A Probe Into English Idiom Teaching In College English Teaching And Learning

An idiom is a conventionalized multiword expression which functions as a unit of meaning. It cannot be understood from the combination of each component part, and the change of each part will destroy its meaning. It is usually metaphoric and contains a lot of cultural information. Idioms are one part of vocabulary that is hardest to learn due to their features. They should accept great attention in language education. This thesis aims to find out the existing problems of idiom teaching and learning in college English education so as to raise language teachers' awareness of the importance of idiom instruction.The thesis begins with the discussion of the relationship between language and culture. Then it elaborates the importance of cultivating language learners' intercultural competence in second language learning. Later on, it states that culture has great influence on vocabulary acquisition hence on idiom acquisition; and idioms play an important role in intercultural communication. Idiom teaching deserves attention of language educators. A survey concerning idiom and culture is carried out to investigate the current situation of English idiom teaching in Chinese colleges and universities. 80 sophomores of non-English major and 30 college English teachers take part in two questionnaires and 89 students attend an idiom test. The questionnaires are to find out teachers' and students' attitudes toward idiom learning and their views on cultural input in idiom teaching. The idiom quiz aims to find out to what degree students know about idioms. Results show that enough attention has not been paid to idiom teaching in college English class; materials for idiom learning are inadequate; whereas, cultural input in language teaching has attracted language teachers' attention, which results in better performance of students' on the part of idiom test concerning cultural information; culture instruction is a good complement of idiom teaching but the way to input cultural information needs be improved.In short, idiom teaching and learning is not an easy process. With intercultural communication becoming common activity in the process of globalization, learning idiomatic English is very urgent. Language teaching should not focus on grammatical level only, it should be directed to the aim of successful communication. Idioms are lively part of vocabulary; they convey culture information to language learner and are worth learning.