Idioms Explained Essay

3755 Words16 Pages
ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 1, No. 9, pp. 1231-1235, September 2011 © 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.1.9.1231-1235 Idiom Taxonomies and Idiom Comprehension: Implications for English Teachers Noorolhoda Saberian Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Iran Email: hodasaberian@yahoo.com Zahra Fotovatnia Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Iran Email: Z_fotovatnia@phu.iaun.ac.ir Abstract―Idioms are an important part of a language, as they are used to express ideas in a more concise and effective way. Idioms have a considerable role in a foreign language as in the mother tongue. Therefore, their learning and teaching in L2 are worthy of attention and research. This paper intends to define idioms, introduce their different taxonomies, discuss L2 idiom processing and comprehension, and use the information to endow English teachers with some pedagogical implications. Index Terms―idiom taxonomies, idiom comprehension, literal and figurative meaning, opaque and transparent idioms I. INTRODUCTION Idioms are an important part of any language and may be said to be an indicator of one‟s fluency in that language (McDevitt, 1993). Cowie, Mackin, and McCaig (1983), in the general introduction to their groundbreaking work Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms, consider the accurate and appropriate use of idioms as one distinguishing mark of the native command of the language and a reliable measure of the proficiency of foreign learners. There are so common that ignoring them will cause learner numerous problems. Foreign language learners learn not only the grammatical structures and vocabulary of the target language, but the idioms as well to integrate into the culture of the foreign language. Dixon (1994) believes that idioms are essential to successful communication, whether in listening,

More about Idioms Explained Essay

Open Document