Second Language Learners Familiarity & Transparency of Idioms

Second Language Learners Familiarity & Transparency of Idioms



TABLE OF CONTENT

INTRODUCTION3

LITERATURE REVIEW4

Familiarity6

Transparency7

Idiom Transparency and Idiom Familiarity8

RESEARCH METHOD14

Participants14

Materials15

Procedure15

Idiom Familiarity Task16

Idiom Comprehension task16

Transparency Judgment Task17

RESULTS ANALYSIS18

DISCUSSION21

CONCLUSION26

REFERENCES28

APPENDIX32

Table 1: Mean scores, standard deviation, and range by each group32

Table 2: Analysis of Variance (familiarity judgment task)32

Table 3: Analysis of Variance (Transparency judgment task)33

Table 4: Analysis of Variance (idiom comprehension task)33

Table 5: Idioms listed with the mean familiarity, transparency, and comprehension ratings34

Table 6: The mean familiarity, transparency, and comprehension ratings36

Second Language Learners Familiarity & Transparency of Idioms

Introduction

Teaching vocabulary has not been a central goal of second language English instruction during the very active decades of the mid-twentieth century. This view has been challenged since the 1970s. More emphasis and considerable attention have been directed to vocabulary and vocabulary studies since that time. Multi-word expressions, including idioms, have gained more attention as well. They have been approached and investigated from different perspectives ranging from form and idiom structure to metaphoricity and idiom meaning. Mantyla (2004) listed five categories showing the approaches linguists have used to study idioms: the structure of idioms, idiom processing, metaphoricity of idioms, idiom teaching and learning, and functions of idioms. This means that the approach to idioms had changed significantly during that period of time.

Idioms, such as [pull someone's leg] and [shoot the breeze] are figurative expressions whose meanings are not always determined by the literal meanings of their constituents. An idiom's meaning is usually different from the sum of the literal meanings of its components. For example, the literal interpretation of the idiom “I was pulling his leg” would be something like pulling someone's leg. The phrase, however, means “I was teasing someone”. Similarly, “shooting the breeze”, which means “talking with no purpose”, has no relationship with the meanings of the composing parts. Idioms are common in spoken and written language. 6% to 10% of sentences in students' literature books designed for 8-14 year-old students contained an idiom (Nippold, 1991). Idiom studies have a long tradition in the former Soviet Union and Russia but in the West idioms have not gained any greater attention until recently despite some studies published in the 1960s and 1970s. In spite of the increased number of studies on idioms, scholars have not been able to agree on definition of the term. However, what is agreed on is that idioms are very difficult to characterize points out, it is impossible to define them in an indisputable way. To make the matter even more complicated, one also has to distinguish idioms from idiomaticity.

Literature Review

According to Lazar, Warr-Leeper, Nicholson & Johnson (1989), 5% to 20% of classroom teachers' utterances directed to 5-14 year old students contain at least an idiom. This shows that it is necessary for Second Language Learners, adolescent, and adults to be able to interpret idioms correctly. Developmental studies of idiom understanding throughout childhood (e.g. Ackerman, 1982; Cacciari & Levorato 1989; Gibbs, 1987, 1991; Levorarto & Cacciari, 1992; Nippold, Moran, & Schwarz, 2001; Nippold & ...