The Effect of Context on the EFL Learners’ Idiom Processing Strategies

Abstract

The present study investigated the effect of context on the strategies the EFL learners utilized to process idioms. To do so, ten Iranian intermediate EFL learners were randomly assigned to two groups who then attended a think-aloud session. The 5 subjects in the first group were exposed to an animated cartoon including 23 unfamiliar idioms while their counterparts in the second group were exposed to the written version of the same material. The subjects of the two groups were asked to verbally report their thought processes when trying to define the unfamiliar idioms. The data thus gathered form the small sample revealed 8 major strategies which were then used to prepare a questionnaire to be administered to a larger sample. The new sample included 60 subjects randomly assigned to two groups of 30.The first group as in the think-aloud session was exposed to the animated cartoon while the other read the respective script. The subjects in both groups were asked to check the strategies they resorted to when guessing the meaning of unfamiliar idioms. The results of the study showed both inter and intra-group differences confirming the effect of context on the strategies applied in processing unfamiliar idioms.

Strategies and Difficulties of Understanding English Idioms: A Case Study of Saudi University EFL Students

“…This result indicates that context plays a crucial role in understanding idioms. It also supports other researchers' findings about the importance of including context when teaching and learning idioms in general (Asl, 2013;Rohani et al, 2012;Saleh & Zakaria, 2013;Sridhar & Karunakaran, 2013). The second most frequent strategy was predicting the meaning of the idiom with mean frequency rating 4.48.…”

“…These strategies include learning idioms with rich illustration and learning idioms through memorisation. This is supported by other researchers such as Rohani et al (2012), Al-Kadi (2015), and Al-Khawaldeh et al (2016). Additionally, according to the responses to the questionnaire, it is apparent that learning idioms through the use of verbal information and by focussing on animated pictures/visualisation were used with high means scores.…”

“…The results revealed that learners could transfer their L1 strategies to L2, but they do not always know whether L1 strategies will be effective when reading a foreign text. Rohani, Ketabi, & Tavakoli (2012) conducted a study to find out the effect of context on the strategies used by EFL learners to process idioms. Seventy intermediate English major students (16 males and 54 females) at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman participated in the study.…”

“…The questionnaire was constructed based on a careful examination of previous questionnaires such as those of Rohani et al (2012), Saleh & Zakaria (2013), Angel (2014), Al-kadi (2015), and Al-Khawadeh et al (2016). The questionnaire for this study comprised three parts.…”

Investigating Chinese EFL Learners’ Comprehension of English Idioms

“…Bulut et al's study on Turkish teachers of English also found in their idiom interpretation, the contextual clues were used more often than any other clue (Bulut & Ç elik-Yazici, 2004). Rohani et al (2012) investigated the effect of context on the strategies Iranian EFL learners utilized to process idioms and concluded that creating the appropriate context would prove productive in enhancing the language learning process.…”