Letting the Cat out of the Bag: EFL College Students’ Attitudes towards Learning English Idioms

Al-Houti, Shorouq Khalid; Al-Daihani, Sultan M.

doi:10.5430/ijhe.v7n1p140

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(45 reference statements)

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“…The results show that students have a positive attitude towards English idiom learning. When age is taken into account, the results are significantly different [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

The Connotation and Chinese Translation of English Animal Idioms

2022

ZAP

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Animal idioms have rich associative meaning and cultural connotation, and have become the focus of many scholars. It is of great significance to study animal idioms. The purpose of this paper is to explore the connotation of English Animal Idioms and their Chinese translation. Firstly, this paper studies the connotation of animal idioms from the historical and cultural background, discusses the Chinese translation methods of English Animal Idioms from two aspects of partial correspondence and complete non correspondence, and expounds the points that should be paid attention to when using the translation method, Taking English idioms in "horse" as the research object, this paper discusses the cultural differences between Chinese and English. The experimental results show that from the frequency search in coca, we can get the frequency of each idiom sample and the context of the sample use. In the total frequency part, wild horse is the first 176, dead horse is the middle 132, and high horse is the lowest 79. We can conclude that the use of high horse is less than wild horse and dead horse. Because of the great love for horses, the images of horses in Chinese and English are not exactly the same. So the impression of horses is not always positive. Chinese tend to actively use horses, while English speakers tend to use them to identify or describe human and non-human beings, regardless of their preferences.

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“…The results show that students have a positive attitude towards English idiom learning. When age is taken into account, the results are significantly different [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

The Connotation and Chinese Translation of English Animal Idioms

2022

ZAP

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“…For easier calculations, the data was put into SPSS version 23 and was assigned numerical values (strongly agree= 5, agree= 4, neutral= 3, disagree=2, and strongly disagree=1). The range of the 5-point Likert scale was determined by reducing the highest score (5) from the lowest score (1) and dividing the result by the highest score (5). As the questionnaire had only closed-ended questions, the participants' responses were put into a table and evaluated with numbers.…”

Section: F Data Analysis and Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Saudi EFL Learners’ Use and Understanding of English Idioms: Perceptions, Problems, and Patterns of Learning

Jamshed,

Almashy,

Saleem

et al. 2024

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This study aims to investigate Saudi EFL learners’ perceptions of English idioms, their problems, and the patterns of their learning and understanding of English idioms. 458 students (around 10%) were selected through a random sampling method from the undergraduate learners in different levels of programs at the College of Business Administration and the College of Science & Humanities, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, KSA. As the study looked at how certain independent variables (gender, level/year of study, and parents’ profession) shaped dependent variables (perceptions/attitudes), a questionnaire was self-developed which includes modified items from existing research. A quantitative approach (descriptive statistics) was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that Saudi EFL learners’ perceptions were very positive about English idioms and their impact on enhancing their English proficiency. It was found that lack of background information, unfamiliarity, variation in literal interpretation, lack of Arabic parallels, and insufficient EFL classroom training made learning English idioms challenging for respondents. It was also revealed that Saudi EFL learners acquired and comprehended English idioms via using them in sentences, consulting a dictionary, guessing from contexts, group discussions, and breaking them down into their constituent parts. One-way ANOVA analysis found no statistically significant difference among the respondents based on their demographic differences. The study holds implications for both teachers and students as it will help them teach and learn English idioms effectively. The most common method is translating English idioms into their language.

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“…Language researchers and lexicographers hold different opinions on the classification of idioms. The traditional classification is from the perspective of grammatical function and structural components, according to which idioms can be divided into verb, noun, adjective, adverb idiom and proverb [5][6]. Idiom researchers also classify idioms from the perspectives of their decomposability, semantic transparency and so on, which are all classified from the relationship between literal meaning and figurative meaning of idiom components.…”

Section: Idioms and Idiom Understandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese English Learners' Understanding of English Animal Idioms

2022

ZAP

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Idioms are the essence of language culture, concise and comprehensive phrases or short sentences formed in the long term use of people. They are rich in national cultural characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to study Chinese English learners' understanding of English animal idioms. First of all, it introduces the characteristics of English idioms and the three problems that should be paid attention to in the translation of English idioms, and expounds the understanding of idioms and the translation of animal idioms. In this study, 60 English majors and 60 graduate students were chosen to investigate whether English proficiency affects their understanding of idioms. The experimental results show that the average scores of Senior English learners are 4.00, 2.73, 1.00 and 0.83, respectively. Among the four kinds of animal idioms, regardless of their English level, the average scores of class I, II, III and IV are 3.73, 2.52, 0.90 and 0.77 respectively. Among the four types of English Animal Idiom Comprehension, English learners' English proficiency affects the comprehension results of the first and second types of idioms. In type I, English proficiency has a significant effect on the understanding of animal idioms (t = -3.00; P = 0.004 < 0.05). That is to say, learners with high English proficiency perform better than those with low English proficiency in understanding animal idioms. In the second category, the influence of English level on the understanding of animal idioms is also significant (t = -2.33; P = 0.023 < 0.05).

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Letting the Cat out of the Bag: EFL College Students’ Attitudes towards Learning English Idioms

Cited by 9 publications

References 35 publications

The Connotation and Chinese Translation of English Animal Idioms

The Connotation and Chinese Translation of English Animal Idioms

Assessing Saudi EFL Learners’ Use and Understanding of English Idioms: Perceptions, Problems, and Patterns of Learning

Chinese English Learners' Understanding of English Animal Idioms

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