Problems and strategies of teaching and translating English idioms in Albanian schools - Theoretical and practical implications

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the main strategies, problems and difficulties that English language teachers encounter while teaching idioms in Albanian schools. Idiomatic language and expressions place an important part in English phraseology, as a reflection of the mentality and spirituality of the nation vision of the world. Translating idioms needs good competence of the target language, which makes the issue a difficult and challenging task for the teachers and translators, too. The scope of this study is to show theoretical and practical implications of idiom teaching and translation in primary and secondary schools of Korça region. It outlines the main problems, methods and ways which have been investigated through a questionnaire carried out to 41 English teachers, 7 of which teaching in villages and 34 in the city. A quantitative research is carried out to give a general view on idiom teaching and the place translation acquires in the target language. The most effective strategies and methods are outlined to illustrate the results of this study. As teaching idioms is considered to be a difficult process, the scope of this study aims at presenting data collected showing Albanian teacher’s experience and the role of the target language in idiom meaning explanation.