4. Etymological elaboration as a strategy for learning idioms

Boers, Frank; Demecheleer, Murielle; Eyckmans, June

doi:10.1075/lllt.10.07boe

Cited by 91 publications

(81 citation statements)

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“…Etymological elaboration, as a pedagogical approach in L2 idiom instruction, has been of particular interest in L2 research, and its effectiveness has been examined by Boers, Demecheleer, and Eyckmans (2004) with several large-scale studies. One study involved two groups, of which one experimental group who received the literal, original usage of the target idioms, whereas a control group from the same population served as a comparison one that was not given access to the etymological information of the same material.…”

Section: Etymological Elaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of Two Strategies of Etymological Elaboration and Pictorial Elucidation on Idiom Learning: A Case of Young EFL Iranian Learners

Haghshenas¹,

Hashemian²

2016

ELT

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This study examined the effect of etymological elaboration, pictorial elucidation, and integration of these 2 strategies on idiom learning by L2 learners. A total number of 80 homogeneous intermediate learners studying English at 3 language institutes in Isfahan, Iran, were selected. The intermediate participants were selected as the result of administering an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) to them. Then, the participants were divided into 4 groups of equal size, that is, control, etymological, pictorial, and etymological/pictorial groups. Before the experiment, all the participants took a pretest to ensure their unfamiliarity with the idioms. The idioms that were known even by 1 participant were crossed out, and finally 30 idioms were chosen for instruction. Then, the experimental groups received their relevant treatments during 15 sessions, whereas the control group learners learned idioms through definitions and example sentences. After the implementation of the experiment, the 4 groups, once again, sat for a test (i.e., the immediate posttest) to see whether the treatments had improved idiom learning. Finally, the data were analyzed by an independent samples t test and one-way between-groups ANOVA. Results showed that all the 3 strategies significantly improved the participants' idiom learning. Results also pointed to the fact that the etymological elaboration/pictorial elucidation strategy was the most effective strategy on idiom learning.

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Section: Etymological Elaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of Two Strategies of Etymological Elaboration and Pictorial Elucidation on Idiom Learning: A Case of Young EFL Iranian Learners

Haghshenas¹,

Hashemian²

2016

ELT

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“…Other researchers believe that acquiring metaphoric competence is of great significance for language learning (Gibbs, 1994;Ponterotto, 1994;Giora, 2003;Boers, 2003;Boers, Demecheleer, & Eyckmans, 2004;Littlemore & Low, 2006b). Based on a study conducted by Charteris-Black (2002, p. 104) on university students, it was found out that "the easiest metaphoric expressions are the ones that have equal conceptual foundation and linguistic forms both in the native and target languages", while those metaphoric expressions which have different conceptual foundations but equal linguistic forms are the most difficult.…”

Section: Idioms and The Conceptual Theory Of Metaphormentioning

confidence: 99%

“My Patience is Exhausted” and “Nafida Sabrii”: A Conceptual Metaphoric Account of “Patience” Idioms in English and Arabic

Galal¹

2014

IJEL

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This paper attempts to explain convergence and divergence of Arabic and English idioms in view of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) as set forth by Lakoff and Johnson (2003), one of the landmarks in cognitive linguistics which holds that our conceptual system is based on a group of mental metaphorical images that determine our way of thinking and influence our experience of the world. The paper specifically focuses on idioms related to patience in both languages. It has been found out that patience idioms in both languages emanate from very similar conceptual metaphors: PATIENCE IS HARDNESS, PATIENCE IS A FLUID IN A CONTAINER, and PATIENCE IS SPACIOUNESS; multiple differences, however, have been found to originate basically from cultural/linguistic variance. This study also explores how analyzing Arabic and English "patience" idioms within CMT framework can have significant implications for L2 language learning.

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“…In a series of studies, Boers, et al (2004Boers, et al ( , 2007 have zeroed in on the effectiveness of this particular technique on L2 learners' idiom retention and recall. In their 2004 study, Boers, et al provided the experimental group with the literal, original use (etymology) of the target idioms, while no information regarding the etymology of the idioms was given to the control group.…”

Section: Etymological Elaboration Vs Typographic Salience In Teachinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ubiquity and centrality of these multiword units has been attested by scholars and researchers in the field of second language learning and teaching (Carter, 2004;Boers, et al, 2014;Hayati, et al, 2013;Martinez, 2013; Siyanova-Chanturia, 2015; Stengers, et al, 2014, Wood, 2010). Thus, if FSs are so pervasive, then language learners are constantly exposed to a bombardment of figurative expressions throughout their learning process and they have to create a large repertoire of figurative expressions for active usage (Boers, et al, 2004). On the other hand, Learning FSs presents a big challenge to foreign language (FL) learners.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the techniques for directing the learners' attention toward English idioms is etymological elaboration (= a term coined by Boers, et al (2004), which means providing learners with the literal, original use of an idiom). According to Stengers, et al (2014) there are at least two reasons for incorporating information about the origin or literal uses of idioms: 1) it lends concreteness and imagibility to the idiom whereby facilitating learning, a phenomenon at the heart of Dual Coding theory; 2) after being familiar with the origin of the idiom, the learner can make an educated guess at its abstract (idiomatic) meaning.…”

Section: Etymological Elaboration Vs Typographic Salience In Teachinmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Effect of Two Attention-drawing Techniques on Learning English Idioms

Razmjoo¹,

Songhori²,

Bahremand³

2016

JLTR

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Abstract-This study investigated the effectiveness of three methods for teaching idioms. Sixty two intermediate EFL learners from a language school in Kerman were divided into three classes to be taught in three conditions: the etymological elaboration experimental group (N=20) was taught 16 target idioms in a text along with the etymology of each idiom; the typographic salience experimental group (N=20) was taught the same text as the previous group but the 16 target idioms were in boldfaced type and red; and the traditional control group (N=22) was taught the same text in plain typeface with no etymology for idioms. The participants in the three groups were not informed about the posttest and the delayed posttest. The results of the comparison between the posttest and the delayed posttest scores of all the three groups indicate that the participants in etymological elaboration outperformed the participants in the other two groups in terms of idioms' retention and recall. These findings are suggestive that the most effective method of teaching idioms vis-a-vis their retention and recall is etymological elaboration.

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4. Etymological elaboration as a strategy for learning idioms

Cited by 91 publications

References 0 publications

A Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of Two Strategies of Etymological Elaboration and Pictorial Elucidation on Idiom Learning: A Case of Young EFL Iranian Learners

A Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of Two Strategies of Etymological Elaboration and Pictorial Elucidation on Idiom Learning: A Case of Young EFL Iranian Learners

“My Patience is Exhausted” and “Nafida Sabrii”: A Conceptual Metaphoric Account of “Patience” Idioms in English and Arabic

The Effect of Two Attention-drawing Techniques on Learning English Idioms

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