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International Refereed & Indexed Journal of English Language & Translation Studies

ISSN: 2308-5460 July-September, 2013 www.eltsjournal.org

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IJ-ELTS: International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies Vol: 1, Issue: 2 Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding English Idioms Winis, Noora & Zakaria,M

Amin, Ahmad Investigating the Difficulties Faced in Understanding, and Strategies

Used in Processing, English Idioms by the Libyan Students

Noura Winis Ibrahim Saleh University of Sebha, Sebha, Libya

Dr. Mohammed Hassan Zakaria

The University Teknologi Malaysia Abstract

The field of idiomaticity is considered by many researchers as an important area,

especially when it comes to L2 and/ or EFL learners. Mastering idioms and the ability

to use them in the written and the spoken discourse is considered as a sign towards

proficiency. However, it is noticed clearly that there is not much research done in this

respect. Lazar (1996) states that figurative language is an area often neglected in the

teaching of vocabulary. In this respect, this study was conducted to investigate the

difficulties faced by 40 Libyan students in understanding idiomatic expressions.

Additionally, it was to shed light on some strategies employed by those students to

ease their way in understanding and using idiomatic expressions. The paper aims to

investigate problems and difficulties encountered by the Libyan students and

strategies used to overcome these problems and difficulties.

Keywords: idiomatic expressions, idiomaticity, literal and figurative meaning, Idiom

processing strategies



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Amin, Ahmad 1. Introduction

This study aims to investigate the main difficulties faced by the Libyan students in

understanding idiomatic expressions in English. Idioms are considered by many

researchers as the colorful side of the language. Therefore, learners must see the

language through rose-colored glasses to learn every single item that leads to

proficiency. In fact, the level of command of idioms serves as an important indicator

of L2 proficiency. One of the main blocks of L2 idiom learning is that idioms are

often unpredictable in meaning, that is, their meanings cannot always be derived from

the literal meanings of the constituent parts. Above all, in the pedagogical sense,

teaching vocabulary must be inseparable part from teaching idioms.

Idioms, which are a type of phraseological unit and are largely figurative in nature,

are widely spread in human language. In fact, the level of command of idioms

indicates L2 proficiency. Although it is generally accepted that L2 learners of English

need to gain a good grasp of idioms, the teaching and learning of idioms in L2 is

considered a hard task. One of the reasons is that a considerable number of idioms are

figurative in nature-that is their overall meaning cannot be obtained by simply adding

up the literal meanings of the item. Added and related to these factors is the fact that

the traditional vocabulary listing methods adopted in most ESL / EFL textbooks

present each idiom entry and its meaning in such a way that the choice of each single

word in the idiom seems random, and the overall figurative meaning cannot be

explained. Taken together, these factors make idioms one of the most difficult aspects

of L2 teaching and learning.

In this respect, the present paper investigates the difficulties encountered by the

Libyan students while understanding idioms and the strategies employed by them

while processing the idioms.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Definition of Idioms

Defining idioms, however, has never been easy. Researchers in the field have made

various attempts to define what constitutes an idiom, but due to different theoretical

classification criteria adopted in the definition, phraseologists still are not able to

agree on a shared set of terms or describe the whole process clearly. An idiom is an

institutionalized construction that is composed of two or more lexical items and has



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Amin, Ahmad the composite structure of a phrase or semi-clause. Moreover, it is considerably fixed

and collocationally restricted (Langlotz, 2006). An idiom is a fixed expression whose

meaning cannot be taken as a combination of the meanings of its component parts.

Thus, the common phrase kick the bucket has nothing to do with either kicking or

buckets, but means simply, “to die.” In other words, idioms are not literal expressions

(Ifill, 2002). Moon (2006) defined idiom as a fixed sequence of words which has a

meaning beyond that of the constituent parts.

‘An idiom is an expression whose overall figurative meaning cannot be derived from

the meaning of its parts’ (Marlies, 1995; p. 283). An idiom is a figurative expression

that usually can be interpreted literally but that takes a nonliteral meaning when used

in a specific context (Cain & Oakhill and Lemmon, 2005; p. 66).

2.2 The study of idiomaticity in a glance

The study of idiomaticity in language has been of long-standing interest to linguists.

Linguists intend on characterizing the internal structure of languages, and

psycholinguists, intent on characterizing the internal cognitive structure of language

users. Idioms are usually grouped within a larger class of linguistic expressions called

figurative or non literal language. In a second language learning classroom,

completely idiomatic teaching will not usually be offered and required; however, all

learners must be prepared to meet the challenge of idioms occurring frequently in

spoken and written English (Irujo, 1986). Pollio (1977) analyzed political debates,

psychology texts, novels, and psychotherapy sessions to investigate the overall use of

non-literal language. They found that “most English speakers utter about 10 million

novel metaphors per lifetime and 20 million idioms per lifetime. This works out to

about 3,000 novel metaphors per week and 7,000 idioms per week” (pp. 140).

Advanced L2 learners have the advantage of target language learning, but they also

have a disadvantage in not understanding idioms of the target language which will

appear in newspapers, movies, magazines, books and daily conversations. According

to Cooper (1999), idiom study presents a special language problem for all language

learners because the figurative meaning is unpredictable.

2.3 Problems in Teaching L2 Idioms

Idioms are not taught in L2 classroom due to the fact that teachers either do not know

many idioms in L2 or they do not know their origin. They may feel that their origins



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Amin, Ahmad need to be explained. (Mola, 1993) identified that idioms are not treated in L2

classrooms as regularly as might be, because of time pressures. Lennon (1998)

suggests that exercises of problem-solving nature can help learners to discover the

metaphors in idiomatic expressions. Furthermore, Lennon believes that students will

become highly motivated to translate their language’s metaphors into the target

language so as to share with the class their own culture method of metaphor encoding.

In light to what is mentioned above, it is important for EFL teachers to design various

activities for students to use with English idioms and subsequently acquire them

efficiently. Moreover, students learn better when they are provided with collaborative

activities. They can interact with peers and share fun in learning. Ultimately, when

teachers integrate listening, speaking, reading and writing activities together in

teaching English idioms, students, consequently, can be involved in the application of

English idioms in the four skills. Thus, it is effective to teach EFL learners English

idiom when they are provided with various activities to practice and utilize English

idioms in different contexts. According to Mantyla (2004) states that idioms should

not be taught directly at all. She considers the best policy of teaching to be a method

where the students’ attention is focused on the common characteristics of idioms.

2.4 Strategies Employed in L2 Idiom Processing

L2 speakers, just like L1 speakers, apply some strategies while processing the idioms

inspite of the lack of sufficient input in the classroom setting and the lack of language

contact as it is shown by research in the field of foreign/ second language (L2)

teaching. In order to interpret the meaning of idioms, L2 speakers recall the strategies

acquired during the first language acquisition. Bulut, & Yazici (2004) indicated that

they rely on the literal meaning conveyed in the context and guess what it means.

Furthermore, contextual clues are useful to learners in comprehending unknown

idioms. Cooper (1999) explored the comprehension strategies used by L2 learners

when trying to decipher the meanings of English idioms in one- or two-sentence

contexts. The most commonly used strategies were: guessing from context, discussing

and analyzing the idiom, and using the literal meaning. Overall, guessing from

context was the most successful strategy (Zyzik, 2009). Palmer and Brooks (2004)

pointed out that the interpretation of figurative language is mainly related to learner’s

background knowledge (schemata) in order to interpret the expression within context.



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Amin, Ahmad They stated “figurative language interpretation is based on student’s schemata;

therefore, direct or explicit instruction is often needed to provide the knowledge

necessary to understand not only the figurative language expressions but the context

surrounding them as well.” Instructions are needed to be provided for learners to

guide them to figure out the intended meaning of the figurative language.

Other researchers have turned the attention to a mnemonic strategy by stating its

effectiveness. A strategy which is mnemonic and whose effectiveness has been

established is encouragement of ‘‘dual coding’’ (Clark and Paivio, 1991), that is, to

help learners to form and process lexical understandings which have an imagistic

component as well as a component that is symbolic/ propositional in nature.

On the other hand, many researchers have studied the role of L1 in L2 idiom

processing, but it is a double edged sword. In other words, L2 learners' reliance on

their own L1 in L2 idiom processing may assist or hinder their understanding of L2

idioms. Such a phenomenon is termed the "interlingual factor" by Cornell (1999, p.6).

Irujo's (1986) study suggests that the use of L1 may assist L2 learners in their

comprehension of L2 idioms which are identical or similar to L1 equivalents. At the

same time, idioms that have no similar or identical L1 equivalents cause difficulty for

L2 learners.

2.5 The Role of Vocabulary and Culture in Understanding Idioms

Understanding the lexicon of English demands more than knowing the denotative

meaning of words, it requires its speakers to have connotative word comprehension

and more, an understanding of figurative language. Idioms fall into this final category

(Jacqueline Ambrose, 2003). It appears that it is easy to comprehend and interpret an

idiom when it is more familiar to someone. Exposure to a wide range of idioms may

play an important role in idiom comprehension. Therefore, more familiarity of idioms,

the more frequently are use (Fusté-Herrmann, 2008). Word familiarity has an

important influence on word recognition Connine et al., (1990) and the

comprehension of new metaphors (Blasko and Connine, 1993). Schweigert (1986)

studied the relationship between familiarity and idiom processing. Reading rates for

sentences containing highly familiar idioms were shorter than those for sentences

containing low familiar idioms. The fact that highly familiar idioms were understood

more quickly than less familiar idioms as it is stated by Cronk and Schweigert (1992).



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Amin, Ahmad These studies reveal that idioms, like words, are processed more quickly depending

on the degree of experience a comprehender has with a particular phrase.

Nippold & Taylor (1995) stated that the frequency with which an idiom occurs in a

language is often defined as familiarity; however, frequency and familiarity are both

moderated by culture. Familiarity is relative and depends on such factors as

geographical location, linguistic background (including dialect), culture, and age

(Nippold & Rudinski, 1993). It appears that idiom comprehension is easier when an

idiom is more familiar to someone because less conceptual analysis is required

(Qualls & Harris, 1999). Exposure may play an important role in idiom

comprehension since having more experience with idioms may make those idioms

more salient (Norbury, 2004). Ultimately, more frequently used idioms may be more

familiar.

Glucksberg (2001) described idioms as a secret language and a language owned by a

culture that one has to be steeped in. In other words, idioms vary in frequency and

familiarity depending on variables like demographic characteristics and cultural and

linguistic identification.

2.6 The Role of Context in Idiom Comprehension

Cain et al., (2005) demonstrated that there are three factors in idiom comprehension:

familiarity, transparency and context. They state that idioms that are presented in texts

are easier to understand than those are presented in isolation. Cain et al (2005)

maintain that ‘context might facilitate the interpretation of figurative language by

providing the necessary semantic information from which reader (listener) can extract

or infer the appropriate sense of expression’ (p. 67). For them, ‘contexts are important

for less common idioms whose meanings are not yet fully known, particularly for

unfamiliar opaque idioms whose meanings are not fully derivable through semantic

analysis of phrases’ (p. 67).

In this study, therefore, the focus is on the specific problems students have in

understanding and using idioms correctly, and the strategies used by them in order to

understand those idioms based on this theoretical framework.

2.7 Aims of this study

English idioms do not mean what they literally mean. Therefore, they are problematic

even for native speakers of the language. Keeping this view in mind, this paper sheds



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Amin, Ahmad light on the difficulties that Libyan students face in understanding those chunks. The

paper aims to investigate and find out why idioms are still unturned stone in their

way, as being amongst other issues, towards proficiency. In light of the above, the

paper also aims to find some solutions that can work as a key component to increasing

students’ motivation and involvement in learning English idioms. The use of idioms

and idiomatic English are both characteristic of advanced EFL learners. It seems that

due attention is not given to the learning of idioms, and students' competence in these

forms needs to be developed further not only on the recognition level but also on the

production level.

2.8 Research questions

There is a general belief that idioms are extremely difficult for nonnative speakers.

One of the major problems that L2 learners face in understanding idioms is the

frequency of idioms. Irujo (1986) pointed out that learners comprehend and produce

most easily and correctly the idioms that were frequently used in everyday speech and

were metaphorically transparent in that their literal meanings were closely related to

their figurative meanings. In her article on learning and teaching idioms, Irujo (1986)

stated that second language idioms are very difficult to learn because they are not

literal and do not mean what they say. Furthermore, another factor that is very critical

to understanding idioms is L1 transfer. A study conducted by Cooper (1999), showed

that the LI plays a role in L2 idiom processing even though L2 learners are less likely

to transfer LI knowledge when they perceive the meaning as figurative. Thus, it is

likely that L1 transfer may play some role in learners' processing of L2 idioms, but

there is a need to better understand when and how this and other comprehension

strategies are used in L2 idiom processing. Non-literalness could be another factor

that affects understanding of idioms.

Swinney and Cutler (1979) pointed out that an idiom is a string of two or more words

for which meaning is not derived from the meanings of the individual words

comprising that string. Thus, the idiomatic meaning of "kick the bucket" has little to

do with the meanings of either "kick" or "bucket"; similarly. The meaning of "by and

large" has little to do with the meanings of either "large" or "by." Another reason why

second-language learners do not learn idioms is that the teachers do not teach them

very well. Many second-language teaching materials either ignore idioms entirely or



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Amin, Ahmad relegate them to the 'other expressions' section of vocabulary lists, without providing

exercises or other aids to learning. The exposure to idioms is also one of the reasons

that are considered of a vital importance. (Hussein et al., 2000), concluded that the

acquisition of idioms has thus far been a neglected variable in the EFL environment.

Further, they stated that learner's poor competence of English idioms can be related to

the fact that the study of lexis in general and idioms in particular was stated at a minor

position. With such background, the present study attempts to seek answers to the

following research questions:

1. What sort of difficulties do Libyan students encounter in using idiomatic

expressions both decomposable and nondecomposable?

a. Are they able to predict their meanings in different contexts?

b. Does low frequency of vocabulary matter in order to

understand idioms?

c. Does the difficulty arise from the vagueness of the constituent

parts or from the whole phrase?

2. What are the possible strategies that they may use to facilitate

understanding of the idioms?

3. Research Methodology

3.1 Participants

The study included 40 Libyan students of different majors in and outside UTM, Johor,

Malaysia. The participants were chosen purposively. Only proficient students took

part in the study. The questionnaire was distributed to these 40 Libyan students and

the data were collected, arranged and analyzed to draw appropriate conclusions.

4. Data analysis and discussion

4.1 Data Analysis

Data of this study was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science

(SPSS) software. The analysis of this data was based on the descriptive analysis,

mean and standard deviation. All these items were applied in order to fulfill the

objectives of this study. Questionnaire is to get the mean, and the average of the

problem size. For the questionnaire, the mean and standard deviation and frequency

were calculated using Social Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). All points were



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Amin, Ahmad analyzed statistically to get the findings of the study. The findings show what the

main difficulties that those students encounter in using the idiomatic expressions and

also reveal what strategies were used.

Figure: 1 Distribution of Participants by English Language Proficiency Level

This figure represents the total number of participants. Of the participants, 20% got

5.5, and 24% of them got 6 in the IETLS test. 46% of the participants were in the

intermediate level that is equal to 5.5 but without sitting for the IELTS test. Only 8%

of the respondents scored 6.5 in the IETLS test. The smallest percentage refers to

those who got 7 in the IELTS test. They were only about 2% of the total number of

participants.

Figure: 2 Distribution of Participants by Exposure to L2 Environment



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Amin, Ahmad

Figure shows the percentages of the respondents who had been to English speaking

countries / environment. Only 19% of them pointed out that they had been to English

speaking countries or environment. The higher bar of 21% shows the number of

respondents that never been to English speaking countries or environment.

Figure: 3 Distribution of Participants by Contact with Native Speakers of English



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Amin, Ahmad This figure shows the participants who communicated with native speakers. More

than 25 of the total number of participants positively identified that they were in touch

with them. On the other hand, less than 15 participants negatively revealed that they

had not been in contact with native speakers.

Knowledge of Idioms (Difficulties and Strategies)

The analysis was to determine the participants’ knowledge of idioms that influence

the frequency experienced by the Libyan students. Analysis is based on frequency (f),

percentage (%) and mean value. The frequency of knowledge of idioms is: Strongly

Disagree, Disagree, Agree and Strongly Agree. Table 4.1 shows the results obtained

from section three of the questionnaire.

Table: 1 Participants’ Knowledge of Idioms Frequency Knowledge of Idioms

1 S.Disagree

2 Disagree

3 Agree

4 S. Agree

Mean

Std. Deviation

f (%)

f (%)

f (%)

f (%)

1-I’m good at idioms.

1 (2.5)

18 (45.0)

19 (47.5)

2 (5.0)

2.55 0.639

2-I like to use idioms.

3 (7.5)

5 (12.5)

31 (77.5)

1 (2.5)

2.75 0.630

3-Idioms are easy to use.

1 (2.5)

19 (47.5)

15 (37.5)

5 (12.5)

2.6 0.744

4-Idioms are difficult to understand because of the lack of cultural background behind the idioms.

9 (22.5)

7 (17.5)

22 (55.0)

2 (5.0)

2.43 0.903

5-Idioms are difficult because they are not taught well in class.

9 (22.5)

8 (20.0)

21 (52.5)

2 (5.0)

2.4 0.9

6-It is useful for me to predict the meaning of idioms.

4 (10.0)

9 (22.5)

27 (67.5)

0 (0)

2.58 0.675

7-I like to learn idioms in context.

13 (32.5)

2 (5.0)

25 (62.5)

0 (0)

2.3 0.939



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Amin, Ahmad 8-Context plays a crucial role in understanding idioms.

13 (32.5)

5 (12.5)

22 (55.0)

0 (0)

2.23 0.92

9-Verbal (textual or audio) and visual information help activate my knowledge of idioms.

10 (25.0)

5 (12.5)

25 (62.5)

0 (0)

2.38 0.868

10-Guessing the meaning of the constituent words leads me to guess the overall meaning.

5 (12.5)

8 (20.0)

26 (65.0)

1 (2.5)

2.425

0.874

11-I can often figure out an idiom from an equivalent one in my language.

3 (7.5)

11 (27.5)

24 (60.0)

2 (5.0)

2.575

0.747

21 (52.5)

10 (25.5

9 (22.5)

2.7

0.823

12-I translate the literal meaning into my L1 (first language) in order to understand idioms.

0 (0)

13-I use many different strategies when learning idioms

6 (15.0)

8 (20.0)

23 (57.5)

3 (7.5)

2.58

0.844

14-I like to know what other strategies I can use to make better sense of idioms.

13 (32.5)

1 (2.5)

26 (65.0)

0 (0)

2.33

0.944

15-I like to be taught specific strategies in learning idioms in foreign language

12 (30.0)

4 (10.0)

24 (60.0)

0 (0)

2.3

0.911



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Amin, Ahmad 16-I like to be taught the skills and processes necessary to create meaning from idiomatic text

17 (42.5)

2 (5.0)

21 (52.5)

0 (0)

2.1

0.982

N=40 The sections of this table were analyzed focusing on the factors that lead to the

difficulty to the participants and made them select various strategies. The factors

included: difficulty of idioms, role of vocabulary, and strategies of L2 idiom

processing.

Difficulties in L2 Idiom Comprehension.

Referring to the item ‘Idioms are difficult to understand because of the lack of cultural

background behind the idioms’ the participants who showed strongly disagreement

and disagreement to this item were 9 (22.5%) and 7 (17.5%) respectively. On the

other hand, the participants, who showed agreement and strongly agreement, were 22

(55.5%) and only 2 (5, 0%), respectively.

As for the item ‘Idioms are difficult because they are not taught well in class’, which

is considered to be one of the important factors behind the use of idiomatic

expressions, the responses that showed strongly disagreement and disagreement were

approximately similar giving 9 (22.5%) and 8(20.0%) respectively. besides that, a

total of 21 (52.5%) participants agreed and only 2 (5.0%) participants strongly agreed.

A total of 3 (7.5%) participants strongly disagreed with the item ‘I can often figure

out an idiom from an equivalent one in my language’ and 11 (27.5%) participants

disagreed with this statement. The positive answer to this item yielded 24 (60.0%)

participants who agreed and only 2 (5.0%) participants strongly agreed with the above

statement.

The Role of Vocabulary in L2 Idiom Comprehension

The statement ‘It is useful for me to predict the meaning of idioms’ 4 (10.0%)

participants strongly disagreed with this statement and 9 (22.5%) participants

disagreed. For this statement none of the participants showed that they strongly

agreed, however, 27(67.5%) participants agreed that it was useful to predict the

meaning of idioms.



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Amin, Ahmad The response for the statement ‘The meaning of the constituent words leads me to

guess the overall meaning’ indicated that 5 (12.5%) responses strongly disagreed and

8 (20.0%) respondents disagreed. On the other hand, 26 (65.0%) respondents agreed

to this item and only 1 (2.5%) respondent strongly agreed

The Role of Context in L2 Idiom Comprehension

The statement ‘I like to learn idioms in context’ revealed that 13 (32.5%) respondents

disagreed and only 2 (5.0%) respondents disagreed. However, 25 (62.5%) participants

agreed with this statement and no one strongly agreed with it. In response to the

statement ‘Context plays a crucial role in understanding idioms’, the number of

participants who strongly disagreed were 13 (32.5%) respondents and 5 (12.5%)

participants disagreed. A total number of participants who agreed were 22 (55.0%)

participants. Likewise, none of the participants strongly agreed compared with the

responses of the previous statement.

The strategies used in L2 Idiom Comprehension

As for the statement ‘I use many different strategies when learning idioms’, 6 (15.0%)

participants strongly disagreed and 8 (20.0%) participants disagreed. The vast

majority of the participants agreed with this item and the number was 23 (57.5%)

participants, whereas only 3 (7.5%) participants agreed.

In response to the item ‘I translate the literal meaning into my L1 (first language) in

order to understand idioms’, surprisingly, none of the participants showed strongly

disagreement to this statement. 21 (52.5%) participants disagreed. The percentage of

participants who agreed and strongly agreed to this statement was exactly the same.

With reference to the item ‘I like to be taught the skills and processes necessary to

create meaning from idiomatic texts’, 17 (42.5%) participants strongly disagreed and

only 2 (5.0%) participants disagreed with this statement. 21 (52.55%) participants

agreed and none of the participants showed strongly disagreement.

As can be seen from the table, the highest mean score was 2.75. It was obtained from

the respondents that showed their positive attitude towards the use of idioms. On the

other hand, the lowest mean score was 2.1. It was obtained from the number of

participants who wish to be taught the skills and processes that would help them to

create meaning from idiomatic texts.

4.2 Discussion



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Amin, Ahmad This part introduces the findings obtained from the questionnaire. This part presents

the difficulties that the participants faced in understanding idiomatic expressions, the

role of the context and how it helped the participants to figure out the meaning of the

idiomatic expressions, the influence of low vocabulary words on understanding, and

the role of constituent parts that make up the expressions. Besides that, the focus will

be on the strategies that respondents used in order to understand these expressions.

The findings of this study indicated that students got better results on the idiom

questionnaire but it is important to consider why they performed better and why some

features of the students’ background influenced idiom comprehension while others

were insignificant. An interesting issue to contemplate is also why certain idioms

were more difficult or easier than others and what might be the causes behind it.

Above all the results of the present study were considered in the light of previous

idiom comprehension studies.

The responses gained from the background questionnaire, activities practiced by the

participants of this study as well as the knowledge of idiom section all have a great

impact on the findings of this study, though some parts seems to be insignificant. To

start with, the participants who sat for the IELTS exam seems to have a wide

knowledge as well as a wide range of vocabulary that helped them to understand the

idioms. Additionally, having a high score on IELTS exam correlated with the having

a solid background on idioms, because the more you use idioms in IELTS exam, the

high score the candidate gets. The fact that some participants had a correct definition

was due to their background knowledge. The majority of respondents were not in

contact with native speakers. That is why their background knowledge about idioms

were not that much helpful. It did not make difference. Besides that, the exposure to

written discourse had no significant influence since the majority of the participants

were exposed only to books related to their majors.

The third section of the questionnaire showed that the difficulty aroused from the

nondecomposable idioms that were not easy to interpret due to the low frequent

vocabulary that even if they knew their literal meaning, it was still difficult to know

the overall meaning of the expression. Similarly, the difficulty rose from vocabulary



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Amin, Ahmad that constituted the expression and sometimes from the whole expression, because if

the words that made up the expressions were the difficult or not known for the

participant, it affected understanding of the whole expressions.

The findings indicated that idioms were difficult because of the lack of the cultural

background behind idioms was moderate (mean=2.43). It is revealed that the majority

(55.0%) of the students think that the cultural background affects understanding of

idiomatic expressions. Besides that, the responses regarding the difficulties were that

the idioms were not taught in the class. It was found that the mean score for this

statement was (mean=2.4).

The findings also revealed that the items related to the use of context significantly

revealed that the context played a vital role in understanding idioms with a mean

(=2.3). The respondents who revealed that it was useful to predict the meaning of

idioms was the highest percentage with a mean score of (=2.58) and the mean score.

The response from these participants revealed that the majority of the respondents

indicated that the context helped them to approach to the meaning. According to the

responses gained from the questionnaire to the item ‘Verbal (textual or audio) and

visual information helped activate my knowledge of idioms’ with a mean score (2.38),

this shows that exposure to different contexts (spoken and written) expands the

knowledge of idioms and help retaining them to a later use. Qualls et al (2003)

pointed out that contextual cues are imperative for comprehension of unfamiliar

idioms in either the oral or written modality, particularly if idioms are more opaque in

nature.

The analysis also indicated that the difficulty was related to the meaning of the

individual words which made up the whole phrase with a mean score of (2.425). In

other words, if the participants could not recognize the meaning of a word in the

whole expression, s/he was not able to denote the meaning of the whole expression.

The data analysis also revealed that participants used several strategies in the process

of comprehending an idiom . Cooper (1999) explored the comprehension strategies

used by L2 learners when trying to figure out the meanings of English idioms in one-

or two-sentence contexts. The most commonly used strategies were guessing from



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Amin, Ahmad context, discussing and analyzing the idiom, and using the literal meaning. The

findings of this study showed that the participants used many strategies in order to

approach the meaning of the idiomatic expressions. These strategies were repeating

and paraphrasing the idiom, discussing and analyzing the idiom, guessing the

meaning from the context, using background knowledge, using the literal meaning to

understand the meaning of its figurative counterpart, referring to L1 idiom, and other

strategies. These strategies will be explained respectively. Moreover, Fu (2003) points

out the visualization (drawing) might be one of the strategies that L2 learners may

use. He argued for the importance of drawing for English-language learners

(especially beginners) as a means to express their understanding of what they are

learning.

The most successful strategy that was used by the majority of the participants was

guessing the meaning from the context (37 %). With respect to the effect of context,

Nippold and Martin (1989); Levrato and Cacciari (1999); Ishida (2008b) state that L2

learners would have more success interpreting idioms presented with supportive

context than without. Furthermore, past research has shown that L2 learners use

context to interpret idioms and are more successful interpreting idioms in context than

in isolation (Cooper 1998; Ishida 2008b; Liontas 2002).

4.3 Summary of the Findings

The findings of this study revealed that idioms were difficult due to a number of

factors that started from introducing the idiomatic expressions in the classroom by the

teachers and their figurative nature. Additionally, the low frequent vocabulary was

one of the factors that affect students understanding of the idioms. The participants

also used various strategies while processing Idioms. The most successful strategies

were guessing from the context as well as referring to L1 since the expression exists

in both languages.

5. Conclusion

The investigated the effects of the students’ backgrounds on idiom comprehension,

such as their English Language Proficiency, exposure to L2 environment, contact with

native speakers and exposure to different types of written discourse. It was observed

that participants who were in contact with native speakers, reading in English and

reaching to higher levels of English got better results than their peers who reported the



86


Amin, Ahmad opposite in the background section of the questionnaire. The study also investigated

the problems and the difficulties that Libyan students face when using idiomatic

expressions as well as the strategies that they use in order to figure out the meaning of

such expressions.

The findings of this study are in line with those of Cooper (1999) in the way that the

participants did not use a single strategy while encountering the meaning of idiomatic

expression given in a context; instead, they used a variety of strategies. While

processing the idiom, they relied on of the contextual clues more than any other ones.

As can be seen from the data analyzed, the difficulties were all related to the

nondecomposable idioms that their constituent parts are not related to the overall

figurative meaning. For some even some constituents were difficult because they were

low frequent vocabulary or they were not known for the participant him/herself. To

help the figure the meaning out, the participants used many strategies to understand

idioms. The most successful strategy was guessing from context and next was

referring to L1 idiom. In fact, the context played a major role to help the participants

understand the meaning of those expressions.

About the Authors:

Noura Winis Ibrahim Saleh completed her Master in English from the University

Teknologi, Malaysia and is presently working as a member of teaching staff of the

Department of English language and Translation Studies of the Faculty of Arts, the

University of Sebha, Sebha, Libya. Her major areas of research interest include- ELT,

Linguistics, Morphology, Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis.

Dr. Mohammed Hassan Zakaria works as a professor of English with the

University Teknologi, Malaysia and has supervised many students in their research

studies.

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