Understanding EFL Students’ Processing of Idiomatic Expressions Out of Context: Insights Gained From Think-Alouds

Abstract

The current study examines how EFL students confront the difficulty of comprehending English idioms without supportive context. It aims to study the online processing strategies Saudi EFL learners employ when giving the meaning of English idioms. The Idiom Recognition Test (IRT) and Think-aloud protocol were used to vary and measure the idiom's difficulty and to analyze the processing of the idiom immediately after visual perception. Twenty frequently used idioms representing formal and informal English were selected. They were of three types: English idioms, which have identical forms and meanings of Arabic equivalents; English idioms, which have similar forms and meanings of Arabic equivalents; and English idioms, which differ from Arabic idioms. Results showed that most of the participants had difficulty interpreting the English idioms. Moreover, participants most often drew on the literal meaning, using the compositional parts of the idiom. Referring to an L1 idiom was the second most successful strategy but the fourth most often employed out of the six strategies. The third most effective strategy was background knowledge, yet it was the least used overall. Consequently, the results support all the idiom processing models that emphasize the literal meaning over the figurative one.