Exploring English Idiom Acquisition Of Chinese Non-english Majors: A Perspective From Construction Grammar

Language, as an essential component of human society, explores every aspect of people’sdaily life. As the elite of language, an idiom refers to a group of words whose meaning cannotbe worked out from its separate parts. English is rich in idioms. Most native speakersfrequently use idioms in their daily lives. But it is quite difficult for foreign language learnersto do the same thing. In China, English idioms are one of the most difficult areas of foreignlanguage teaching and learning for Chinese teachers and students. Many factors such as thefirst language transfer, the English learning habits all influence English idiom acquisition.Therefore, it is necessary to explore the students’ learning process and influenced factors ofidiom acquisition, so as to help both the teaching and the learning.In the West, there have been a large number of outstanding studies on the meaning,classification and processing of English idioms, but there are still some shortcomings. MostWestern researchers focused on the use and comprehension process of idioms and mostsubjects’ mother tough was close to English. In China, researches on English idioms started asearly as1990s. Many scholars applied themselves to the theoretical introduction of Englishidioms while the research was far from being systematic. There is a lack of research on theacquiring characteristics, methods and influenced factors of English idiom acquisition.Construction Grammar is a theoretical system based on cognitive approach whichhighlights the paring construction between language form and language meaning. It claimsthat construction is form-meaning or form-function pairing. Researches on ConstructionGrammar theory both at home and abroad are mainly the generalized statements or analysis ofcertain construction, but most studies limit to the theoretical research. The applied research onlanguage acquisition is at the starting point. The research on English idiom comprehensionfrom the perspective of Construction Grammar has seldom presented since now.The present study adopts the perspective of Construction Grammar, exploring the Englishidiom acquisition by Chinese non-English majors. The following questions are discussed:1. What are the comprehension methods employed by Chinese non-English majors whenthey acquire English idioms? Do these methods vary from those obtained in the Westerner’sresearch?2. How does learners’ proficiency in the target language contribute to their English idiomacquisition? Do advanced proficiency learners comprehend the English idiom better? Andwhat methods do they prefer?3. How does the typology of English idioms influence the learners’ acquisition? Or doesthe lexical, syntactic and semantic irregularity in the idiom cause any difference in theircomprehension methods and comprehension degrees? The current study selects154non-English majors from Lanzhou Jiaotong University asthe participants. Divide them into advanced, intermediate and lower proficiencies according totheir CET-4score. Tests of idiom comprehension methods and idioms comprehension degreeas well as the Think Aloud protocol are adopted. This study is trying to explore theacquisition methods and acquisition degree of English idiom acquisition of Chinesenon-English majors.The initial data are collected and analyzed SPSS19.0. The findings show that:(1) Chinesestudents acquire English idioms by11different ways which varies from the Westerner’sresearch. They prefer to add and use the meaning of each word to understand the idioms’meaning mostly. For a certain number of students, they would like to understand the idiom as"construction".(2) The advanced proficiency students acquire the idioms better than theintermediate and lower proficiency students. They would like to use more strategies and theirminds are more active and creative.(3) Idiom typology influences the idiom acquisition.Lexical irregularity in an idiom mostly affects the acquiring degree. The idioms with familiarwords unfamiliar arranged are best acquired because they are considered as the "construction".The idioms with lexical and semantic regularity are less well acquired as the appearance ofthe figurative meaning. The research results show the idiom acquisition situation by Chineselearners is not satisfying. The language proficiency levels, the typology of idioms all affectthe acquisition. Their mother tongue influences the acquisition methods.The study combines idiom acquisition with Construction Grammar. It is hoped to providea new perspective to research both on idioms and Construction Grammar. Additionally, it isalso hoped that this thesis can deliver some new ideas and suggestion for English idiomacquisition and English idiom teaching.