The application of conceptual metaphors to teaching idioms to enghlish majored students at thu dau mot university m a

Keywords: idioms, conceptual metaphors, CM-inspired instruction, reception, receptive knowledge, production, productive knowledge, motivation... Table 4.12 Pairwise comparisons for thre

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

THE APPLICATION OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS TO TEACHING IDIOMS TO ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS

AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

PHẠM THÁI BẢO NGỌC

Supervised by

TÔ MINH THANH, Assoc Prof Dr

HO CHI MINH CITY, NOVEMBER 2015

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “THE APPLICATION OF CONCEPTUAL

STUDENTS AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY” is my own work

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, November 20, 2015

Phạm Thái Bảo Ngọc

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Phạm Thái Bảo Ngọc, being the candidate for the degree of Master

in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original copy of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan and reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, November 20, 2015

Phạm Thái Bảo Ngọc

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The appearance of only my name on the cover of this thesis does not mean that it is an individual effort In fact, the thesis was accomplished with the help of many individuals

to whom I will always be grateful

My deepest gratitude is to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Tô Minh Thanh I have been particularly fortunate to have a supervisor who allowed me great freedom to make discoveries on my own, and at the same time gave me unflagging support whenever my steps wavered I am also thankful to her for careful proof-reading and line-by-line comments on my writing Her patience and guidance helped me weather many a crisis and finish this thesis I hope that one day I would become as good a mentor to my students as Ms Thanh has been to me

My sincere thanks also go to Dr Lê Hoàng Dũng, Dr Nguyễn Hoàng Tuấn, Dr Nguyễn Thu Hương, Dr Đặng Tấn Tín, Dr Phó Phương Dung, and Dr Nguyễn Thị Kiều Thu for numerous discussions and lectures on related topics that helped me broaden my knowledge and sharpen my arguments for the thesis

I am also deeply indebted to Dr Lý Quyết Tiến, the Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Thu Dau Mot University, for providing me with optimum conditions to conduct my research at this site I would like to acknowledge the academic staff, especially Mr Trịnh Huỳnh Chấn, and my colleagues at the faculty as well for their assistance and encouragement during the process of conducting and writing this thesis

I also owe sincere thanks to my students, who are an inspiration to me, for their active participation in the study Without their support, my thesis would never have been accomplished

Last but not least, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my beloved parents for always being there for me as a constant source of love, support and strength all these years Thanks to them, my dreams are born, nurtured and fulfilled I am blessed to be their child, as always

ABSTRACT

Contrary to the traditional view of idioms, cognitive linguists have demonstrated that the nature of idioms is not arbitrary and rote memorization is not the only way to learn them The discovery that several figurative idioms are semantically motivated by a common conceptual metaphor has opened up a path to more systematic and insightful learning However, it is still unclear to what extent the elaboration of conceptual metaphors could facilitate learners’ reception and production of idioms over time Besides, their attitudes towards the employment of conceptual metaphors have yet to be thoroughly explored This study is an attempt to fill in these gaps in the literature To address the issues, a quasi-experiment with the pre-test – post-test non-equivalent group design and an attitudinal survey were conducted on a sample of 69 English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University The results of the study reveal that the explanation of conceptual metaphors was especially beneficial for the students’ reception of idioms over time, and to a lesser extent for their production of these idioms As compared to the traditional instruction, the effectiveness of applying conceptual metaphors to teaching was not particularly outstanding in the short term However, this cognitive approach showed its relatively long-lasting value, especially weeks after the instruction, in terms of the students’ idiom reception and production The employment of conceptual metaphors in teaching idioms also received positive feedback from the students, though the instruction itself exposed some shortcomings that need to be dealt with In view of these findings, the study discussed implications of the adoption of conceptual metaphors as an additional channel for idiom acquisition for EFL learners, teachers as well as syllabus and textbook designers

Keywords: idioms, conceptual metaphors, CM-inspired instruction, reception, receptive

knowledge, production, productive knowledge, motivation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of authorship i

Retention and use of the thesis ii

Acknowledgement iii

Abstract iv

Table of contents v

List of abbreviations ix

List of tables x

List of figures xiii

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Context of the study 3

1.3 Aims of the study 4

1.4 Research questionsand hypotheses 4

1.5 Significance of the study 6

1.6 Outline of the thesis 7

Chapter 2 Literature review 8

2.1 Overview of idioms and teaching idioms in EFL contexts 8

2.1.1 Definitions and features of idioms 9

2.1.2 Importance of teaching idioms to EFL learners 13

2.1.2.1 Language proficiency 13

2.1.2.2 Efficiency and richness in language use 14

2.1.2.3 Cultural understanding 16

2.1.3 Aspects of idiomatic competence 16

2.1.3.1 Reception and production 17

2.1.3.2 Recognition and recall 18

2.1.3.3 Comprehension and use 19

2.1.4 Explicit and implicit idiom instruction 20

2.1.5 Traditional and cognitive linguistic views of idioms and idiom teaching 23

2.1.5.1 Traditional view of idioms and idiom teaching 23

2.1.5.2 Cognitive linguistic view of idioms and idiom teaching 23

2.2 The Conceptual Metaphor Theory 27

2.2.1 Conceptual metaphors 27

2.2.2 The working mechanism of conceptual metaphors 27

2.2.3 The experiential basis of conceptual metaphors 29

2.3 The application of conceptual metaphors to teaching idioms 30

2.3.1 Theoretical support for applying conceptual metaphors to teaching idioms 30

2.3.2 Recent research on applying conceptual metaphors to teaching idioms 31

2.3.3 Issues yet to be resolved 38

2.4 Theoretical and empirical guidelines for the study 39

2.5 Summary 40

Chapter 3 Methodology 41

3.1 Research design 42

3.2 Research site 45

3.3 Pilot study 45

3.4 Participants 46

3.5 Teaching materials 50

3.5.1 Selection of the target conceptual metaphors and idioms 50

3.5.1.1 Rationale for the selected topics 50

3.5.1.2 Selection of the target conceptual metaphors 52

3.5.1.3 Selection of the target idioms 52

3.5.2 Design of teaching materials 53

3.6 Research instruments 56

3.6.1 The Quick Placement Test 56

3.6.2 The Idiom Knowledge Test 57

3.6.2.1 Overview of the Idiom Knowledge Test 58

3.6.2.2 Test-item designing 59

3.6.2.3 Piloting and test reliability 60

3.6.2.4 Test administration and scoring 63

3.6.3 Attitudinal questionnaire 65

3.6.3.1 Design and construct 65

3.6.3.2 Piloting and reliability 68

3.7 Data collection procedure 69

3.8 Data analysis procedure 72

3.9 Summary 75

Chapter 4 Results and discussion 76

4.1 Results 76

4.1.1 Preconditions of ANOVAs and Independent Samples T-Tests 76

4.1.2 Results of the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Test over time 79

4.1.2.1 Within-group comparison 79

4.1.2.2 Between-group comparison 83

4.1.3 Results of the Idiom Productive Knowledge Test over time 87

4.1.3.1 Within-group comparison 87

4.1.3.2 Between-group comparison 91

4.1.4 Results from the attitudinal questionnaire 96

4.1.4.1 General opinions about teaching and learning idioms 96

4.1.4.2 Reflection on the application of the CM-inspired instruction 101

4.1.4.3 Suggestions for further improvement 106

4.2 Discussion 107

4.2.1 Idiom reception over time 107

4.2.1.1 Within-group comparison 107

4.2.1.2 Between-group comparison 108

4.2.2 Idiom production over time 111

4.2.2.1 Within-group comparison 111

4.2.2.2 Between-group comparison 112

4.2.3 Attitudes towards the CM-inspired instruction 115

4.2.4 Possible ways to improve the CM-inspired instruction 122

4.3 Summary 124

Chapter 5 Conclusions 125

5.1 Summary and contributions 125

5.2 Pedagogical implications 126

5.3 Limitations of the study 128

5.4 Recommendations for further study 129

References 131

Appendices 143

Appendix 1 Interpretations of Research Questions 1 and 2 144

Appendix 2 146

Appendix 2B Course syllabus – Writing 4 (English version) 152

Appendix 3 SPSS output of the QPT results 157

Appendix 4 Ten conceptual metaphors selected for the experiment 158

Appendix 5 Sixty idioms selected for the experiment 164

Appendix 6 Integration of the experiment into the Writing 4 course 167

Appendix 7 Quick Placement Test (version 2) 168

Appendix 8 The Idiom Knowledge Test and how to design it 177

Appendix 8A The Idiom Knowledge Test (IKT) 178

Appendix 8B Detailed description of the IKT and how to design it 183

Appendix 8C General guidelines for test item formats 189

Appendix 9 Questionnaires 190

Appendix 9A Control group – Questionnaire (English version) 191

Appendix 9B Control group – Questionnaire (Vietnamese version) 193

Appendix 9C Experimental group – Questionnaire (English version) 195

Appendix 9D Experimental group – Questionnaire (Vietnamese version) 199

Appendix 10 Students’ Handouts 203

Appendix 10A Control group – Students’ Handout (Week 2 – ANGER) 204

Appendix 10B Experimental group – Students’ Handout (Week 2 – ANGER) 209

Appendix 10C Control group – Students’ Handout (Week 3 – LIFE) 214

Appendix 10D Experimental group – Students’ Handout (Week 3 – LIFE) 219

Appendix 11 Lesson plans 224

Appendix 11A Control group – Lesson plan (Week 2 – ANGER) 226

Appendix 11B Experimental group – Lesson plan (Week 2 – ANGER) 229

Appendix 12 SPSS outputs of the tests of normality 233

Appendix 13 Result analysis of the IKT results for the CG 234

Appendix 14 SPSS output of within-group comparison 238

Appendix 14A SPSS output of the IKT results for the CG 239

Appendix 14B SPSS output of the IKT results for the EG 243

Appendix 15 SPSS output of between-group comparison 247

Appendix 15A SPSS output of the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Test results 248

Appendix 15B SPSS output of the Idiom Productive Knowledge Test results 249

Appendix 16 Pictorial illustration for ANGER AS HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER 251

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

x

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Ontological correspondences of ANGER AS HEATED FLUID IN A

CONTAINER 28

Table 3.1 Demographic characteristics of the participants 48

Table 3.2 Summary of the Independent Samples T-Test for the QPT results 49

Table 3.3 Summary of item types in the IKT 58

Table 3.4 Correlations between the results of two test administrations in the pilot stage .61

Table 3.5 Cronbach’s alpha for each sub-test of the IKT 62

Table 3.6 Distribution of the questions in the attitudinal questionnaire 67

Table 3.7 Reliability of the statements in each theme of the questionnaire 68

Table 3.8 Weekly schedule of the treatment and test administrations 71

Table 4.1 Shapiro-Wilk Tests of normality for the scores of two groups 77

Table 4.2 Group statistics in the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Pre-test .78

Table 4.3 Results of the Independent Samples T-Test in the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Pre-test 78

Table 4.4 Rankings in the Productive Idiom Knowledge Pre-test 79

Table 4.5 Results of the Mann-Whitney U Test in the Productive Idiom Knowledge Pre-test 79

Table 4.6 Descriptive statistics of the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Test for the CG over time 80

Table 4.7 Tests of within-subjects effects in the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Test for the CG 79

Table 4.8 Pairwise comparisons for three administrations of the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Test for the CG 80

Table 4.9 Descriptive statistics of the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Test for the EG over time 81

Table 4.10 Mauchly's test of sphericity in the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Test for the EG 81

Table 4.11 Tests of within-subjects effects in the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Test for the EG 82

Table 4.12 Pairwise comparisons for three administrations of the Receptive Idiom

Knowledge Test for the EG 82 Table 4.13 Group statistics in the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Post-test 1 84 Table 4.14 Results of the Independent Samples T-Test in the Receptive Idiom

Knowledge Post-test 1 84 Table 4.15 Group statistics in the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Post-test 2 85 Table 4.16 Summary of the Independent Samples T-Test result in the Receptive Idiom

Knowledge Post-test 2 85 Table 4.17 Descriptive statistics of the CG’s results in the Productive Idiom

Knowledge Test over time 88 Table 4.18 Test statistics in the Friedman Test regarding the CG’s results on the

Productive Idiom Knowledge Test over time 88 Table 4.19 Results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank tests regarding the CG’s results in the

Productive Idiom Knowledge Test over time 88 Table 4.20 Descriptive statistics of the EG’s results in the Productive Idiom

Knowledge Test over time 89 Table 4.21 Test statistics in the Friedman Test regarding the EG’s results in the

Productive Idiom Knowledge Test over time 89 Table 4.22 Results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank tests regarding the EG’s scores in the

Productive Idiom Knowledge Test over time 90 Table 4.23 Group statistics in the Productive Idiom Knowledge Post-test 1 91 Table 4.24 Results of the Independent Samples T-Test in the Productive Idiom

Knowledge Post-test 1 91 Table 4.25 Group statistics in the Productive Idiom Knowledge Post-test 2 93 Table 4.26 Results of the Independent Samples T-Test in the Productive Idiom

Knowledge Post-test 2 93 Table 4.27 The students’ choice between explicit and implicit teaching of idioms 98 Table 4.28 Rankings on two groups’ overall feelings about the idiom instruction 100 Table 4.29 Results of the Mann-Whitney U Test regarding two groups’ overall feelings

about the idiom instruction 100 Table 4.30 The students’ opinions on the benefits of the CM-inspired instruction 101 Table 4.31 The students’ opinions on the drawbacks of the CM-inspired instruction

xii

102 Table 4.32 The students’ feelings towards the application of CMs to teaching idioms

104 Table 4.33 The students’ reactions to the CM-inspired instruction 106

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 Summary of the statistical tests for Research Questions 1 and 2 74

Figure 4.1 Comparison of the mean scores of two groups in three administrations of the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Test 83

Figure 4.2 Score type distribution in the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Post-test 2 86

Figure 4.3 Distribution of score types in the Productive Idiom Knowledge Post-test 2 – strict marking 94

Figure 4.4 Distribution of score types in the Productive Idiom Knowledge Post-test 2 – less strict marking 94

Figure 4.5 Comparison of the mean scores of two groups over time for the Productive Idiom Knowledge Test – strict marking 95

Figure 4.6 Comparison of the mean scores of two groups over time for the Productive Idiom Knowledge Test – less strict marking 95

Figure 4.7 The students’ opinions about the importance of learning idioms 97

Figure 4.8 The students’ opinions about the necessity of teaching idioms in class 98

Figure 4.9 The CG students’ overall feeling about the traditional instruction 99

Figure 4.10 The EG students’ overall feeling about the CM-inspired instruction 99

Figure 4.11 The students’ self-assessment of their understanding of the introduced idioms after the course 104

Figure 4.12 The students’ self-assessment of their ability to use the introduced idioms after the course 105

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

As Wilkins (1972) asserted, “while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (as cited in Thornbury, 2002, p 13) Several language practitioners and researchers currently view vocabulary as a core component of language proficiency (Thornbury, 2002; Boers & Lindstromberg, 2008b; Schmitt, 2010) In recent years, there has been a growing interest in formulaic sequences, also known as lexical chunks, owing to their prominent role in language acquisition and production (Wood, 2002; Alali & Schmitt, 2012; Hatami, 2015) Among different types of formulaic sequences, idioms are an integral component (Simpson & Mendis, 2003; O’Dell & McCarthy, 2010) and the mastery of these expressions is part of communicative competence (Celce-Murcia, 2008)

Idioms have been extensively used in all spoken and written genres of discourse, ranging from everyday conversation and journalism to more formal contexts, such as lectures, academic essays and business reports (Brenner, 2003; O’Dell & McCarthy, 2010) It is estimated that there are more than 10,000 idiomatic expressions in English and new idioms are still created in different forms of discourse (ibid.) According to Cooper (1998), an English native speaker may use approximately 20 million idioms throughout his or her lifetime of 60 years Due to the substantial number of idioms and their pervasive use in second-language discourse, the lack of idiomatic knowledge can

be a great hindrance to the learner’s communication with the native speakers

However, learning English idioms is not an easy task As Liu (2003) stated, idioms are

“notoriously difficult” to the learners of English due to their “rather rigid structure, quite unpredictable meaning and fairly extensive use” (p 671) Besides, the learners’ limited language proficiency and their insufficient exposure to the target language also constitute great impediments to their comprehension of idioms Moreover, idioms are not only cross-linguistic, but also cross-cultural phenomena (Kövecses, 2002; Boers, Demecheleer & Eyckmans, 2004) Even a student with profound knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, as Cooper (1998) argued, still experiences difficulties in

understanding and using idiomatic language if he or she is not aware of the cultural diversity underlying idioms

Despite the importance of learning idioms in English and the learners’ increasing difficulties in comprehending and using them, this area of language is often ignored in EFL classrooms and textbooks Irujo (1986) claimed that several L2 teaching materials completely disregard idioms or consider them as ‘other expressions’ and fail to provide learners with sufficient practice in meaningful contexts Regarding contemporary textbooks of English in Vietnamese secondary schools, only 24 idioms are presented in the three textbooks, i.e English 10, English 11 and English 12 without any further practice or consolidation (Tran, H Q., 2013) Many teachers in Vietnam even have a tendency to avoid using or teaching idioms in classroom since they believe that idioms are too difficult for learners (Nguyen, N V., 2011; Tran, H Q., 2012), which leads to Vietnamese students’ poor idiomatic competence (Tran, H Q., 2013)

Due to the alleged arbitrary nature of idioms and their fixed structures, it was believed that rote memorization is the only way for learners to acquire these expressions (Boers, Eyckmans, & Stengers, 2007) However, since 1980, cognitive linguistics has proved that idioms are not arbitrary and it is conceptual metaphor (CM) that is the motivation behind the figurative meanings of several idiomatic expressions (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980b; Kövecses, 2002) Conceptual metaphor is defined as a mapping from the source domain, i.e a more concrete or physical concept, to the target domain, i.e a more abstract concept (ibid.) This finding has been an inspiration for several studies on the effect of conceptual metaphors on idiom acquisition (Beréndi, Csábi, & Kövecses, 2008; Skoufaki, 2008; Kömür & Çimen, 2009; Vasiljevic, 2011; Doiz & Elizari, 2013) These studies have revealed that conceptual metaphors have a significant effect on EFL learners’ comprehension and retention of English idioms, opening up a new path to more systematic and insightful learning

However, most previous studies were conducted on a modest scale in sample size and experiment time length Besides, the potential benefits of conceptual metaphors seem not to be explored thoroughly due to inadequate instruction It is also noteworthy that most studies have placed their emphasis on the students’ performances after the adoption of conceptual metaphors but had little discussion on their attitudes towards

this cognitive approach, which is also a very important factor in determining the practicality of the method As a descendant, this study has carefully examined these issues as an attempt to fill in the gap in the literature on applying conceptual metaphors

to teaching and learning idioms

1.2 Context of the study

This study was conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) at Thu Dau Mot University (TDMU) in Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong Province Founded in 2009, TDMU is the only public university in the province, and it has gradually developed into

a notable south-east university with approximately 15,000 students in 2015 At present, the the FFL has 1,200 English-majored regular students distributed in 27 classes The increasing number of students annually enrolled in TDMU in general and FFL in particular shows that this institution is gaining confidence among students in the province and nearby regions Hopefully, the researcher’s decision to conduct the research at this site could bring benefits to the English-majored students and lecturers

at TDMU, contributing to the all-round development of Binh Duong Province Moreover, the FFL is where the researcher is working Her familiarity with the faculty administration, its curriculum and learning atmosphere provided favorable conditions for conducting the study

The participants of this study were 69 English-majored sophomores in the second semester of the 2014-2015 academic year at TDMU These students were taking the final courses of Language Skills during the experiment From the observation of the researcher and other lecturers, though they enrolled on the fourth Language Skills course, the students encountered considerable difficulty in expressing themselves in English mainly due to their lack of vocabulary It was noticeable that they could hardly comprehend and employ formulaic sequences, especially idiomatic language, for better communication in English Several students had a tendency to use general, simple, and

short words such as good, fine, big, happy, sad, etc several times in their speech and

writing Others tended to use lengthy, but still unclear, sentences even when they were describing simple feelings and actions On taking the final courses in language skills before joining higher-level courses in linguistics, literature, translation, and teaching methodology, several students even experienced frustration and anxiety over their

inability to express their own thoughts and feelings adequately after seven years studying English at school and nearly two years practising four skills of English at university Such observations are in agreement with MacArthur (2010) who highlighted the negative attitudes of the learners and their seemingly reaching a plateau after several years of studying a foreign language He suggested that this problem should be taken into serious consideration as it can have a profound impact on the students’ learning motivation

It seemed that the traditional way of teaching and learning vocabulary, especially idiomatic language, was not a satisfactory solution to the students’ problem Hence, it was essential to find out a more effective method that could help enlarge the students’ vocabulary, in this case, figurative idioms, in order to make their language more expressive and faithful to their feelings and thoughts, resulting in the increase in their learning motivation and the improvement of their English proficiency

1.3 Aims of the study

In this study, the application of conceptual metaphors is proposed as a promising method to present idioms to EFL students, shortly referred to as the CM-inspired instruction The effectiveness of this cognitive approach was investigated over time in terms of the students’ reception and production of the taught idioms Specifically, the aims of this study are (1) to examine the effect of the CM-inspired instruction on the receptive knowledge of the target idioms among English-majored students at TDMU over time, (2) to investigate the effect of the CM-inspired instruction on the productive knowledge of the target idioms among English-majored students at TDMU over time, and (3) to explore the students’ attitudes towards the employment of conceptual metaphors in teaching idioms The effect of the instruction was measured over time, specifically at two time points, i.e immediately after the instruction and five weeks after the instruction

1.4 Research questions and hypotheses

The aims of this study can be addressed through the following research questions and sub-questions:

(1) To what extent does the application of conceptual metaphors facilitate TDMU English-majored students’ reception of the target idioms over time?

Sub-questions:

(1a) To what extent does the application of conceptual metaphors facilitate TDMU English-majored students’ reception of the target idioms immediately after the teaching stage?

(1b) To what extent does the application of conceptual metaphors facilitate TDMU English-majored students’ reception of the target idioms five weeks after the teaching stage?

(2) To what extent does the application of conceptual metaphors facilitate TDMU English-majored students’ production of the target idioms over time?

Sub-questions:

(2a) To what extent does the application of conceptual metaphors facilitate TDMU English-majored students’ production of the target idioms immediately after the teaching stage?

(2b) To what extent does the application of conceptual metaphors facilitate TDMU English-majored students’ production of the target idioms five weeks after the teaching stage?

(3) What are the students’ attitudes towards the application of conceptual metaphors to teaching idioms?

The effectiveness of the CM-inspired instruction is examined via within-group and between-group comparisons Thus, six alternative hypotheses1 are formulated on the basis of the first two research questions, as follows

Research question 1:

Within-group comparison:

H1 There is at least a statistically significant difference in terms of receptive idiom knowledge between two of the occasions, i.e prior to the CM-inspired instruction, immediately after the instruction and five weeks after the instruction

1 For all null and alternative hypotheses regarding Research Questions 1 and 2, see Appendix 1 (pp 144-145)

Between-group comparison:

H1’ There is a statistically significant difference between those studying idioms under the CM-inspired instruction and those under the traditional instruction in terms of receptive idiom knowledge immediately after the instruction

H1’’ There is a statistically significant difference between those studying idioms under the CM-inspired instruction and those under the traditional instruction in terms of receptive idiom knowledge five weeks after the instruction

Research question 2:

H2 There is at least a statistically significant difference in terms of productive idiom knowledge between two of the occasions, i.e prior to the CM-inspired instruction, immediately after the instruction and five weeks after the instruction

Between-group comparison:

H2’ There is a statistically significant difference between those studying idioms under the CM-inspired instruction and those under the traditional instruction in terms of productive idiom knowledge immediately after the instruction

H2’’ There is a statistically significant difference between those studying idioms under the CM-inspired instruction and those under the traditional instruction in terms of productive idiom knowledge five weeks after the instruction

Due to its limitation in scope, throughout this paper, the term “reception” refers to the recognition and comprehension of idiomatic expressions in reading, rather than listening, context and, the term “production” refers to the recall and use of idioms in writing, rather than speaking, context

1.5 Significance of the study

This research is an attempt to complement previous work both in research methodology and procedure in applying conceptual metaphors to idiom instruction The current study hopes to add more empirical evidence to the positive effects of conceptual metaphors to idiom acquisition, filling the literature gap in the application of cognitive linguistics in EFL context, especially in Vietnam

In fact, the study by Tran, H Q (2012) reveals that none of the teachers and students in Vietnam showed any evidence in using conceptual metaphors in teaching and learning vocabulary in general and idioms in particular An informal interview with the lecturers and students at TDMU conducted by the researcher also provided the same result Therefore, the findings of the thesis are expected to raise EFL teachers, especially Vietnamese teachers, of the pervasiveness of conceptual metaphors in language and thoughts and the benefits of the CM-instruction on the students’ vocabulary, especially idiom, acquisition

1.6 Outline of the thesis

This paper is divided into five chapters The first chapter is the introduction as presented here, discussing the research rationale, context, aims, research questions and significance of the study The second chapter presents a critical review of the related literature on four areas, i.e overview of idioms and teaching idioms in EFL contexts, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), the application of the CMT to teaching idioms, and theoretical and empirical guidelines for the study The next chapter is the discussion on methodology adopted in this study, including the description of research method, pilot studies, participants, teaching materials, research instruments (i.e the Idiom Knowledge Test and the attitudinal questionnaire), data collection and analysis procedures The most important section of this study is the fourth chapter in which the data will be presented, analyzed and explained The last chapter is the conclusion of the study, pedagogical implications, limitations, and recommendations for further research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

To construct a theoretical background for the study, this chapter is going to review the literature on the four following areas: (1) overview of idioms and teaching idioms in EFL contexts, (2) the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), (3) the application of the CMT to teaching idioms, and (4) theoretical and empirical guidelines for the study

2.1 Overview of idioms and teaching idioms in EFL contexts

Before the 1970s, the focus of attention in EFL was the teaching of grammatical structures at the expense of vocabulary development (Thornbury, 2002; Boers & Lindstromberg, 2008) For a long time, teachers had not fully acknowledged the tremendous communicative value of vocabulary, and they considered vocabulary teaching as unnecessary or simply auxiliary activity However, the past four decades has seen a gradual change in the role of vocabulary in second language acquisition since the advent of communicative language teaching in the 1970s As Wilkins (1972) asserted, “while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (as cited in Thornbury, 2002, p 13) Currently, a significant proportion of EFL teachers, researchers and EFL coursebook writers have see vocabulary as a core component of language proficiency which provides the basis for the learner’s receptive and productive performance in the target language (Read, 2000; Thornbury, 2002; Boers & Lindstromberg, 2008; Schmitt, 2010)

In recent years, there has been a growing interest informulaic sequences, often known

as lexical chunks or multi-word units, due to their significant role in language acquisition and production (Wray, 2000; Wood, 2002; Alali & Schmitt, 2012; Hatami, 2015) Formulaic language consists of fixed multi-word expressions that behave as single units rather than as individual words (Alali & Schmitt, 2012) There are different

types of formulaic language, ranging from simple fillers (e.g., sort of) and functions (e.g., good morning) to collocations (e.g., do research) and phrasal verbs (e.g., bring

off) to idioms (e.g., weather the storm) and proverbs (e.g., no pain, no gain)

(Celce-Murcia, 2008; O’Dell & McCarthy, 2010; Stengers, Boers, Housen, & Eyckmans, 2011; Hatami, 2015) According to recent research, formulaic sequences account for

over 50% of spoken and written English discourse (Erman & Warren, 2000, as cited in Hatami, 2015) and these sequences are among the distinguishing marks of a native-like fluency (Simpson & Mendis, 2003; Schmitt, 2010; Hatami, 2015)

Among different types of formulaic sequences, idioms constitute an integral part of vocabulary and play an important role in the learner’s language proficiency (Simpson

& Mendis, 2003; O’Dell & McCarthy, 2010) This section gives a brief overview of idioms and idiom teaching, including the nature of idioms, the importance of learning idioms, the need for idiom instruction, the measurement of idiomatic competence and different approaches to present idioms to EFL learners

2.1.1 Definitions and features of idioms

The definition of idioms, in fact, varies considerably from scholar to scholar Currently, there is no total agreement on what is understood by the term “idiom” As noted by Moon (1998), “idiom is an ambiguous term, used in conflicting ways” (p 3) The most prevalent description of an idiom is “a group of words that occur in a more or less fixed phrase and whose overall meaning cannot be predicted by analyzing the meanings of its constituent parts” (Simpson & Mendis, 2003, p 423) This definition focuses on two features of idioms: semantic compositionality as well as semantic and syntactic constraints Another important aspect that the definition seems to miss is the conventionality of idiom These features are discussed in details in the following parts

Conventionality

The conventionality of an idiom is related to its currency in the speech community It

is, therefore, not a linguistic property in the way an idiom's semantic and syntactic features are, but seems to belong to sociolinguistic aspects (Fernando, 1996) To be more specific, an idiom is frequently used by the speech community in a specific form

or within prescribed variations

Semantic compositionality

Frege’s principle of compositionality was outlined by Lyons (1995): “The meaning of a

composite expression is a function of the meanings of its component expressions” (p

204) For decades, linguists have defined idioms as being “non-compositional”, explaining that the meaning of an idiom is not the sum of the meanings of its

component parts (Swinney & Cutler, 1979; Irujo, 1986) Stevenson and Waite (2011)

shared this viewpoint when stating that an idiom is “a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words” (p 708)

The prototypical example of an idiom is kick the bucket which functions as a single unit

and can only be interpreted as a whole; in other words, the literal interpretation of its elements, i.e to strike the bucket with one’s foot, does not yield the idiom’s intended meaning, i.e to die, and the construction is therefore non-compositional

However, in reality, several idioms seem to be, to some extent, compositional, or decomposable, with the meanings of their parts contributing to the overall figurative meanings of the idioms (Gibbs, Nayak, Bolton, & Keppel, 1989; Titone & Connine,

1999; Gibbs, 2007) For instance, the idiom lay down the law in You can't just come

into this office and start laying down the law is decomposable and more or less

transparent Each constituent is individually meaningful: lay down refers to the act of officially establishing a rule while law means the whole system of rules that people in a

particular country or area must obey (‘lay down,’ n.d.; ‘law,’ 2014) These two phrases serve as cues to the retrieval of the figurative meaning for the idiom, i.e “to tell other people what to do, how they should think, etc., in a very strong or impolite way” (‘lay down the law,’ n.d.) Such an analysis of individual constituents to discover the metaphoric meaning of an idiom has been found to facilitate reception of an idiom’s non-literal interpretations (Gibbs, 1994; Titone & Connine, 1999; Cieślicka, 2006) Based on the results of such observation and studies, there seems to be other categories

of idioms besides the non-decomposable idioms

As Nunberg (1978) stated, “idioms can be ordered along a continuum of semantic compositionality” (as cited in Glucksberg, 2014, p 5) In other words, idioms can vary

from apparently unitary phrases (e.g by and large, cook his goose, kick the bucket) to

expressions whose idiomatic meanings derive jointly from their literal meanings (e.g

lay down the law, learn your lesson, fit like a glove) Gibbs et al (1989) supported this

viewpoint and suggested that idioms could be categorized into three groups, depending

on their semantic compositionality and transparency: decomposable (transparent), abnormally decomposable (semi-transparent), and non-decomposable (opaque) Thus, the two above-mentioned definitions in Simpson and Mendis (2003) and Stevenson

(2010), though widely accepted, appear to be in the extreme, lying at one end of the continuum, i.e non-compositionality, including only non-decomposable idioms while excluding all other cases in the continuum This lack of comprehensiveness leads to the need to find a more inclusive definition of idiom

Rather than maintaining that the meaning of an idiom is “not deducible” or “not derived” from the meanings of the individual words in the definition of idioms, it might

be more convincing to point out that the meaning of an idiom is, at least to a certain extent, different from the meanings of its individual constituent words, which draws more attention to the transparency or semi-transparency of idioms along the continuum

of semantic compositionality In fact, the term “different from” has been used, rather

than “not deducible from” or “not derived from”, in the definitions of idioms by

Ammer (1997), Brenner (2003), and Walter (2008)2 As to non-decomposable idioms, the literal meanings of their parts are totally different from the actual sense of the idioms; in other words, their surface structure has “little relation” to their intended figurative meaning (Bortfeld, 2003, p 219) On the contrary, there is “a relatively transparent relationship” between the surface structure of decomposable idioms and their intended meanings (ibid.) In fact, there is such insignificant semantic difference between the literal and figurative meanings that “very little analysis needs to take place for the figurative meaning to be understood based only on the literal form of the phrase” (ibid.) Between the two extremes are abnormally decomposable idioms, for

example, to flip your lid meaning “to become very angry”, which require more analysis

since the literal meaning of the idiom is different from the figurative meaning (‘flip your lid,’ 2014) However, such a difference does not mean that the individual words of the idiom have no contribution to its overall meaning The reason is that there are metaphorical links, between its literal meaning and its figurative concept, that can be mapped out to facilitate the comprehension of the idiom; in this case, the abstract concept, i.e “anger”, is understood in terms of a familiar physical phenomenon, i.e

“heated fluid in a container” (Kövecses, 1986, 2008)

2 “An idiom is a set phrase of two or more words that means something different from the literal meaning of the individual words” (Ammer, 1997, n.p.)

An idiom includes “two or more words together that, as a unit, have a special meaning that is different from the

literal meaning of words separately.” (Brenner, 2003, n.p.)

An idiom is “a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings

of each word on its own.” (Walter, 2008, p 714)

In a word, an idiom is a group of words having a meaning, at least to some extent, different from those of the individual words This definition overcomes the limitation

of the previous definitions by placing more emphasis on a variety of idiom types along the continuum of semantic compositionality

Semantic and syntactic constraints

According to Fernando (1996), idioms are “indivisible units whose components cannot

be varied or varied only within definable limits” (p 30) Baker (2001) also shares this viewpoint, clarifying that, unless a person is consciously making a joke or attempting a play on words, he or she cannot normally do any of the following with an idiom without altering its meaning or idiomatic sense:

 change the order of the words in it (e.g *‘the short and the long of it’);

 delete a word from it (e.g *‘spill beans’);

 add a word to it (e.g *‘the very long and short of it’; *‘face the classical music’);

 replace a word with another even if that word is a synonym (e.g *‘kick the pail’)

 change its grammatical structure (e.g from active to passive *‘the music was faced’)

However, according to McCarthy and O’Dell (2002), the grammar or the vocabulary of some idioms can sometimes be varied slightly For instance, lexical replacements can

also occur in a limited number of idioms, as in the case of Stop acting the fool! and

Stop acting the goat! which both mean stopping acting stupidly Nonetheless, it should

be noted that lexical replacements rarely occur in idioms This makes idioms different from other types of expressions which “normally open to a wide range of word

replacements”, e.g a second / minute / month / year, etc elapsed / passed / went by,

etc (Fernando, 1996, p 54) In sum, such constraints on syntactic and semantic aspects

of an idiom are important features separating idioms from non-idioms

As regards the correlation of semantic compositionality and syntactic restriction of idioms, Gibbs (2014) argues that semantically analyzable (or decomposable) idioms are more syntactically flexible than unanalyzable (or non-decomposable) idioms Thus, a

decomposable and transparent phrase such as John laid down the law can be syntactically altered into The law was laid down by John without significantly

disrupting its figurative meaning However, semantically unanalyzable idioms tend to

be much more syntactically frozen (e.g., one cannot change John kicked the bucket into

The bucket was kicked by John without disrupting its figurative meaning

From the arguments above, the researcher comes up with a working definition of idioms as follows:

An idiom is a conventionalized multi-word expression in a fixed or syntactically restricted order whose meaning is different from the meanings of its component individual words

To a large extent, this definition can tackle the issues that have been raised in the literature, including three aspects, also three features of idioms: conventionality, semantic compositionality, and semantic and syntactic constraints Accordingly, this definition was adopted in the current study in order to identify idioms from other linguistic expressions in the stage of idiom selection for the teaching materials (Section

3.5.1.3) It should also be noteworthy that figurative phrasal verbs were also chosen for teaching materials as they meet all the above-mentioned criteria

2.1.2 Importance of teaching idioms to EFL learners

Idioms play an important role in vocabulary learning and they should be taught in EFL classroom There are at least three grounds for this assertion, focusing on the contribution of idiomatic knowledge to (1) ELF learners’ general language proficiency, (2) their communication with more efficiency and richness in language use, and (3) cultural understanding of the target language

2.1.2.1 Language proficiency

Recent research has revealed that L2 speakers (or writers) are judged as more proficient when they use formulaic language (Alali & Schmitt, 2012) Specifically, fluent speakers of a language are now expected to draw on formulaic sequences as often as they apply linguistic knowledge (i.e grammar and pronunciation) to communication (Celce-Murcia, 2008) Owing to its great significance, formulaic competence is considered part of communicative competence in the recent revised model of communicative competence (Celce-Murcia, 2008) Because idioms are a subgroup of formulaic language, the claims and findings for formulaic sequences are also applicable

to idioms As Fernando (1996) and Wray (2000) stated, the mastery of idiomatic expressions is an important indicator of a native-like command of English This assertion has been acknowledged in the CEFR and IELTS band descriptors According

to CEFR, one of the indicators of a proficient L2 user is “a good command of idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms with awareness of connotative levels of meaning” (Council of Europe, 2001, p 74) In the IELTS speaking band descriptors, the appropriate use of idiomatic language is one of the criteria of lexical resource for Band

7 and over, which is equivalent to C1 and C2 levels in the CEFR (British Council, n.d.)

In sum, the ability to understand and use idiomatic language appropriately in context is one of the conditions for native-like fluency Though some EFL learners may think it is unnecessary to achieve native-like fluency, idiomatic expressions are so pervasive that

it can be difficult to communicate effectively with the native speakers without comprehending and using idioms

2.1.2.2 Efficiency and richness in language use

The considerable scope and variety of idioms and their long-term survival over time in English indicate that idiomatic language may perform some important functions in society Following is a brief discussion of their contribution to effective communication

Idiomatic expressions are efficient because several of them are more succinct than their literal equivalents Moreover, in many cases, idioms could better describe subtle nuances of meaning or intention though fewer words are used (Brenner, 2003) For

instance, the expression a nine-to-five job conveys much more meaning than simply a

job with normal working daytime hours, i.e from 9 a.m to 5 p.m In fact, this idiom discloses the boring, monotonous and unfulfilling aspects of the job (ibid.) Though shorter in words, this idiom is more effective in conveying both the information of the working time and the possible negative attitude of the speaker towards the job This observation is in line with McCarthy (1998)’s assertion that idioms convey an interpretation and evaluation of the phenomenon that the speaker refers to, rather than simply describe the matter of fact

Another distinctive feature of idiomatic expressions is their vividness and their tendency to appeal to the senses and imagination (Brenner, 2003) For this reason, idioms are especially used for emphasis or for creating certain effect to draw the

attention of the reader or listener (O’Dell & McCarthy, 2010) Take the idiom think

outside the box in the sentence We try to encourage our researchers to think outside the box as an example Rather than saying literally that the researcher should think

creatively and unconventionally, the speaker conjures up the image of a box with its implication of conventionality and rigidity and urges the researchers to free their thoughts from such a limited structure to reach their limitless potential In a word, the use of idioms can help the speaker or writer convey their messages in a way that non-idiomatic expressions cannot, via their imagery and different shades of meaning

However, since idioms are widely used in the community, their freshness and vividness may be lost over time In order to arouse the reader’s or the listener’s interest and curiosity, the writer or the speaker often revives the originality of idioms by modifying the idioms themselves (O’Dell & McCarthy, 2010) In the headline of a British

newspaper article, Silver lining for sacked binmen, the writer creatively adapted the common saying Every cloud has a silver lining to convey the idea that not everything was bad for dismissed rubbish collectors (The Daily Telegraph, 9.6.94, p 4, as cited in

Lindstromberg, 1997, p 37) In Harry Potter saga by J K Rowling, conventional idioms were specially modified to add distinction to the world of magic, as in the case

of fall off the back of a broom (Rowling, 2013, p 24) instead of its original version fall

off the back of a lorry to refer to merchandise that was acquired illegally Whereas the

native speakers can instantly recognize these puns and appreciate their special effects, the L2 learners are still struggling to identify the idioms and figuring out their conventional meaning, let alone the novelty value of the edited versions Thus, the teaching of idioms is necessary for EFL learners to discern the beauty of language

Moreover, idioms enable the speaker to avoid saying words which may upset or offend other people or be considered unpleasant (Gibbs, 2007; O’Dell & McCarthy, 2010) As the reality of death and dying may arouse uncomfortable feeling, people tend to use

idiomatic expressions such as breathe one’s last, meet one’s end or depart this life to

indirectly refer to the inevitable end of the human condition The idioms of this

function are useful for EFL learners as they will help them communicate more effectively, using appropriate language for the situation they are in

In sum, idiomatic expressions help the speaker or the writer express their idea and attitude in a succinct, vivid and polite manner They serve several distinctive functions, and, in many cases, they cannot be replaced with non-idiomatic words Thus, learning only single words may be insufficient for effective communication

2.1.2.3 Cultural understanding

The acquisition of idioms can broaden the learners’ cultural knowledge of the target language as several idioms are culture-specific Cricket, for instance, is evidently more popular in England than in the United States; therefore, it is not surprising that more

cricket-based idioms have been created in British English (e.g., Bat on a sticky wicket;

Hit somebody for six) Meanwhile, more idioms originated from baseball can be found

in American English (e.g., not get to first base with something/somebody, Three strikes

and you're out) According to McCarthy (1998), idioms also serve as “communal

tokens that enable speakers to express cultural and social solidarity” (p 145) Therefore, if learners of English fail to understand and use idioms properly, they will always be cultural outsiders and will be unable to successfully integrate into an English-speaking environment

As a whole, there appear to be sufficient arguments to devote special attention to idiomatic expressions in second language program In other words, idioms should be considered as an essential part of vocabulary learning, not an optional or supplementary part of the curriculum any longer

2.1.3 Aspects of idiomatic knowledge

As part of formulaic competence, idiomatic knowledge is generally the ability to recognize, understand, and use idioms appropriately to communicate in the roles of both an addressor and an addressee In EFL contexts, the acquisition of idioms is a process of acquiring idiomatic language from shallower to deeper levels, from reception to production Since idioms are considered multi-unit words, the measurement of idiomatic competence may follow vocabulary knowledge models

2.1.3.1 Reception and production

The notions of vocabulary reception and production are closely related to receptive and productive knowledge of vocabulary At the most basic level, knowing a word or a phrase involves knowing its form and meaning (Thornbury, 2010) The knowledge of the form-meaning relation is even considered as the most important component of vocabulary knowledge (Laufer & Girsai, 2008) Nation (2001) relates the knowledge of meaning and form to receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge, as follows:

“receptive vocabulary use involves perceiving the form of a word while listening or reading and retrieving its meaning” whereas “productive vocabulary use involves wanting to express a meaning through speaking or writing and retrieving and producing the appropriate spoken or written word form” (pp 24-25) The terms “receptive vocabulary use” and “productive vocabulary use” coined by Nation (2001, p 24) are, in fact, referred to as “reception” and “production” of vocabulary by Bruton (2000, p 28), Takač (2008, p 12), and Gass, Behney, and Plonsky (2013, p 196)

According to Schmitt (2010), several vocabulary tests measure the learner’s vocabulary knowledge via receptive and productive mastery of lexical items The relationship

between receptive and productive knowledge (sometimes known as passive and active

mastery) is often seen as a continuum, representing the increase in degrees of knowledge or familiarity with a lexical item, rather than as a strict dichotomy (Read, 2000; Nation, 2001).Receptive vocabulary, on the one side of the continuum, includes

“language items which can only be recognized and comprehended in the context of reading and listening material” whilst productive vocabulary, on the other side, refers

to “language items which the learner can recall and use appropriately in speech and writing” (Gairns, 1986, pp 64-65) These definitions of receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary involve four dimensions: recognition and recall, comprehension and use, which will be clarified in the next part Due to the limitation of this study, the term “reception” is used to refer to the recognition and comprehension of idiomatic expressions in reading context and “production” is involved in the recall and use of idioms in writing

During the process of vocabulary acquisition in general and idiom acquisition in particular, the learner’s knowledge gradually shifts from receptive mastery towards

productive mastery when he / she gains more knowledge of the lexical item, such as its pronunciation, spelling, shades of meaning, grammatical behaviour, collocation, range

of use, etc (Gairns, 1986; Read, 2000; Nation, 2001) Very often, this transition takes place via repeated hearing and / or reading the item over a period of time In the classroom, teachers may accelerate this process by clarifying the meaning and form of the target vocabulary and encouraging controlled and freer practice (Gairns, 1986) Thus, the role of teachers and their vocabulary instruction is of importance to learners’ vocabulary acquisition

2.1.3.2 Recognition and recall

In order to measure vocabulary knowledge, a number of vocabulary tests focus on two

lexical knowledge dimensions: recognition and recall Basically, recognition is the

“ability to say whether or not a word (or other linguistic unit) has been encountered before or has a particular suggested meaning” whereas recall is “being able to remember a word on one’s own” (Richards & Schmidt, 2002, p 448) In language testing, recognition is when “test-takers are presented with the target word and are asked to show that they understand its meaning, whereas in the case of recall they are provided with some stimulus designed to elicit the target word from memory” (Read,

2000, p 155) To test recognition ability, Hughes (2003) suggests the use of multiple choice items in which test-takers are required to select the most suitable synonym or definition of the target word / phrase, or to choose a lexical unit with its meaning appropriate to the given context As regards production ability, the test items involve form recall of the target vocabulary via labeling pictures or filling in a blank in a sentence with pictures or contexts as stimuli, prompting the meaning (ibid.) Thus, in recognition, the key is remembering the meaning of the given expression while in recall, it is the ability to remember and produce the form of the target linguistic unit In other words, recognition involves receptive knowledge and recall refers to productive knowledge

One of the criticisms for this model is that recall appears to require limited production

of the target language items as it does not show how learners actually use them in their own speech or writing and whether they use them appropriately in a variety of contexts Despite this shortcoming, recall tasks are still appreciated in language testing These

“limited-production tasks”, as termed by McKay (2006, p 106), permits objective scoring and, therefore, increase the reliability of the vocabulary test Hughes (2003) points out that a great deal of freedom in answering the test items, as in essay writing, may have an undesirable effect on the reliability of the test He explains that “the more freedom is given, the greater is likely to be the difference between the performance actually elicited and the performance that would have been elicited had the test been taken, say, a day later” (pp 45-46) Moreover, as there is little control of the output lexis, it is impossible to define specific lexical items in advance for a scoring scheme Thus, it is not surprising when these controlled and selective tasks are still important parts of several vocabulary tests such as the Vocabulary Levels Test or the Eurocentres Vocabulary Size Test (EVST) and even proficiency tests like the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE)

2.1.3.3 Comprehension and use

In addition to recognition and recall, Read (2000) also introduced the notions of

comprehension and use Whereas comprehension refers to learners’ understanding of a

lexical item when encountering it while listening or reading, use means that the target expression occurs in their own speech or writing (ibid.) To assess comprehension ability, test-takers may be asked to read a story or listen to a talk and then being tested

on how well they understood the target words or phrases in the text Unlike comprehension, use is often measured by productive tasks designed to elicit target lexical items such as translation, retelling a story, or picture description

Several vocabulary researchers contend, however, that these tasks are unsatisfactory (Read, 2000) In the case of comprehension tasks, presenting the target language items

in a whole spoken or written text may result in inefficient use of testing time and limited range of vocabulary that can be tested as the target words / phrases must be related to the topic of the text Moreover, test-takers mayhave the right answer of the meaning of the word / phrase thanks to inference from the context rather than their own vocabulary knowledge As regards use tasks, story or essay writing or conversation making might not reflect the learner’s real productive knowledge of the target vocabulary in general and idioms in particular To put it differently, his lack of using a certain idiomatic phrase in a particular context does not necessarily mean that he is

unable to use it or fail to recall it The reason may lie in the learner’s personal preference or his habit of using single words, or even the fact that that idiom is not suitable to the content of his story, essay, or conversation In addition, it is inauthentic

to ask learners to use several idioms in speaking or writing because language use is a choice and learners are free to express their ideas in different ways Sentence-writing items are also not a good choice for the reason that some advanced or smart learners can create acceptable sentences even when they do not have a good understanding of the target word’s meaning, as Read (2000) observed For example, a student may make

a grammatically correct sentence with the idiom “go off the rails” as follows: He went

off the rails at the age of 19 just by recognizing the function of the word “go” and

adding a subject and an adverbial phrase of time Given these points, it is particularly difficult to measure the learner’s idiomatic competence via comprehension and use tasks

Taken as a whole, thefour dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, including recognition and recall, comprehension and use, were taken into full consideration indesigning the Idiom Knowledge Test (including the Receptive Idiom Knowledge Test and Productive Idiom Knowledge Test), one of main research instruments, in the current study

2.1.4 Explicit and implicit idiom instruction

Basically, there are two approaches in teaching vocabulary: implicit and explicit instruction In fact, it is a matter for debate whether vocabulary, including idioms, can

be acquired implicitly and incidentally or taught explicitly and intentionally

Under implicit instruction, students are assumed to acquire new lexis, without conscious attention or awareness, thanks to constant exposure to the target language, mostly through reading and listening activities (Benjamin & Crow, 2013) In fact, the acquisition of new words is believed to be a “cumulative” process which takes place over time via repeated exposures to words in context (Laufer, 2005, p 226) It is noteworthy that the overriding focus of implicit instruction, also known as Focus on Form (FonF), is meaning or communication, not linguistic elements that arise incidentally in lessons (Long, 1991) Implicit instruction may, for example, involve reading an article or a story without any vocabulary-focused activity for deliberate memorization of word meanings In this case, reading comprehension is prioritized

while the incidental acquisition of vocabulary is simply a by-product of that reading activity

On the contrary, explicit instruction, which Long (1991) called Focus on Forms (FonFs), involves planned activities especially designed to teach a specific body of words This type of instruction may include, for instance, detailed definitions and examples, given before, during, or after a reading activity, or a follow-up aimed at applying the target vocabulary to realistic contexts Therefore, the students are aware of the learning process and focus their attention directly on the lexis to be taught (Marzban & Kamalian, 2013) They are even instructed to use a variety of strategies to comprehend and remember the target words or phrases such as dictionary consulting, hypothesis formation for meaning inference from contexts, semantic approach and mnemonic techniques (Dakun, 2000).Under this type of instruction, language is viewed

as the object of study rather than as a tool for communication (Laufer, 2005)

In fact, there is still a lack of consensus about which type of instruction is more effective According to the proponents of implicit instruction, “vocabulary is best acquired in purely meaning-focused instruction” (Doughty & William, 1998, as cited in Laufer, 2005, p 225) A large part of this assumption is usually identified with Krashen (2004)’s Input Hypothesis, maintaining that extensive reading can develop students’ language proficiency in general and facilitate their incidental acquisition of vocabulary

in particular At the other end of the scale, several language practitioners argued for the necessity of explicit vocabulary instruction and claimed that implicit instruction alone might be inadequate to enable learners to develop a wide vocabulary (Nation, 2001; Laufer, 2005; Ellis & Shintani, 2013) As Laufer (2005) pointed out, implicit vocabulary instruction has several drawbacks One of them is the consequential lack of understanding of word meanings guessed from context The rate of lexical learning is low since learners tend to pay scant attention to the precise meanings of individual words or phrases once they understand the overall meaning of the whole text Besides, advocates of implicit instruction claim that new lexical items are naturally acquired through sufficient exposures to them in context; however, there is no guarantee that the target words or phrases will recur an ample number of times within a specific span for learners to commit them to memory Moreover, in time-constrained classroom settings,

implicit instruction may not be ideal to develop productive knowledge of new lexemes due to lack of confidence in their understanding of these items or their inability to recall them fast enough for communicative use

Concerning idiomatic expressions, these shortcomings are even more obvious Idioms are notoriously difficult to learn owing to their non-literalness, their subtle nuances of meaning and their syntactic constraints Without explicit instruction, learners may misunderstand the figurative meanings of these expressions, overlook their shades of meaning, misuse them in other contexts or fail to precisely recall all the constituents of the multi-word expressions Additionally, though idioms often occur as a class in several genres, each individual idiom may be relatively infrequent According to Boers and Lindstromberg (2008), learning low frequency words and multi-word expressions

is necessary for good proficiency However, such expressions are unlikely to occur repeatedly in different texts within a specific time span for incidental learning to take place Moreover, unlike grammar, vocabulary in general and idioms in particular are theme-based, so they may not be used in a variety of texts on different topics to accord with the ever changing content material in EFL classroom (Laufer, 2005) Therefore, in wholly communicative activities, occurrences of these expressions might be so largely separated that learners tend to forget them during the intervals It has been suggested that explicit vocabulary instruction can solve these problems as it can compensate for the paucity of exposure, promote depth of idiomatic knowledge, and create a better memory trace for production (Boers & Lindstromberg, 2008)

Based on these arguments, an investigation into how to teach idioms explicitly is well worth conducting, which was one of the motivation for the undertaking of this study It

is noteworthy that this study, however, does not deny the effectiveness of implicit vocabulary instruction or the virtues of oral and written input in language learning According to Nation (2001), “a well-balanced language program has appropriate amounts of message directed activity and language focused activity” (p 155) In fact, implicit instruction can offer initial knowledge of words or idiomatic phrases, extend the knowledge of already familiar expressions, or reinforce the memory of words or phrases for production However, due to the limited time of the current study and the subjects’ unfamiliarity with the learning of idioms in general and most of the target

idioms in particular, explicit idiom instruction seemed to be a better choice which could compensate for lack of massive exposure and accelerate the process of extending and consolidating lexical knowledge Therefore, the chosen intervention in this study does not distinguish between explicit and implicit teaching, but between two explicit versions of idiom instruction

2.1.5 Traditional and cognitive linguistic views of idioms and idiom teaching

2.1.5.1 Traditional view of idioms and idiom teaching

Before the 1990s, idiomatic expressions were a neglected area of research in EFL literature Limited attention was devoted to idioms because of three assumptions Firstly, language was generally perceived as a dichotomy of grammar rules and lists of individual words; multi-word expressions, including idioms, appeared to have no place

in this dichotomy (Boers, Demecheleer, & Eyckmans, 2004) Secondly, figurative expressions were deemed to be merely superfluous linguistic ornaments for artistic or aesthetic purposes (Kövecses, 2002) As a result, they were thought to be relevant only

to highly advanced learners who were able to “use idioms as the icing on their linguistic cake” (Boers et al., 2004, p 375) Thirdly, it was generally alleged that the meanings of idioms were entirely arbitrary and unpredictable Specifically, their overall figurative meanings were claimed to be not deducible from those of the individual words (Swinney & Cutler, 1979; Irujo, 1986), and they were “isolated” expressions

which were “independent of any conceptual system” (Kövecses, 2002, p 200) It was,

therefore, believed that idioms could not be taught systematically or insightfully, and the only viable option for students to learn idioms was to blindly memorize them In this view, teaching idioms is simply providing a list of idioms without systematic arrangements, with their meanings and examples This gives students no choice but to learn all these discrete and isolated entities by rote Because of these assumptions, idiomatic expressions held little interest for educational linguists and EFL teachers until the 20th century

2.1.5.2 Cognitive linguistic view of idioms and idiom teaching

However, findings from cognitive linguistics and corpus linguistics have changed the picture, providing inspiration for innovative approaches to idiom instruction

Contrary to the traditional view of idioms, cognitive linguists argue that the nature of figurative language, including idiomatic expressions, is not arbitrary; it is, in fact, rooted in human thought and perception (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Kövecses, 2002) Lakoff and Johnson (1980a, 1980b), with their Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), argued that idioms are not dead metaphors and suggested that the occurrence of particular words in idiomatic expressions is to some extent semantically motivated by conceptual metaphor – a central concept in Cognitive Linguistics Boers (2000) also clarified that a considerable number of idioms can be traced back to a limited number

of conceptual metaphors, forming a coherent system of metaphorical concepts For

instance, expressions such as to fan the flames, to do a slow burn and to add fuel to the

fire, all relate to one single conceptual metaphor ANGER IS FIRE, in which the

intensity of anger is understood in terms of the intensity of fire Besides their arbitrary nature of idioms, Lakoff and Johnson (1980a) also proved that metaphoric expressions are pervasive in everyday life Far from being an optional ornament, they

non-do indeed constitute a very rich lexical resource in ordinary daily language It is, therefore, necessary for EFL learners to build a large repertoire of figurative expressions for comprehension and use This inevitably leads to the quest for effective methods of teaching and learning idiomatic language

The discovery of conceptual metaphors has great significance on idiom teaching and learning Several studies have proved that the awareness of these underlying metaphors can greatly facilitate the learner’s comprehension and retention of English idioms (Boers, 2000; Beréndi, Csábi, & Kövecses, 2008; Skoufaki, 2008; Kömür & Çimen, 2009; Vasiljevic, 2011; Doiz & Elizari, 2013) The most direct application of the CMT

to L2 idiom instruction is the presentation of idioms in sets of phrases that are motivated by a shared conceptual metaphor Moreover, an increasing number of authors have even developed learning materials, lesson plans, exercises and activities intended to develop EFL learners’ awareness of metaphors, which refer to the motivations behind certain sets of figurative expressions (Wright, 2002; Lazar, 2003; Rudzka-Ostyn, 2003; Boers & Lindstromberg, 2008)

Besides raising learners’ awareness of the underlying conceptual metaphors, there are other cognitive linguistic approaches to presenting idioms in EFL context, including

etymology (or etymological elaboration), pictorial elucidation and structural elaboration via phonological properties

The mnemonic technique etymological elaboration, coined by Boers, Demecheleer,

and Eyckmans (2004), refers to a way of presenting idioms by tracing them back to their origins, i.e the contexts in which they were originally used in the literal sense For

instance, the figurative meaning of Be waiting in the wings can be motivated by its

original and literal counterpart in the theatrical context, i.e actors waiting in the sides

of the stage until it is their turn to make their appearance on the stage Previous studies have shown that etymological elaboration can be beneficial to L2 acquisition of idioms with respect to comprehension and retention (Boers et al., 2004; Boers et al., 2007; Vasiljevic, 2015) However, this approach seems unlikely to be applied to all idioms because some idioms may be too opaque to find out their origins or too frequently used

to notice possible stories behind them (Boers, 2001)

In addition to verbal explanations, pictures are often used to illustrate the literal meanings of idioms, stimulating associative links between lexical units and images Earlier studies show that pictorial elucidation has a beneficial impact on the students’ retention of the meaning of idioms, but a limited, and sometimes even undesirable effect on the recall of idiomatic form (Boers, Lindstromberg, Littlemore, Stengers, & Eyckmans, 2008; Boers, Piquer-Píriz, Stengers, & Eyckman, 2009) Pictures are believed to distract the learners, in some cases, from recollecting the precise verbal form of the targeted expressions, especially in the case of long and complex expressions

Besides elucidating semantic motivation of idioms via conceptual metaphors, etymology, and pictures, educational linguists have investigated the structural (or, more precisely phonological) motivation behind the lexical selection in idiomatic expressions According to Boers and Lindstromberg (2008c), phonological elaboration

of idiom structures could raise the students’ awareness of sound patterns, enhancing their retention of the lexical make-up of idioms For instance, alliteration and assonance are assumed to be an underlying motivation of the lexical composition of several

phrases, e.g turn the tide, cool as cucumber, last but not least (alliteration); snug as a

bug in a rug, the name of the game, high and dry (assonance) The major limitation of

this technique is that it may not be applicable to all idioms

In general, etymological elaboration, pictorial elucidation and phonological elaboration support the cognitive linguistic view of idioms by explaining the semantic or structural motivation behind these expressions Still, they consider idioms as separate items, each

of which may have a distinctive origin, conjure up a specific image and have certain phonological features Without systematization, such techniques seem not to lighten the learning load for students, though they can learn idioms more insightfully, as compared

to the traditional instruction

At a higher level than those techniques, the employment of conceptual metaphors to idiom instruction sees idioms as parts of a meaningful conceptual network Specifically, the elaboration of conceptual metaphors not only explains the association between the original literal sense of a certain idiom and its figurative meaning but also connect this idiom with other related expressions that are grouped by common underlying conceptual metaphors Moreover, the CM-oriented instruction is expected

to be rich in imagery (Boers & Lindstromberg, 2008b) Unlike pictorial elucidation which requires physical pictures, the explanation of conceptual metaphors stimulates mental images, and the images of the idioms that are motivated by the same conceptual

metaphor are related to each other For example, the underlying motivation of let off

steam, reach boiling point, flip one’s lid and blow one’s top is the ANGER IS

HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER metaphor This reveals that there is a correlation between the intensity of anger and the amount or the heat of the fluid kept in the pressurized container (Esenova, 2009) Specifically, the rise of the fluid in the container corresponds to the increase in the intensity of anger When the fluid is heated and the internal pressure in the container is too high, the fluid overflows the container

or the container explodes Such an elaboration is facilitated by the understanding of the conceptual metaphor ANGER IS HEATED FLUID IN A CONTAINER Rather than learning these idioms separately in different contexts, grouping them and explaining their origins via a shared conceptual metaphor can reduce the memory burden for the students Because of such potential benefits, the idiom instruction based on conceptual metaphors was the focus of this study