A Study of Undergraduate Students' Comprehension Ability and Learning Attitudes toward English Idioms

Abstract

This study aims to examine undergraduate EFL learners' idiom interpretation ability in two aspects: how efficiently they can interpret the meaning of unfamiliar idiom, and their comprehending difficulties and learning attitudes toward idioms. 107 sophomores participated in the study, and the mix-method approach was used for the research design. The findings reveal that learners' comprehension efficiency and difficulties were evidenced by (a) their 52.2% wrong interpretation in the task items containing unfamiliar idioms, (b) they only achieved a mean score of 29.97 (out of 100) in their attempts at guessing reported as unfamiliar, and (c) their failure of recognizing the familiar idioms in 5.0% of the total number of the task items. Regarding learners' attitudes, the majority presented a positive attitude toward idiom learning and valued its necessity: 91.6% thought their idiom knowledge should be enhanced in order to improve their proficiency. Among the advocates who stood for integrating idiom teaching into school EFL courses, 65.4% claimed idioms should be taught at the beginning level, while 20.6% argued to wait until advanced level. Data of the think-aloud task (TA) provides an insight into the learners' difficulties of idiom comprehension. Some pedagogical implications for classroom teachers to improve idiom teaching in EFL situations are included.