A Study Of L2 Idiom Comprehension By Chinese EFL Learners

The thesis attempts to have a more detailed exploration on how cognitivedevices work in immediate comprehension of English idioms by L2 learners. Thestudy begins with a discussion about the definition of idioms and a brief review of theprevious cognitive researches on idiom comprehension. Then based on Lakoff stheory of Conceptual Metaphor as well as his model of idiom comprehension("conventional image + knowledge + metaphors"), the present study investigates theonline processing strategies employed by a sample of advanced Chinese EFL learnerswho are asked to give the meanings of selected English idioms presented in a writtencontext. Each of the idioms selected involves either a conceptual metaphor or aconceptual metonymy. Data are collected by means of the think-aloud procedure:Subjects are expected to verbalize their thoughts as they are inferring the meanings ofthe idioms. Meanwhile, immediately after they finish the translation of each idiom,they are presented with a conceptual metaphor (or metonymy) and asked to decidewhether they have used it. The analysis of the data identifies 8 principal strategies,among which the strategy of translation attempt is most frequently used, andconventional knowledge search, conceptual metaphor (or metonymy) search as wellas contextual inference are the most important L2 strategies to work out idiomaticmeanings.Based on the results of the experiment, the thesis comes to four principal conclusions:1) Chinese EFL learners give great priority to searching for a match in L1, or guessing the idiomatic meaning from the context.2) When neither L1 nor context helps, Chinese EFL learners have a preference for conventional knowledge.3) It is possible for Chinese EFL learners to figure out the idiomatic meaning even if they have no idea of the conceptual metaphor (or metonymy) concerned. Unless the conceptual metaphor (or metonymy) isshared in the Chinese culture or familiar to them, they seldom first think in a metaphorical way.4) The activation of a conceptual metaphor (or metonymy) does ensure ahigher accuracy of inference.The findings throw light on L2 idiom teaching: 1) Learners should be equipped with culturally authentic and culturally specific information so as to enrich their world knowledge. 2) It is worthwhile for teachers to present learners with as many conceptual metaphors (or metonymies) as possible so that they can have a more accurate understanding of idioms. Finally, the thesis presents some feasible teaching approaches which might be helpful to the improvement of idiom teaching in EFL situations.