Testing the Ability of EFL Postgraduate Certificate Teachers to Identify Vocabulary Idiomatic Meaning in Nineveh Schools

Abstract

Given the importance of the idiomatic meaning of expressions, especially for EFL teachers who have the responsibility of writing research, so the present study aims at testing the ability of (40) of EFL teachers in Nineveh schools who have post-graduate certificates and work in schools, to identify two types of the idiomatic meaning in some sentences. The researcher prepared a test consisting of (40) items; each item consisted of four options, one is correct. Two types of idioms are included in the test which is divided equally: idioms of encoding and idioms of decoding. After confirming the validity and reliability of the test, the study concluded that EFL teachers with postgraduate certificates showed a high ability to discern idiomatic meaning. For the variable of gender, male EFL teachers showed greater ability than females in terms of idiomatic meaning. For the variable of years of work, EFL teachers with 15 or fewer years of service showed greater ability to discern idiomatic meaning and for both types: encoding and decoding than those with over 15years of service.