INTRODUCTION…
Rationale…
Wishing that the apprehension of a nation’s language thoroughly and master English well when studying it is the desire of many people To reach these aims, they are not allowed to ignore their learning language’s idioms that are defined by Palmer as expressions whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meaning of its parts In terms of language, an idiom is a combination of words that are taken from the general vocabulary of each language Idioms are considered an interesting and popular phenomenon of every language According to D’Angelo Bromley (1984), idioms exist in all languages and “enjoy widespread use among speakers of every language the world over” (p 272) English is one of the most idiomatic languages in the world, containing thousands of idiomatic expressions that are rife in everyday speech While it is like the grease that makes language flow, it also presents an extra obstacle to both students and English teachers
Nowadays, English has been widely used in Vietnam and it is also a compulsory subject in all schools, colleges and universities Teaching and learning English in Vietnam as a foreign language has encountered controversial social reactions when students are said to be unable to competently communicate in English after their six or seven years of studying it (Tran, 2012) Some of them are good at grammar and vocabulary, yet they are still unable to communicate in English
They still fail to communicate when they discover that what English language speakers actually talk to them is different from what they have been taught
On the one hand, English idiomatic expressions are of great popularity in English in use Copper (1998) indicates that an English native speaker uses about 20 million idioms in his or her lifetime of 60 years These impressive statistics illustrate the undeniable significant role of idiomatic phrases in daily language use Cornell (1999), in effect, postulated that whether in linguistics or language acquisition, idioms have always been a necessary part of the study of language
Bromley (1984) stated that idioms enjoy widespread utilization among speakers of every language all over the world Familiarity with the idioms commonly used in everyday language can be a great asset to learners in acquiring a new language (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999) Yorio (1989) noted that it appears that whereas fluency is possible without grammatical accuracy, idiomaticity is not
Fernando (1996) indicated that the sheer number of idioms and their high frequency in discourse make them an important aspect of vocabulary acquisition and language learning in general These impressive statistics illustrate the undeniable significant role of idiomatic phrases in daily language use Idioms, either in oral or written discourse, are often inevitable, which makes it a must in language programs to help students develop their communicative skills (http://www.nadasisland.com) When a person learns idioms in English, she/he takes English out of its superficial printed form into the natural form, which helps the speaker use culture-oriented expressions more appropriately Hence, both teaching and learning English as a second/foreign language should lend itself to such kind of colorful instructions (De Caro, 2009)
Additionally, teaching methodology, especially in teaching English in Vietnam is still restrictive In the past, English teachers just focused on grammar, vocabulary, reading, and writing while speaking and listening received inadequate attention; therefore, students did not have opportunity to speak and to express their ideas in English Later, in the 2000s English started to be taught in light of the skill-based teaching approach Consequently, students have to learn four skills separately, that is, speaking, listening, reading and writing In spite of the advantages of this approach, the biggest drawback is the undervaluation of word power such as fixed phrases, formulaic expressions because of the heavy emphasis on skills (Tran, 2012)
On the other hand, Fernando (1996), Wray (2000), Schmitt (2000), and Simpson and Mendis (2003) maintained that a mastery of idioms is usually equated with native speaker fluency In fact, idiomatic competence is one of the criteria for IELTS speaking assessment In the IELTS speaking band descriptors, uses of idiomatic vocabulary and collocation are mentioned as indicators for the use of lexical resource in bands 7, 8 and 9 All of the students including the first year students (freshmen) in Faculty of English are expected to achieve advanced level (C1) in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) or the equivalent after their graduation and speaking is one of the criteria they need to improve if they desire to gain the qualification They represent the young generation of future teachers hoped to have the capacity of teaching English effectively; therefore, a strong knowledge of idioms will assist them to be better speakers in communication, particularly in English teaching However, idiom teaching, might have not received adequate attention in foreign language teaching contexts yet (Vasiljevic, 2011), especially in speaking Teachers and students in Vietnam tend to avoid idiomatic expressions in English and few of them are aware of the roles of idioms in communicative competence (Tran,
2012) They may have confronted difficulties in choosing a suitable teaching method, selecting idioms, and explaining the use of an idiom in its appropriate contexts Moreover, in Vietnam, language educators and researchers have done few studies of teaching idioms because this controversial issue has just received initial attention As categorized by Kachru (1985), few studies focusing on foreign language users have been conducted by foreign language researchers and teachers, who are in the expanding circle of English users Obviously, the majority of language users nowadays are from this expanding circle This is a gap in the literature especially when English is regarded “the world’s international language” (Richard, 2008, p.1) This study focused on idioms teaching in Vietnam, where English is taught as a foreign language, therefore, could fill in the gap in the literature on idioms teaching and learning research
Additionally, for the students of English as a second or foreign language, learning to use idiomatic expressions correctly is an important aspect in the mastery of international English For all the reasons stated above, the author has decided to conduct a study into the current practice of teaching and learning idioms at Faculty of English (FOE), Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE).
Aims of the study…
This study is conducted to: a Investigate the situation of teaching and learning idioms in developing speaking skill for freshmen at Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education b Explore the difficulties (if any) encountered by the lecturers and students while teaching and learning idioms and the strategies employed while processing the idioms c Provide some suggested solutions to the teaching of idioms to increase students’ motivation and involvement in learning English idioms, and particularly in developing their speaking skill.
Methods of the study…
This study explores the case of teaching idioms in light of an integrated approach for freshmen in FOE, HNUE It addresses the answers to the following research questions
1 What is the current situation of idioms teaching and learning at FOE, HNUE?
2 What are the lecturers’ and students’ perceptions of their teaching and learning of idioms?
Data will be collected through a survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews with the speaking lecturers and freshmen in FOE, HNUE The questionnaires include both opened and closed ended-questions These data collection tools are treated as triangulations to assure data reliability.
Scope of the study…
Within the limited time and restricted scope of a master thesis, this study has been conducted with a relative small sample of participants (10 lecturers and 50 freshmen) to investigate the students’ and lecturers’ perception of idioms teaching and learning in speaking skill only Furthermore, it is remarkable that the time for the data collection procedure is rather short, whereas the effect of teaching idioms needs to be studied for a long time and the researcher does not have much time to investigate it in a long-term process Therefore, the collected data only reflects the temporary and initial effects of teaching and learning idioms on the student’s participant speaking activities.
Organization
The study consists of three parts that are organized as follows:
Part I – Introduction – provides background to the study, states the aim, the scope, the methods of study and outlines the organization of the study
Part II – Development – consists of three chapters
Chapter 1: Literature review – provides the related literature of teaching and learning idioms in speaking skill including definition and types of idioms, the roles of idiomatic competence in language acquisition, problems in teaching idioms, the relationship between idioms and speaking skill, and some idiom- related research in language teaching
Chapter 2 – Methodology – describes the methods applied in the data collection procedure The participants, the instrumentation, the procedures and the limitations of methods are all presented in this chapter
Chapter 3 – Findings and discussions – analyses the data collected to investigate students’ and lecturers’ perception of idioms teaching and learning in speaking skill
Part III – Conclusion – provides recommendations and conclusion including the summary of the findings and some suggested solutions regarding the teaching of idioms to increase students’ motivation and involvement in learning English idioms, and particularly in developing their speaking skill The limitations of the study and some recommendations for further study are also discussed in this part.
DEVELOPMENT
LITERATURE REVIEW…
This chapter provides the related literature of teaching and learning idioms in speaking skill including definition and types of idioms, the roles of idiomatic competence in language acquisition, problems in teaching idioms, the relationship between idioms and speaking skill as well as some idiom-related research in language teaching
It is noteworthy to look into some definitions of idioms prior to further discussion of methods teaching idioms Many attempts have been made to define and classify idioms (e.g., Cooper, 1999; Grant & Bauer, 2004; Lennon, 1998;
Simpson & Mendis, 2003), but due to different theoretical classification criteria adopted in the definition, researchers have not been able to settle for a single explanation Because of multifarious objects, the study of idioms requires different viewpoints and methodological approaches (Tabossi & Zardon, 1993)
As Lennon (1998) claimed, language is more or less idiomatic in the scale of idiomaticity Some scholars such as Cooper (1999), however, addressed that idioms are a type of multi-word units that have non-literal meaning Langlotz
(2006) stated that an idiom is an institutionalized construction that is composed of two or more lexical items and has the composite structure of a phrase or semi- clause Moreover, it is considerably fixed and collocationally restricted Irujo
(1986) addressed that an idiom is a conventionalized expression whose meaning cannot be determined from the meaning of its parts Idioms differ from other figurative expressions, such as similes and metaphors, in that they have conventionalized meanings Simpson and Mendis (Ibid.) posited that mentioning the word idioms conjures up language that is perceived to be entertaining, engaging, casual, charming, colorful, and memorable As Simpson and Mendis put it, an idiom is a group of words occurring in a more or less fixed phrase and whose overall meaning cannot be predicted by analyzing the meaning of its constituent parts Bromley (1984) defined idioms as figurative expressions that represent one concept in terms of another that may be thought of as analogous
Carter (1987) saw idioms as restricted collocations that cannot be understood from the literal meaning of the words that make them up In a similar way, Huizenga (2000) considered an idiom as a group of words having a meaning different from the meaning of its individual parts In the same fashion, Feare
(1980) stated that an idiom, in general, is an expression that has a special meaning, and this meaning cannot be understood completely by looking at the individual words in the idiom Idioms are not only lexemes that capture everyday situations semantically, but they are linguistic units that deduce the complexity of
5 social interactions; idioms contain information, and they provide a method of handling special situations (Strọssler, 1982) Fernando (1996) deemed idioms as
“indivisible units whose components cannot be varied and varied only within definable units” (p 30) As Wood (1986) saw it, an idiom is “a complex expression which is wholly non-compositional in meaning and wholly non- productive in form” (p 2) Nattinger and Decarrico (1992, p 33) defined idioms as “complex bits of frozen syntax whose meaning cannot be derived from the meaning of their constituents, that is, whose meanings are more than simply the sum of their individual parts” According to Moon (1998), idiom is an ambiguous term, used in conflicting ways (p 3) An idiom is also “any defined unit whose definition does not predict all of its properties” (Williams, 1994, p.8) In addition, Seidl and McMordie (1988) stated that an idiom is “a number of words which, when taken together, have a different meaning from the individual meanings of each word” (p 13) Schmitt and Carter (2004) observed that meaning of idioms cannot be derived from the sum of the meanings of the component words, and that idioms do not always follow grammatical rules
Gibbs (1987) classifies idioms syntactically frozen idioms, syntactically flexible idioms, transparent idioms, and opaque idioms Syntactically frozen idioms cannot be syntactically transformed into the passive and still retain their figurative meaning They are learned more quickly because they are heard more frequently in only one syntactic form Syntactically flexible idioms retain their figurative meaning even if transformed into the passive, Transparent Idioms close relationship between literal and figurative meanings, and opaque idioms obscure relationship between literal and figurative meanings Chafe (1968, as cited in Lennon, 1998) presented the characteristics of idioms as follows:
1 The meaning of an idiom is comparable to the meaning of a single lexical item
2 Most, if not all, idioms exhibit certain transformational deficiencies
3 A minority of idioms may be grammatically deviant
4 The idiom may admit of a literal meaning, but the idiomatic meaning will be primary and occur more frequently
Significant attempts have been made to categorize idioms Fernando (1996, p32) puts idioms into three categories: Pure idioms (kick the bucket = die, bread and butter = main income, earning activity), semi literal idioms (use something as a step stone) and literal idioms Irujo (1986) creates three lists of idioms are identical idioms, similar idioms, and different Idioms while Makkai’s work in
1972 classifies idioms into lexemic idioms and sememic idioms Grant (2007) also categorizes idioms as core idioms, figurative idioms or ONCEs-one non- compositional element
According to Simpson and Mendis (2003) and Zyzik (2011), an idiom is defined as a group of words that co-occur in more or less fixed phrase whose figurative meaning cannot be predicted by analyzing the meaning of its components, as this study will define In other words, it can be called figurative idioms or figurative idiomatic expressions, for example the phrase “my cup of tea” does not refer to a drink but to something or someone that one finds pleasing As it is stressed in this definition, a figurative idiom can be identified that it is impossible to understand the meaning of this multi-word unit by adding up the meaning of each word in the unit Moreover, it makes the distinction between idioms and collocations that the meaning of collocations is predictable from the meaning of the individual words in the unit in contrast with idioms
1.2 The Roles of Idiomatic Competence in Language Acquisition
Before determining what are the effective ways to teach idioms to second language students, especially to freshmen in FOE, it is important to address the reason why idiomatic competence is needed Initially, it is necessary to contain a grasp in idioms, especially in spoken language Lundblom and Woods (2012) find that idioms “appear in conversation, print (magazines and newspapers), and media (movies, radio, and television)” (p 203) Cooper (1998) claims that when idioms occur on TV-shows, for example, the viewer often needs to be able to comprehend the idiom in question in order to understand the plot Moreover, “of the four kinds of nonliteral expressions, idioms are the most frequently encountered in discourse” (Ibid., p 255) Accordingly, students should learn them or in other words to try to have the idiomatic competence in order to be fluent in the target language Buckingham (2006) and Burke (1988) state that idiomatic competence is the ability to appropriately communicate with idioms in the roles of both an addressor and an addressee In fact, idiomatic or figurative competence has recently been discussed in accordance with communicative competence, which was inspired by Chomsky (1965) and Hymes (1972), Canale and Swain (1980), and Celce-Murcia (1995, 2008) Figurative competence, getting along with other language competence, refers to as the ability to appropriately use and comprehend idioms in communication It enables non- native speakers to achieve full comprehension in daily life conversation (Burke,
1998, Buckingham, 2006) Boers et al (2006) emphasize the benefit of idiomatic expressions to language learners that it helps communicators fully encode and decode the meaning of a conversation Wray (2000) analyses the role of multi- word units such as figurative idioms in speakers’ production and hearer’s comprehension which tend not only to help speakers create a shorter processing route and organize discourse but also to assist hearers in profoundly understanding the speaker’s world and indicating the speaker’s individual identity
The knowledge of figurative idioms both facilitates processing loads in language production and provides speculating information of the incoming utterances (Lennon, 1988) However, it seems to be loath to both teachers and students in Vietnam to teach and learn idioms As a result, they have considerable difficulty in interpreting speakers’ in the inner circle because of the number of idiomatic expressions they use in their speech Knowles (2004) described the learning process in five steps ranging from familiarization, recognition, and comprehension to mastery and automaticity When students reach automaticity, they are able to communicate confidently in the language they are learning This implies that English teachers should explore the efficient ways to teach idioms for students to make them expose to idiomatic expressions and have intensive practice to be able to utilize idioms for communication
1.3 The Relationship between Idioms and Speaking Skill
According to D’Angelo Bromley (1984), idioms exist in all languages and “enjoy widespread use among speakers of every language the world over” (p 272)
METHODOLOGY…
This chapter provides information about the subjects of the study The main data collection instruments employed as well as the data collection procedures are also stated
The study adopted a mixed-method case study approach: questionnaire (quantitative method) and interview (qualitative method) To explore the in-depth situation of teaching and learning idioms for the first year students at FOE, an interpretive case study was conducted The researcher purposefully collected as much information about the problem as the possible for the phenomenal analysis, interpretation (Cresswell, 2008; Merriam, 1998) Purposive sampling techniques helped the researcher to select the informants who appeared to be rich of information The main goal of purposive sampling is to focus on particular characteristics of participants that are of interest, which will best enable the researcher to answer the following research questions:
1 What is the current situation of idioms teaching and learning at FOE, HNUE?
2 What are the lecturers’ and students’ perceptions on their teaching and learning of idioms?
The answer for the first question is expected to state about the moderation in teaching and learning idioms and clarify about whether it was received adequate attention or not Besides, the valuable information that are provided in the second one will be the illustration of the evaluation and perspective about the existed issues Data were collected through questionnaires for lecturers and freshmen, and in-depth interviews The questionnaires were designed with both opened and closed ended questions which, as Mackey and Gass (2005) argued, can provide not only reliable but also insightful date for the study Close-ended questions are in form of a 5-point Likert scale These data collection techniques acted as triangulation to assure the validity of the study Qualitative methods, such as interviews, are believed to provide a 'deeper' understanding of social phenomena than would be obtained from purely quantitative methods, such as questionnaires
These may overcome the weaknesses and biases that may rise from each method of data collection Transcriptions of the interviews were sent back to the informants Based on the data obtained from the questionnaires and interviews, themes were identified according to the aims of the research
A group of informants was comprised of fifty freshmen at FOE, HNUE who have learnt English for between four and ten years in schools and are considered to be at pre-intermediated level of English The main course book that they were learning with is “Premium B1” These students were expected to achieve C1 in the CEFR or the equivalent and it has been becoming the compulsory certificate before their graduation Becoming teachers of English at high schools in Vietnam after their graduation at HNUE is also their expectations
Being a current lecturer at FOE, HNUE, the researcher has a favorable opportunity to get to know about the freshmen because they were expected to achieve C1 and speaking was one of the criteria they need to improve if they desired to gain the qualification They represented the young generation of future teachers who were required to have the capacity to teach English under the oriented communication at high schools; therefore, a strong knowledge of idioms would help them to become the better speakers in communication, particularly in English teaching
The supportive participations of ten lecturers who were in charge of teaching speaking skill at FOE, HNUE were indispensable in this study They had experiences to teach English language skills from about five to ten years They all had Master degrees in English language teaching and obtained C1 certificates
These lecturers were selected because the author desired to compare the lecturers’ and trainee students’ perceptions of idioms teaching and learning
In order to obtain the data for the research, survey questionnaire and semi- structured interviews with students and lecturers are deployed
2.3.1 Survey Questionnaire 2.3.1.1 Reasons for choosing survey questionnaires
Survey questionnaires are always considered as one of the most frequently used and effective method for research It is mainly to collect information from the subjects of this study, i.e both students and teachers As Richards and Lockhart (p10, 1994) opined “surveys and questionnaires are useful ways of gathering information about affective dimensions of teaching and learning, such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, and preferences and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly.” Mackey and Gass (2005) also argued that it can provide not only reliable but also insightful data for the study
Moreover, it was argued and was proved by Nunan et al (1993) that using survey questionnaires could bring researchers 4 following benefits:
2 Easy and simple to summarize and report the collected data
3 Subjects of survey are given chance to express their opinions without embarrassment for their names are not revealed
Therefore, it would be beneficial for the study to apply that research instrument to collect the data However, it was undoubtedly that every researcher hopes for conscientious responses, but there is no way to know if the respondent has really thought the question through before answering At times, answers will be chosen before fully reading the question or the potential answers Sometimes, respondents will skip through questions, or split-second choices may be made, affecting the validity of data As a consequence, another supplementary instrument – interview was also used to confirm the results and to lessen the drawbacks of that
2.3.1.2 Description of survey questionnaires a Survey questionnaire for students
The questionnaires for students were written in English and were translated into Vietnamese to ensure that they could understand reseacher’s requirements and study purposes thoroughly (see Appendix 1A and 1B) It includes 13 questions to explore the situation of teaching and learning idioms and student’s self- evaluation on the effectiveness of their idioms teaching and learning Concretely, the initial question is designed to understand how important it is for students to learning idioms; especially to develop their speaking skill The second question aims to explore if idioms have been taught at FOE, HNUE The next question asks students about time in a lesson that their lecturers spend on teaching idioms (if they choose yes to the previous question) Regarding the situation of teaching and learning idioms, the next four questions focus on the criteria that the students bear in mind for idiom selections, teaching methods and idiom – related activities that are employed In the fourth question, students can choose one or more criteria that they think it can be used to select idioms for teaching at the classroom Similarly, in terms of an idioms-related teaching approach, questions number five give the corresponding answers for the question “How did your teacher teach idioms?” Students are asked how idioms were taught and introduced in listening activities or reading activities and integrated-skill activities that also involved in listening and reading skills or not
The next question is a close-ended question in the form of a 5-point Likert scale to explore students’ opinions on teaching methods (they strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, or strongly disagree with the statements) In addition, question number seven is to ask about idiom-related activities that their teachers used to teach idioms with the times range from more than 10 to not use Besides, the two following questions surveys about students’ sources and learning materials for leaning idioms and the main difficulties of learning idioms Questions number ten and eleven provide the evaluations on the effectiveness of their teaching and learning in the students’ viewpoint in general and detail Ultimately, the last two questions – Questions number thirteen and fourteen – explore the desires and the recommendations of the students to minimize the difficulties and to make teaching and learning idioms more effective b Survey questionnaire for lecturers
Due to the aim of the research, it is necessary to collect lecturers’ opinions and this task is completed by the questionnaire (see Appendix 2) Similar to the survey questionnaire for students, the survey questionnaire for lecturers also consists of 13 questions with the same content to help the researcher compare lecturers’ and students’ opinions about idioms teaching and learning
Particularly, the first question is to ask for lecturers’ ideas about the importance of teaching and learning idioms, especially in developing speaking skill The second question aims to explore if they have been teaching idioms in class or not
The next question asks teachers about the amount of time they often spend on teaching idioms (if they choose yes in the previous question) Regarding the situation of teaching and learning idioms, the following four questions focus on the criteria for idioms selections, idioms teaching techniques and idiom – related activities In the fourth question, there are more than one criteria that lecturers can choose to indicate how they select idioms for teaching In terms of an idioms-related teaching approach, questions number five asks about how they taught idioms
In the form of a 5-point Likert scale, the next question explores the lecturers’ opinions on teaching methods In addition, a question is created to ask about idiom-related activities Besides, the next two questions survey about their sources and teaching materials for idioms and the main difficulties of teaching and learning idioms Similar to students’ questionnaire, two questions are designed to ask the teachers to provide their evaluations on the effectiveness of teaching and learning in the lecturers’ viewpoint in general and detail
Ultimately, the last two questions explore the desires and the recommendations of the lecturers on the effectiveness of idioms teaching and learning
2.3.2 Interview 2.3.2.1 Reasons for choosing interview
In the book “Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research” McNamara (1999), stated that interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a participant’s experiences The interviewer can pursue in-depth information around the topic He also indicated that interviews might be useful as follow-up to certain respondents to questionnaires, e.g., to further investigate their responses The purpose of the research interview is to explore the views, experiences, beliefs or motivations of individuals on specific matters Interviews are believed to provide a 'deeper' understanding of participant opinions than would be obtained from purely questionnaires Interviews are, therefore, most appropriate where little is already known about the study phenomenon or where detailed insights are required from individual participants The individuals are also particularly appropriate for exploring sensitive topics, where participants may not want to talk about such issues in a group environment On the other hand, it is obviously that interview has some drawbacks such as time-consuming, needing to prepare, flexibility, difficult analysis, and costly (Berg & Bruce L.,
1998) However, interview is still a qualitative method to support the researcher with useful information
The interview, which is conducted in this research, is a semi-structure interview
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter analyzed the data obtained from the survey questionnaires and interviews to clarify two mainly issues that are the situation of teaching and learning idioms and students and teachers’s self-evaluation on the effectiveness of their idioms teaching and learning
3.1 Data analysis 3.1.1 Data collected from survey questionnaire 3.1.1.1 The situation of teaching and learning idioms
To begin with, when students were asked about the importance of idioms, especially in developing speaking skill, similar to the students thought idioms were important, 33% of them found idioms were quite important Besides, the data showed that 30% of them thought idioms were very important and some of them choose it were unimportant (about 4%)
Figure 1: The Importance of Idioms in Speaking Skill
Very importantImportantQuite importantUnimportant
On the other hand, in the viewpoints of lecturers, most of them (60%) believed that idioms is important and some of them stood on two different sides that idioms were very important and quite important (20% for each options)
Specially, none of them thought that idioms were not important
However, the majority of students and lecturers supported the main argument that idioms were important in English usage, particularly in speaking skill
In the second question, it can be seen a slight difference in students’ opinions when 66% of them said that they had been taught idioms at FOE, HNUE, while 34% of them said the opposite When the students were required to give the reasons why they claimed that they had not been taught idioms at university, they
Figure 2: The Importance of Idioms in Speaking Skill
Very important Important Quite important Unimportant
Figure 3: Teaching Idioms at University for Freshmen
YesNo provided the information which lecturers just introduced some limited idioms appear in the reading texts or some lists of glossaries and they opined it was not teaching idioms
However, the findings also revealed that the lecturers in the interview asserted that they had been taught idioms for freshmen at FOE, HNUE before (100%)
Although it tends to have a slight difference between students’ and lecturers’ opinion, the majority of them are confirmed that they had been taught and learned idioms
In terms of time used for teaching idioms in a lesson, the data illustrated the majority of students confirmed that they had been taught idioms about 10 minutes (86%) The rest of them said that about 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and over
Figure 4: Teaching Idioms at University for Freshmen
Figure 5: Time Using for Teaching Idioms (Students' opinions)
About 10 minutesAbout 15 minutesAbout 20 minutesOver 20 minutes
20 minutes were the time their lecturers used to teach idioms (10%, 2%, 2% respectively) In the same vein, 100% of the lecturers said that they utilized about
10 minutes to teach idioms in a lesson Moreover, they provided more details that the time for each lesson at class was limited, so they did not have much time to teach or to prepare idioms
Regarding the situation of teaching and learning idioms, the study continued on the criteria that the lecturers bear in mind for idiom selections, teaching methods and idiom – related activities that were employed
Table 1 Criteria for Selecting Idioms for Teaching
1 Relevance to the contents of the lessons
Although there was a slight difference in priority among the criteria, lecturers and students both take into consideration such criteria as relevance to the contents of the lessons (70% and 38%, respectively), fitting students’ language level (27% for students and 100% for teachers), and frequency in use (25% and
40%) Lecturers showed great concern about their students’ English level (100%) and relevance to the contents of the lessons (70%), as the same with students that were more interested in two criteria Some of the students concerned about cultural suitability for choosing idioms for teaching (11%) while more lecturers bear in mind about it (20%) This data was also illustrated in the theory of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) proposed by Vygosky (1978) that understanding students’ English level, or locating their exact ZPD, will suggest proper assistance to students’ learning The attention to the most frequent idioms was also recommended by Zyzik (2009) Zyzik proposed that idioms should be selected by the frequency of occurrence or the familiarity (2009) These criteria assist the lecturers in including many frequently used idioms and leaving out some seldom used ones Lecturers and students may consult the study of idiom frequency of occurrence by Liu (2003) and Grant (2007) when selecting idioms for their students
In terms of an idioms-related teaching approach, “How did you/your lecturers teach idioms?”, idioms were taught and introduced in either listening activities or reading activities Idioms were introduced in speaking activities and were also taught in integrated-skill activities that also involved in listening and reading skills
1 Idioms were taught separately in idiom-focus activities
2 Idioms were 2 4% 2 20% taught integrated with listening activities
3 Idioms were taught integrated with reading activities
4 Idioms were taught integrated with speaking activities
5 Idioms were taught in integrated- skill activities
It can be seen in Table 2 that idioms were taught and learnt much from reading activities (38% for students and 60% for lecturers ), which was the receptive skill (Harmer, 2001) In addition, the data indicated that idioms also were taught in listening activities (4% for students and 20% for teachers) These activities provided the input of the language for the students It is likely that lecturers enabled students to lead to productive skills, which are speaking and writing
Although these activities valuably helped students expose to the idiomatic language, they were not enough Harmer (Ibid., p 249, 2001) argues that students should participate in the activity “at the communicative end of the communication continuum” Nada Salem Abisamra (1998) found that a strong knowledge of idioms will help students to be better speakers and negotiators and they will be in a much better position to take advantage of the opportunities that come their way These impressive statistics illustrated the undeniable significant role of idiomatic phrases in daily language use, especially in speaking skill to communicate with others This means that language production should have a communicative purpose There is a significant distinction between “knowledge about a language and skill in using it” (Bygate, 1987, p 3) Therefore, if idioms just are presented in the listening and reading activities, students will not have many opportunities to put newly learnt idioms in practice Thus, teaching idioms through speaking activities were played a vital role for the development of speaking skill, especially in communication However, the collected data showed that 15% students and 40% lecturers affirmed that idioms were taught integrated with speaking activities (less than reading activities)
Also, there was a significant distinction between “knowledge about a language and skill in using it” (Bygate, 1987, p 3) Therefore, if idioms just were presented in the listening and reading activities, students will not have many opportunities to put newly learnt idioms in practice
The data in the questionnaire showed that 80% of the lecturers and 50% of the students thought they learnt idioms from integrated skill activities The integrated skill approach, in which all the language skills are presented in the theme-based models or task-based instruction focusing on communicative purposes to help students to speak English communicatively (Oxford, 2001), has recently attracted a great level of interest This approach not only helps students focus on language in use in its right contexts but also includes knowledge of vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar to support student learning In this way, students can get “the benefit of practicing all the language skills in an integrated, natural, communicative way, even if one skill is the main focus of a given volume”
CONCLUSION
Recapitulation
This research explores the situation and students’ and lecturers’ perceptions of idioms teaching and learning in light of speaking skill approach for freshmen of English at HNUE in Vietnam The study has used mixed-methods including qualitative and quantitative to clarify the following issues Firstly, the research shows the situation that idioms have been taught to the first year students of FOE, yet it mainly in reading skill and very restricted on other skills, particularly in speaking Both lecturers and students believe that students are motivated, feel relaxed and confident and actively participated in idioms learning activities in this foreign language context The findings also reveal that students have demonstrated the process in idiom awareness as well as in idiom comprehension through the evidence in the evaluation of idioms teaching These positive learning achievements in idiom learning are the result of the creative use of idiom-related teaching activities that are designed in reading skill tasks, yet still lack of activities in speaking skill Idioms are contextualized in listening or reading activities and then need practicing with speaking and writing focus The learning tasks are varied from idiom sharing, matching, role-play to theater playing with idioms Moreover, the study indicates the missing of conceptual metaphors in idiom learning activities This acts as a barrier to the prevention of creative associations in the learning process Furthermore, idioms teaching would be more effective if the students have more chance to participate in numerous authentic video clips and games in their process of idiom learning This suggests that, since learners implement a variety of strategies when trying to interpret the meaning of idioms, they should also be given the opportunity to develop and practice these
Secondly, the study demonstrates that lecturers and students at the university achieved moderate effectiveness in idiom learning that students can understand the meaning and remember a few basic idioms However, most of the students rarely learned at home and used idioms in their conversations although they acknowledged the importance of idioms and learning idioms in the process of learning English in EFL contexts Their poor idiomatic competence was consequently derived from a lack of exposure to idiomatic language in their learning programs (a few idioms was introduced in the course books), inadequate guidance in learning and using idioms from teachers, and an insufficient habit of learning idioms as phrases and chunks
The study reveals that idiom is a difficult part of teaching English From the actual situation and the awareness of lecturers and students, idioms teaching might have not received adequate attention at FOE yet Therefore, the study covered that instead of being avoided in EFL learning, idioms should receive more attention in language teaching to assist students in acquiring English in a foreign language context This filling may help freshmen at FOE and EFL learners in general profoundly explore the target language and then purposefully communicate in English.
Recommendations
Based on these results, some areas for improvement in the teaching of idioms for freshmen at FOE can be identified To improve the situation of learning idioms, both lecturers and students should be aware of the significant role of idioms teaching in the language learning process, especially speaking skill Lecturers and students should have clear criteria of idiom selection and idiom teaching aspects so that students are able to learn and become familiar with frequently used idioms and their contexts Particularly, items in the teaching and reference materials such as idioms books, course books need to be selected in a more rigorous, systematic way, and should be based on authentic language rather than on intuition in order to increase their content representativeness When teaching idioms, lecturers should introduce additional descriptive information, such as an idiom's distribution and use frequency, idioms classification in different categories, because such information may help students develop a more complete grasp of the idioms or decide to what extent they want to learn and use those idioms Such consultation may help decrease the chance of having students work on idioms not useful to them at the time of instruction Lecturers may try to utilize idiom variations in their instruction, so that this will help make students' learning of idioms more complete Students should be exposed to idioms from inner- and expanding circle contexts as well In addition, communicative strategies for negotiation of meaning should be integrated into the process of learning idioms to help students overcome breakdowns during interactions caused by misunderstanding idioms and speak more fluently Consequently, they will be more confident in communicating with idioms in everyday conversations
Several authors (Lundblom & Woods, (2012; Cooper, 1998, 1999; Burke, 1998), D’Angelo Bromley et al., 1984) have suggested that idiomatic expressions deserve special attention in classrooms But Cooper (1999) highlights that
“[s]ome commercial instructional material focusing on teaching idioms do exist […] however, language teachers frequently must create their own materials” (p
256) Moreover, lecturers had to self-improve their language skills and knowledge to meet the idiomatic demand for the course It can be seen from the data that idioms can be taught successfully in many different, creative ways In general, it is probably beneficial to use a mixture of procedures to teach students because not all learners are the same type Finally, the lecturers can also help raise students’ awareness of idioms’ origins and improve their cultural knowledge through teacher instruction and many other procedures
1.2.2 Some suggested activities for idioms teaching to promote speaking skill
Idioms can be taught successfully through mixed-methods using many creative related-activities to make students produce idioms in speaking skill Due to the different types of freshmen at FOE or in other words, the different multiple intelligent, books, group work, drama, illustrations, music and sounds can all be used in order to create a variety of tasks and activities that appeal to different students A few weeks can be spent on these activities such as storytelling, idioms sharing, video watching, role-play, theatre playing with idioms and learning a larger set of idioms or the lecturers can, potentially, make a habit of integrating idioms into lessons and address them on occasion throughout the semester There are also many new ways of incorporating idioms in students’ everyday lives by showing them different idiom games and apps that can be downloaded to their smartphones
For instance, idioms can be taught in the following ways that the researcher took from a website on the internet with recompilations: http://busyteacher.org/3712- how-to-teach-english-idioms-and-their-meaning.html
1 Choose 5 to 8 idioms that may be easily grouped: Most idioms fall into simple categories, like idioms with animals or parts of the body Lecturers at FOE will choose 5 to 8 from any category, for example idioms with time If lecturers choose more than 10, they will only succeed in overwhelming their students, and students won’t remember any of the idioms they saw in class
Before presenting the idioms, lecturers should make sure students understand that they are usually used in spoken English, and rarely in written form, with some exceptions (they are widely used on the Internet, in blogs, ezine articles, etc but students must understand that their use is informal)
2 Introduce idioms in context, never in isolation: Some ESL teachers simply go over a list of English idioms and their definitions or explanations However, to ensure that students not only understand them, but also learn to use them, present idiom examples in context, for example, in simple conversations where the meaning of the idiom is clear Lecturers ask students to guess or figure out the meaning of the idiom and correct as necessary Then, lecturers ask them to provide other examples of what it means to give someone a hard time Then, lecturers move on to another conversation for another idiom
3 Students create conversations using idioms: Remember that the goal is to get students to not only understand idioms, but also learn how to use them effectively At FOE, lecturers can divide the the classes into pairs Each pair of students gets one or two idioms to work with They must write a conversation and use this idiom in it Lecturers walk around the classroom to assist students and check for accuracy
4 Students act out their conversations: Each pair stands before their classmates and acts out the conversation they wrote This way they not only practice using the idiom phrases, they hear other examples from classmates, other ways in which these idioms may be included in conversation
5 Use real life, authentic material: Lecturers show students how some of these idioms are used in the media, in newspaper and magazine articles, and in songs, cartoons, videos, advertisements, etc…Thanks to the Internet, all lecturers have to do is searching an idiom, and find plenty of sources Moreover, lecturers can ask students to prepare some of their favorite beforehand, bring them to the class, and share with their friend Lecturers then will carry out activities for students to practice The more they are exposed to idioms, the better Lecturers can show video clips containing idioms but it is impossible to do this every lesson Students are expected to be aware of the idioms in use The awareness is much more influenced than knowing every single idiom It is expected that when students’ attention is drawn to idioms an entire world will open up and they will start noticing and producing idioms whenever they talk with others.
Limitations of the study
Within the limited time and restricted scope of a graduation thesis, certain shortcomings are inexorable Firstly, this study was conducted on a relative small sample of participants (only 10 lecturers and 50 freshmen), so the results collected are not representative and cannot be generalized Second, it is remarkable that the time for the data collection procedure is rather short, whereas the effect of teaching idioms needs studying for a long time and the researcher does not have much time to investigate it in a long-term process Therefore, the collected data only reflects the temporary and initial effects of teaching and learning idioms on the student’s participation in speaking activities As the semester almost ended when the study took place, the valuable collected data instrument – class observation could not be performed Therefore, it is one of the limitations of the study Lastly, due to the author’s limited knowledge and experience, some grammatical mistakes are inevitable These limitations should be considered for improvement in further related research.
Recommendation for further study
During the implementations of the study, a number of questions for future research have been raised Future studies should explore more about how to enhance students in learning idioms to upgrade their ability to use idioms in communication Furthermore, it was necessary to focus on how much knowledge of the culture (in which the target language exists) learners need in order to acquire specific idioms In this thesis this aspect has only been touched upon In addition, research on how learners comprehend idioms needs to be expanded and used to create instructional materials and teaching procedures with regard to idioms teaching and learning in speaking skill
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APPENDIXES APPENDIX 1: Survey questionnaire 1 (for students) APENDIX 1A: English version
I am Tran Thi My Linh – a lecturer at Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education I am conducting a research on “Students’ and Lecturers’ Perceptions of Idioms teaching and learning in Speaking skill for Freshmen at FOE, HNUE” This questionnaire was designed as a part of my research You can be sure that the information collected will be used for the research purposes only and your personal opinions will be kept strictly confidential in any discussion of the data Thank you very much for your cooperation!
Please choose the answer by circling the letter next to your choice, putting a (√) in the right box or expressing your idea in the blanks (In some cases, you can choose more than one answer)
How long have you been learning English?
1 What do you think of idioms in English teaching and learning, especially in speaking skill?
A Very important B Important C Quite important D Unimportant
2 Have you been taught idioms in the first semester at FOE, HNUE?
3 If yes, how much time in a lesson does your lecturer spend on teaching idioms?
4 What are your lecturer s’ criteria for selecting idioms for teaching?
A Relevance to the contents of the lessons
E Fitting students’ language level Others ………
5 How did your lecturers teach idioms?
A Idioms were taught separately in idiom-focus activities
B Idioms were taught integrated with listening activities
C Idioms were taught integrated with reading activities
D Idioms were taught integrated with speaking activities
E Idioms were taught in integrated -skill activities
6 What are your lecturers teaching methods on teaching idioms?
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
1 Idioms were presented in a variety of ways
2 Idioms activities were almost determined by the textbook
3 Different teaching aids were used to help ease the idioms learning process
7 Which of the following activities have your lecturers used to teach idioms and how often? Please choose as many answers as appropriate to you
8 What are your sources and learning material for idioms?
9 What do you think are the main difficulties of learning idioms?
A Time- consuming to prepare lesson
B Difficulties in choosing suitable idioms
C Idioms in the textbook are limited
D Lack of time to teach idioms
G Poor-facilitated classes (lack of computer, projector, etc.)
10 How do you evaluate your teachers teaching and your learning idioms in the semester?
11 What is your evaluation of idioms teaching of your lecturers?
1 The idiom- related activities matched your students’level
2 The idiom-related activities were successful
3 You felt confident and relaxed when teaching/learning idioms
4 Your students/You have demonstrated the progress in idiom comprehension
5 Your students/You have demonstrated the progress in using idiomatic expressions
6 Your students/You enjoyed the idioms learning activities
7 Your students /You were motivated to learn idioms
8 Your students/You actively participated in the learning process
12 Would you like your teacher to start or continue teaching idioms to improve your speaking skill in the next semesters?
13 If yes, can you give some suggestions to minimize the difficulties and make teaching and learning idioms in speaking skill more effective?
PHIẾU TRẢ LỜI CÂU HỎI SỐ 1
Tôi là Trần Thị Mỹ Linh – Giảng viên khoa Tiếng Anh, trường Đại học Sư phạm
Hà Nội Tôi đang tiến hành nghiên cứu về “Nhận thức của sinh viên và giảng viên về việc dạy và học thành ngữ trong kĩ năng nói cho sinh viên năm nhất tại khoa Tiếng Anh, trường Đại học Sư phạm Hà Nội” Bảng câu hỏi này được thiết kế nhằm phục vụ nghiên cứu trên Các em có thể yên tâm về việc toàn bộ thông tin được thu thập sẽ chỉ phục vụ mục đích nghiên cứu và các ý kiến cá nhân sẽ được giữ bí mật trong bất kì cuộc thảo luận nào về dữ liệu
Cảm ơn sự hợp tác của các em!
Hãy chọn câu trả lời bằng cách khoanh tròn vào chữ cái A, B, C, hoặc D
Tích (√) vào hộp hoặc điền thêm ý kiến cá nhân vào chỗ trống (Trong một vài câu hỏi, em có thể chọn nhiều hơn một đáp án)
Em đã học tiếng anh bao lâu rồi?
1 Em nghĩ gì về việc dạy và học thành ngữ trong tiếng Anh, đặc biệt là kĩ năng nói?
B Rất quan trọng B Quan trọng C Khá quan trọng D Không quan trọng
2 Em có được dạy về thành ngữ trong năm học đầu tiên tại khoa tiếng Anh, trường Đại học Sư phạm Hà Nội không?
3 Nếu có, giảng viên dành bao nhiêu thời gian trong một tiết học nói để dạy thành ngữ?
4 Theo em, những tiêu chí nào là tiêu chí để giảng viên chọn thành ngữ để dạy?
F Liên quan đến nội dung bài học
H Phù hợp về văn hóa
I Có sự cập nhật đổi mới
J Phù hợp với trình độ sinh viên Tiêu chí khác: ………
5 Giảng viên dạy thành ngữ trên lớp cho em như thế nào?
F Thành ngữ được dạy thành một phần riêng biệt, tập chung với các hoạt động riêng
G Thành ngữ được dạy tích hợp với các hoạt động nghe
H Thành ngữ được dạy tích hợp với các hoạt động đọc
I Thành ngữ được dạy tích hợp với các hoạt động nói
J Thành ngữ được dạy tích hợp với các hoạt động của toàn bộ kĩ năng
6 Giảng viên của em đã sử dụng những phương pháp nào trong giảng dạy thành ngữ?
Nhận định Rất đồng ý Đồng ý Bình thường Không đồng ý
2 Thành ngữ được dạy bằng nhiều cách đa dạng
2 Các hoạt động dạy thành ngữ phần lớn dựa theo sách giáo trình
4 Các hoạt động hỗ trợ giảng dạy khác nhau được sử dụng để quá trình học thành ngữ dễ dàng hơn
7 Hoạt động nào dưới đây được giảng viên của em sử dụng trong việc giảng dạy thành ngữ và mức độ thường xuyên của chúng? Chọn đáp án phù hợp với em
Hoạt động >10 lần 7-9 lần 4-6 lần 1-3 lần Không sử dụng
34 Nối (thành ngữ với nghĩa)
40 Phiếu bài tập thành ngữ
44 Vở chú giải thành ngữ
8 Em học thành ngữ từ nguồn tài liệu nào?
9 Theo em, những khó khăn của việc học thành ngữ là gì?
I Mất thời gian để chuẩn bị bài học
J Khó chọn thành ngữ phù hợp với khả năng
K Số lượng thành ngữ trong sách giáo trình hạn chế
L Thiếu thời gian dạy thành ngữ trên lớp
M Vấn đề về quản lý lớp học (ồn ào…)
O Không được trang bị đầy đủ trang thiết bị ( thiếu máy tính, máy chiếu, vv…)
10 Em đánh giá như thế nào về việc dạy và học thành ngữ trong học kì này?
11 Em đánh giá như thế nào về việc giảng dạy thành ngữ của giảng viên?
STT Nhận định Rất đồng ý Đồng ý Bình thường Không đồng ý
1 Các hoạt động liên quan đến giảng dạy thành ngữ phù hợp với trình độ của em
2 Các hoạt động giảng dạy thành ngữ có hiệu quả
3 Em thấy tự tin và thoải mái khi học thành ngữ
4 Em có sự tiến bộ trong việc hiểu thành ngữ
5 Em có tiến bộ trong việc sử dụng thành ngữ
6 Em thấy hứng thú với các hoạt động học thành ngữ
7 Em có động lực để học thành ngữ hơn
8 Em tham gia vào việc học thành ngữ tích cực hơn
12 Em có muốn giảng viên tiếp tục dạy thành ngữ nhằm phát triển kĩ năng nói cho em trong học kì tiếp theo không?
13 Nếu có, em có gợi ý gì để làm giảm những khó khăn trong việc học và làm cho việc dạy và học thành ngữ trong kĩ năng nói hiệu quả hơn?
APPENDIX 2: Survey questionnaire 2 (for lecturers)
I am Tran Thi My Linh – a lecturer at Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education I am conducting a research on “Students’ and Lecturers’ Perceptions of Idioms teaching and learning in Speaking skill for Freshmen at FOE, HNUE” This questionnaire was designed as a part of my research You can be sure that the information collected will be used for the research purposes only and your personal opinions will be kept strictly confidential in any discussion of the data
Thank you very much for your cooperation!
Please choose the answer by circling the letter next to your choice, putting a (√) in the right box or expressing your idea in the blanks (In some cases you can choose more than one answer)
General information: i Your full name: ii Your age: iii How long have you taught English? ………
1 What do you think of idioms in English teaching and learning, especially in speaking skill?
C Very important B Important C Quite important D Unimportant
3 Have you taught idioms at FOE, HNUE?
4 If yes, how much time in a lesson do you spend on teaching idioms?
5 What are your criteria for selecting idioms for teaching?
K Relevance to the contents of the lessons
O Fitting students’ language level Others ………
6 How did you teach idioms?
K Idioms were taught separately in idiom-focus activities
L Idioms were taught integrated with listening activities
M Idioms were taught integrated with reading activities
N Idioms were taught integrated with speaking activities
O Idioms were taught in integrated -skill activities
7 What are your teaching methods on teaching idioms?
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
1 Idioms were presented in a variety of ways
2 Idioms activities were almost determined by the textbook
5 Different teaching aids were used to help ease the idioms learning process
8 What are idiom- related activities that you use to teach idioms?
7-9 times 4-6times 1-3times Not used
9 What are your sources and teaching material for idioms?
10 What do you think are the main difficulties of teaching idioms?
Q Time- consuming to prepare lesson
R Difficulties in choosing suitable idioms
S Idioms in the textbook are limited
T Lack of time to teach idioms
W Poor-facilitated classes (lack of computer, projector, etc.)
11 How do you evaluate your teaching and learning idioms in the semester?
12 What is your evaluation of idioms teaching and learning?
1 The idiom- related activities matched your students’level
2 The idiom-related activities were successful
3 You felt confident and relaxed when teaching/learning idioms
4 Your students/You have demonstrated the progress in idiom comprehension
5 Your students/You have demonstrated the progress in using idiomatic expressions
6 Your students/You enjoyed the idioms learning activities
7 Your students /You were motivated to learn idioms
8 Your students/You actively participated in the learning process
13 Would you like to start or continue teaching idioms to improve your students speaking skill in the next semesters?
14 If yes, can you give some suggestions to minimize the difficulties and make teaching and learning idioms in speaking skill more effective?