3.1.1. Data collected from survey questionnaire
3.1.1.2. Lecturers’ and student’s self-evaluations on the effectiveness of their
Figure 7: Lecturers’ and students’ general evaluation of idiom teaching and learning
There were different opinions on the effectiveness of their teaching and learning in the students’ and lecturers’ viewpoints. Apparently, students seemed to be more positive when 14% of the informants believed that idiom teaching and learning was effective, 53% were moderate effective and 33% were somewhat
0%
14%
53%
33%
0%
0% 0%
80%
20%
0%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Very effective
Effective Moderate effective
Somewhat effective
Ineffective
Students Lecturers
effective. In contrast, lecturers just selected moderate effective (80%) and somewhat effective (20%) for their teaching.
Table 6. Lecturers’ and students’ evaluation of idioms teaching and learning in detail
Statements
Lecturers Students
SA A N D SD SA A N D S
D 1. The idiom-
related activities matched your students’level
0% 30% 50% 20% 0% 6% 54% 36% 4% 0%
2. The idiom- related activities were successful
0% 40% 40% 20% 0% 0% 51% 43
% 6
% 0
%
3. You felt confident and relaxed when teaching/learning idioms
0% 30% 60% 10% 0% 20
%
41% 37
% 2
% 0
%
4. Your students/You have
demonstrated the progress in idiom comprehension
20
%
40% 40% 0% 0% 0% 44% 52
% 4
% 0
%
5. Your students/You have
demonstrated the
0% 20% 50% 30% 0% 0% 33% 61
% 2
% 4
%
progress in using idiomatic
expressions 6. Your students/You enjoyed the idioms learning activities
10
%
60% 30% 0% 0% 14
%
35% 35
% 14
% 2
%
7. Your students /You were motivated to learn idioms
0% 70% 30% 0% 0% 0% 40% 47
% 11
% 2
%
8. Your students/You actively participated in the learning process
0% 60% 40% 0% 0% 0% 42% 37
% 17
% 4
%
The opinions on the appropriateness of idioms and the students’ English level are controversial. 30% of the lecturers agreed that the learning activities match their students’ level whereas the just under percentage of them (20% disagree) did not.
In contrast, more than half of the students believed that their English level matches the idiom-related activities (6% strongly agree, 54% agree). Both lecturers and students had similar opinions on the success of the idiom activities when 40% and 51 % of them agreed and totally agreed with statement 2.
Lecturers seemed not to be confident and relax to teach idioms. Most of them had neutral opinions on statement 3 (60% neutral). This can be explained that lecturers themselves did not confidently use idioms in their communication. They admitted that using idioms in their conversations is a real challenge not only for
students but also for lecturers. In the past, they did not study much about idioms.
They now had to self-improve their language skills and knowledge to meet the idiomatic demand for the course. They apparently saw the progress of students in understanding idioms in listening, reading activities. 20% of the those absolutely agree, and 40% of them agree with the statement 4. Similar findings were shown in the students’ self-evaluation. The evidence of the progress in using idioms in student language development outcomes can be seen in Table 6, but the percentage was not so persuasive. Only 20% of the lecturers and 33 % of the students agreed that there was a progress in the idiomatic competence. Most of them kept their neutral opinion on this statement (50% and 61% respectively). It revealed that students were not so confident in using idioms in their productive skills ( including speaking skill) as in their receptive skills. This can be explained from the analysis in teaching approach. The figures showed that more receptive skills are used than productive skills in the learning process. Also, as Harmer (2001, p. 251) pointed out, “teachers should not expect instant fluency and creatively; instead they should build up students’ confidence bit by bit”. The majority of the lecturers believed that students enjoy the idiom-learning activities and are motivated to learn idioms (10% and 60% for both absolutely agree and agree options, respectively), the same as the students (14% and 35% for both absolutely agree and agree options, respectively). As the lecturers described it in their responses, students actively involve in the idiom activities. Not only in class but also outside class, they attempted to use idioms to communicate with their friends. The percentage of the students’ opinions on these two items was not as high as that of the lecturers (40%) but the figure is still quite positive. Students in fact felt like learning idioms. They felt excited when they can express their thoughts with idiomatic phrases. This finding revealed the positive attitudes of students toward idiom learning as motivations “determine the extent of active, personal involvement in L2 learning.” (Oxford & Shearin, 1994, p. 12). Other researchers also stress that motivation directly influences the outcome of the language learners (Gardner & Macintyre, 1991). In addition, the number of
lecturers and students actively participated in the learning process were high (60% and 42% respectively).
Lien proposed, “The lecturers should develop further activities that integrate idioms into all language skills tasks. Also, they should set clear and achievable goals for the use of idioms at the start of the semester as well as for separate blocks of lessons, modules so that tests can be more relevantly designed to meet the goals set”. Moreover, they also recommended that idioms should be taught to students of lower level of English as supplementary tasks so that students were more familiar with idiomatic expressions and collocations. They then can study on their own and gradually build up their idiomatic expression list. Besides, the students also gave some suggestions to minimize the difficulties and make teaching and learning idioms in speaking skill more effective. Some students (Nhung and Mai) recommended that lecturers could organize more exciting games (with prize) and idioms-related activities such as flash card, mind-map, storytelling, watching video, out-door activities, contextualization activities, to help students learn and apply them in speaking skill more easily. Another student (Oanh) suggested that lecturers should give students some idioms each lesson and should require students repeat or make conversations with them regularly to make them remember the meaning and the use. Some others thought that students themselves had to spend more time to learn idioms at home and to communicate with native speakers to help them improve their speaking skill.