An Empirical Study Of Productive Knowledge Of English Idioms Among Chinese EFL Learners

As one kind of prefabricated language, idioms have been studied all the time in lexicology. Most of the previous studies focus on theoretical exploration of idioms from semantic, syntactical, psycholinguistic and functional perspectives, and more recent researches are mainly concerned with empirical exploration of idiom acquisition. However, most empirical researches into idiom acquisition put emphasis on L1 idiom comprehension (reception knowledge) from semantic, cognitive and cultural perspectives, instead of on L2 idiom production (productive knowledge) and on the productive knowledge of idioms classified according to different functions. Therefore, an empirical study is carried out on the productive knowledge of English idioms among Chinese EFL learners.Based on the word knowledge framework by Nation (1990), the thesis reports an empirical study of the relationship between the productive knowledge (idiom form, stylistic use and synonym) of three idiom classes (ideational, interpersonal and relational idioms) and Chinese learners'English proficiency levels (high, medium and low proficiency levels). Natural language data (compositions), questionnaire and interview constitute the research instruments. Quantitative approach, qualitative approach and cross-sectional approach are employed in the present study. Bivariate correlations, paired-sample t test and multi-linear regressions are adopted in data analysis. The major findings are summarized as the following points in three aspects. First, the results of the relationship between the productive idiom knowledge and English proficiency. General productive knowledge as well as its three subtypes including idiom form, stylistic choice and synonym significantly and positively correlate with English proficiency, and productive knowledge of idiom form which most highly and positively correlates with English proficiency is the most significant factor among the three to affect English proficiency and therefore can be used to predict English proficiency. In terms of three English proficiency levels, general productive knowledge as well as its three subtypes develop significantly at each proficiency level and develop more significantly at low-medium proficiency level than at medium-high proficiency level. Second, the results of the differences in the general productive knowledge of three idiom classes. On one...