Comprehension And Learning Of English Idioms By Chinese EFL Learners

This dissertation attempts to explore the major factors that effect Chinese EFL learners' comprehension and learning of English idioms in the hope of discovering more efficient approaches to English idioms so as to facilitate the idiom learning.With regard to the comprehension process, an investigation is implemented on the effect of learner factors (i.e., L2 proficiency and native language) on strategic comprehension of English idioms. A general pattern of strategy application is elicited. As for the learning process, on the basis of the Involvement Load Hypothesis (Hulstijn, 2002), two tasks (i.e., Exposure and Network-building) assumed to bear different levels of involvement are tested. This study mainly addresses five research questions:1. Does L1 have effect on EFL learners' comprehension of English idioms?2. Does L2 proficiency have effect on EFL learners' comprehension of Englishidioms?3. Does linguistic exposure promote the learning of English idioms by EFL learners?4. Does the network-building task promote L2 learners' learning of English idioms?5. Compared with plain linguistic exposure, does the network-building task havegreater effect in promoting L2 learners' learning of English idioms?Idioms are omnipresent and indispensable to everyday communication. In addition to information intrinsic in it, idioms are particularly powerful in expressing personal affection and attitude. As one dimension of idiomaticity, proper use of idioms has become an important indicator of nativelikeness pursued by L2 learners.There has been a large body of literature on L2 vocabulary development, yet studies on L2 idiom comprehension and learning are relatively sparse. Idioms possess distinct properties that distinguish them from other parts of vocabulary in a language. English idioms consist of more than one word. The structure of an idiom is relatively inflexible and the sense might be literal, but more than often it bears an idiomatic meaning. Owing to the fact that the meaning of an idiom cannot be computed by adding the literal meaning of each component word, interpreting an idiom word by word often fails to lead to the idiomatic meaning. It takes time and effort for even native speakers to comprehend and to learn idioms. It is even more difficult for L2 learners.In the previous research on idiom comprehension, Bobrow and Bell (1973) claim that literal meaning is activated first, while Gibbs (1980/1992) argues that idiomatic meaning enjoys priority. Swinney and Cutler (1979) propose that literal meaning and idiomatic meaning are processed in parallel. How do L2 learners comprehend English idioms? What strategies do they adopt in the process?Experiment A investigates the effect that learner factors (i.e., L2 proficiency and native language) have on proper comprehension of English idioms. A 5x2 factorial design is adopted. According to the degrees of equivalence between English idioms and their Chinese counterparts in terms of linguistic form and conceptual basis, the test items in the pool are divided into five types. Two groups of participants representing advanced proficiency level and intermediate level take part in the test, in which they are instructed to translate the 25 English idioms on the test sheet into Chinese.The result of the test demonstrates that both L2 proficiency and native language have significant influence on L2 idiom comprehension. L1 influence exists on both linguistic level and conceptual level. The more an English idiom deviates from its Chinese counterpart, the more difficult it is for Chinese EFL learners to grasp. The idioms with different conceptual basis but equivalent form are consistently more difficult than those with the same conceptual basis but different form. It seems to imply that the discrimination on the conceptual level has greater impact on language interpretation.To reveal the cognitive processing of the learners, six participants report the process in which they attempt to interpret 15 English idioms through think-aloud. The transcription analysis shows that the strategy selection conforms to a certain pattern. Based on the frequency, the strategies used follow a certain sequence: Literal meaning strategy > L1 mapping strategy > Discussing and analyzing > Background knowledge strategy > Repeating and paraphrasing > Mental image strategy. In respect of the process, literal meaning is activated and accessed first. Then its equivalent is searched for in the reservoir of L1 idioms. If there can be found a Chinese idiom which fits well, its meaning will be singled out and mapped to the corresponding English idiom. If the matching fails, other strategies like background knowledge will be used to speculate the meaning. It has been generally agreed upon in SLA research the effect of explicit instruction and devised tasks in classroom settings (Long 1983). Ellis claims in his works (Ellis 1994a/1994b) that the learning of meaning requires explicit instruction, because it requires conscious processing on semantic and conceptual levels and conscious form-to-meaning connection. However, researchers are not unanimous on what tasks promote the learning.Hulstijn (2002) propounds the Involvement Load Hypothesis, a psycholinguistic model contending that the more involvement load is induced in a cognitive activity, the deeper cognitive processing occurs and consequently the better acquisition. To test whether tasks bearing different levels of involvement load have different effects, a pretest-treatment-posttest design is adopted in Experiment B. Three groups of participants at the same proficiency level took part in this experiment. Besides one control group, the other two groups received two different treatments (Linguistic exposure and Network-building). The quantitative analysis of the collected data demonstrates that both treatments significantly promote the learners' knowledge about English idioms. Moreover, network-building task exerts more influence on L2 idiom learning, which conforms to the Involvement Load Hypothesis.The closing part deals with the pedagogical implications and applications of the present study, illustrating how tasks facilitate L2 idiom learning effectively in classroom language teaching. Some techniques are suggested as pedagogical options for teachers to choose from and try out in their teaching practice. Idiom teaching should by no means be constrained to the vocabulary scale or the form level. Instead, the conceptual and cultural information embedded in idioms should be elaborated on so that learners' knowledge is expanded, reorganized and hopefully optimized. Adequate training on strategy use is necessary for better distribution of cognitive resources in the learning process.The last chapter summarizes the main findings of the research and points out the limitations in the study. Besides, some of the remaining issues relating to this subject are suggested for future research.