Teaching English Idioms to Chinese EFL Learners: A Cognitive Linguistic Perspective

Yi Guo

doi:10.5539/elt.v12n5p145

Abstract

Learning idioms has always been difficult for L2 learners of English. Drawing on a cognitive linguistic perspective of idiom learning, this paper reports on an empirical study that investigated the effects of incorporating the knowledge of conceptual metaphor and metonymy in L2 classroom instruction of English idioms. The study confirmed the efficacy of applying the conceptual metaphor- and metonymy-based ways of teaching to Chinese college-level EFL learners. It further revealed the different degrees of teaching effect towards different types of metaphoric idioms. While no significant progress was made in learning orientationally and ontologically metaphoric idioms, students benefited more from the conceptual metaphor-based method in learning structurally metaphoric idioms. These findings serve to enrich L2 idiom pedagogy and provide EFL learners with strategies other than &ldquo;rote memorization&rdquo; in the process of idiom learning.

Highlights

Idiom is an indispensable part of almost all the languages in the world
Drawing on a cognitive linguistic perspective of idiom learning, this paper reports on an empirical study that investigated the effects of incorporating the knowledge of conceptual metaphor and metonymy in L2 classroom instruction of English idioms
The results of research question one suggested that the conceptual metaphor-based way of teaching can significantly facilitate the learning of English idioms compared to the cases in which it is not used

Summary

Introduction

Idiom is an indispensable part of almost all the languages in the world. For L2 English learners, a good command of idioms convincingly demonstrates a high level of language proficiency. We are all familiar with the challenge that idioms have posed for L2 learners. Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999) described idioms as “notoriously difficult” A considerable amount of research has showed that L2 learners struggle with idioms in both comprehension and production (Irujo, 1986; Cooper, 1999; Liontas, 2003). Despite the efforts made in idiom teaching practices, we are still in the initial stages of understanding the acquisition of idioms by nonnative speakers (Zyzik, 2011)

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