to create
meaning from
idiomatic text
N=40
The sections of this table were analyzed focusing on the factors that lead to the
difficulty to the participants and made them select various strategies. The factors
included: difficulty of idioms, role of vocabulary, and strategies of L2 idiom
processing.
Difficulties in L2 Idiom Comprehension.
Referring to the item ‘Idioms are difficult to understand because of the lack of cultural
background behind the idioms’ the participants who showed strongly disagreement
and disagreement to this item were 9 (22.5%) and 7 (17.5%) respectively. On the
other hand, the participants, who showed agreement and strongly agreement, were 22
(55.5%) and only 2 (5, 0%), respectively.
As for the item ‘Idioms are difficult because they are not taught well in class’, which
is considered to be one of the important factors behind the use of idiomatic
expressions, the responses that showed strongly disagreement and disagreement were
approximately similar giving 9 (22.5%) and 8(20.0%) respectively. besides that, a
total of 21 (52.5%) participants agreed and only 2 (5.0%) participants strongly agreed.
A total of 3 (7.5%) participants strongly disagreed with the item ‘I can often figure
out an idiom from an equivalent one in my language’ and 11 (27.5%) participants
disagreed with this statement. The positive answer to this item yielded 24 (60.0%)
participants who agreed and only 2 (5.0%) participants strongly agreed with the above
statement.
The Role of Vocabulary in L2 Idiom Comprehension
The statement ‘It is useful for me to predict the meaning of idioms’ 4 (10.0%)
participants strongly disagreed with this statement and 9 (22.5%) participants
disagreed. For this statement none of the participants showed that they strongly
agreed, however, 27(67.5%) participants agreed that it was useful to predict the
meaning of idioms.
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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2
Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M
Amin, Ahmad
The response for the statement ‘The meaning of the constituent words leads me to
guess the overall meaning’ indicated that 5 (12.5%) responses strongly disagreed and
8 (20.0%) respondents disagreed. On the other hand, 26 (65.0%) respondents agreed
to this item and only 1 (2.5%) respondent strongly agreed
The Role of Context in L2 Idiom Comprehension
The statement ‘I like to learn idioms in context’ revealed that 13 (32.5%) respondents
disagreed and only 2 (5.0%) respondents disagreed. However, 25 (62.5%) participants
agreed with this statement and no one strongly agreed with it. In response to the
statement ‘Context plays a crucial role in understanding idioms’, the number of
participants who strongly disagreed were 13 (32.5%) respondents and 5 (12.5%)
participants disagreed. A total number of participants who agreed were 22 (55.0%)
participants. Likewise, none of the participants strongly agreed compared with the
responses of the previous statement.
The strategies used in L2 Idiom Comprehension
As for the statement ‘I use many different strategies when learning idioms’, 6 (15.0%)
participants strongly disagreed and 8 (20.0%) participants disagreed. The vast
majority of the participants agreed with this item and the number was 23 (57.5%)
participants, whereas only 3 (7.5%) participants agreed.
In response to the item ‘I translate the literal meaning into my L1 (first language) in
order to understand idioms’, surprisingly, none of the participants showed strongly
disagreement to this statement. 21 (52.5%) participants disagreed. The percentage of
participants who agreed and strongly agreed to this statement was exactly the same.
With reference to the item ‘I like to be taught the skills and processes necessary to
create meaning from idiomatic texts’, 17 (42.5%) participants strongly disagreed and
only 2 (5.0%) participants disagreed with this statement. 21 (52.55%) participants
agreed and none of the participants showed strongly disagreement.
As can be seen from the table, the highest mean score was 2.75. It was obtained from
the respondents that showed their positive attitude towards the use of idioms. On the
other hand, the lowest mean score was 2.1. It was obtained from the number of
participants who wish to be taught the skills and processes that would help them to
create meaning from idiomatic texts.
4.2 Discussion
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This part introduces the findings obtained from the questionnaire. This part presents
the difficulties that the participants faced in understanding idiomatic expressions, the
role of the context and how it helped the participants to figure out the meaning of the
idiomatic expressions, the influence of low vocabulary words on understanding, and
the role of constituent parts that make up the expressions. Besides that, the focus will
be on the strategies that respondents used in order to understand these expressions.
The findings of this study indicated that students got better results on the idiom
questionnaire but it is important to consider why they performed better and why some
features of the students’ background influenced idiom comprehension while others
were insignificant. An interesting issue to contemplate is also why certain idioms
were more difficult or easier than others and what might be the causes behind it.
Above all the results of the present study were considered in the light of previous
idiom comprehension studies.
The responses gained from the background questionnaire, activities practiced by the
participants of this study as well as the knowledge of idiom section all have a great
impact on the findings of this study, though some parts seems to be insignificant. To
start with, the participants who sat for the IELTS exam seems to have a wide
knowledge as well as a wide range of vocabulary that helped them to understand the
idioms. Additionally, having a high score on IELTS exam correlated with the having
a solid background on idioms, because the more you use idioms in IELTS exam, the
high score the candidate gets. The fact that some participants had a correct definition
was due to their background knowledge. The majority of respondents were not in
contact with native speakers. That is why their background knowledge about idioms
were not that much helpful. It did not make difference. Besides that, the exposure to
written discourse had no significant influence since the majority of the participants
were exposed only to books related to their majors.
The third section of the questionnaire showed that the difficulty aroused from the
nondecomposable idioms that were not easy to interpret due to the low frequent
vocabulary that even if they knew their literal meaning, it was still difficult to know
the overall meaning of the expression. Similarly, the difficulty rose from vocabulary
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that constituted the expression and sometimes from the whole expression, because if
the words that made up the expressions were the difficult or not known for the
participant, it affected understanding of the whole expressions.
The findings indicated that idioms were difficult because of the lack of the cultural
background behind idioms was moderate (mean=2.43). It is revealed that the majority
(55.0%) of the students think that the cultural background affects understanding of
idiomatic expressions. Besides that, the responses regarding the difficulties were that
the idioms were not taught in the class. It was found that the mean score for this
statement was (mean=2.4).
The findings also revealed that the items related to the use of context significantly
revealed that the context played a vital role in understanding idioms with a mean
(=2.3). The respondents who revealed that it was useful to predict the meaning of
idioms was the highest percentage with a mean score of (=2.58) and the mean score.
The response from these participants revealed that the majority of the respondents
indicated that the context helped them to approach to the meaning. According to the
responses gained from the questionnaire to the item ‘Verbal (textual or audio) and
visual information helped activate my knowledge of idioms’ with a mean score (2.38),
this shows that exposure to different contexts (spoken and written) expands the
knowledge of idioms and help retaining them to a later use. Qualls et al (2003)
pointed out that contextual cues are imperative for comprehension of unfamiliar
idioms in either the oral or written modality, particularly if idioms are more opaque in
nature.
The analysis also indicated that the difficulty was related to the meaning of the
individual words which made up the whole phrase with a mean score of (2.425). In
other words, if the participants could not recognize the meaning of a word in the
whole expression, s/he was not able to denote the meaning of the whole expression.
The data analysis also revealed that participants used several strategies in the process
of comprehending an idiom . Cooper (1999) explored the comprehension strategies
used by L2 learners when trying to figure out the meanings of English idioms in oneor two-sentence contexts. The most commonly used strategies were guessing from
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context, discussing and analyzing the idiom, and using the literal meaning. The
findings of this study showed that the participants used many strategies in order to
approach the meaning of the idiomatic expressions. These strategies were repeating
and paraphrasing the idiom, discussing and analyzing the idiom, guessing the
meaning from the context, using background knowledge, using the literal meaning to
understand the meaning of its figurative counterpart, referring to L1 idiom, and other
strategies. These strategies will be explained respectively. Moreover, Fu (2003) points
out the visualization (drawing) might be one of the strategies that L2 learners may
use. He argued for the importance of drawing for English-language learners
(especially beginners) as a means to express their understanding of what they are
learning.
The most successful strategy that was used by the majority of the participants was
guessing the meaning from the context (37 %). With respect to the effect of context,
Nippold and Martin (1989); Levrato and Cacciari (1999); Ishida (2008b) state that L2
learners would have more success interpreting idioms presented with supportive
context than without. Furthermore, past research has shown that L2 learners use
context to interpret idioms and are more successful interpreting idioms in context than
in isolation (Cooper 1998; Ishida 2008b; Liontas 2002).
4.3 Summary of the Findings
The findings of this study revealed that idioms were difficult due to a number of
factors that started from introducing the idiomatic expressions in the classroom by the
teachers and their figurative nature. Additionally, the low frequent vocabulary was
one of the factors that affect students understanding of the idioms. The participants
also used various strategies while processing Idioms. The most successful strategies
were guessing from the context as well as referring to L1 since the expression exists
in both languages.
5. Conclusion
The investigated the effects of the students’ backgrounds on idiom comprehension,
such as their English Language Proficiency, exposure to L2 environment, contact with
native speakers and exposure to different types of written discourse. It was observed
that participants who were in contact with native speakers, reading in English and
reaching to higher levels of English got better results than their peers who reported the
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opposite in the background section of the questionnaire. The study also investigated
the problems and the difficulties that Libyan students face when using idiomatic
expressions as well as the strategies that they use in order to figure out the meaning of
such expressions.
The findings of this study are in line with those of Cooper (1999) in the way that the
participants did not use a single strategy while encountering the meaning of idiomatic
expression given in a context; instead, they used a variety of strategies. While
processing the idiom, they relied on of the contextual clues more than any other ones.
As can be seen from the data analyzed, the difficulties were all related to the
nondecomposable idioms that their constituent parts are not related to the overall
figurative meaning. For some even some constituents were difficult because they were
low frequent vocabulary or they were not known for the participant him/herself. To
help the figure the meaning out, the participants used many strategies to understand
idioms. The most successful strategy was guessing from context and next was
referring to L1 idiom. In fact, the context played a major role to help the participants
understand the meaning of those expressions.
About the Authors:
Noura Winis Ibrahim Saleh completed her Master in English from the University
Teknologi, Malaysia and is presently working as a member of teaching staff of the
Department of English language and Translation Studies of the Faculty of Arts, the
University of Sebha, Sebha, Libya. Her major areas of research interest include- ELT,
Linguistics, Morphology, Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis.
Dr. Mohammed Hassan Zakaria works as a professor of English with the
University Teknologi, Malaysia and has supervised many students in their research
studies.
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