Learning English Idioms through Reading in an LMS: Etymological Notes versus Pictorial Support

Year 2016, Volume: 18 Issue: 1, 445 - 462, 29.06.2016

Hakan Demiröz Ahmet Çekiç , Arif Bakla

https://doi.org/10.17556/jef.88778

Cited By: 1

Abstract

This study aims to compare the effectiveness of definition + etymological notes versus definition + pictorial support on the learning of English idioms through reading online texts with hyperlinks to definitions. 121 Turkish learners of English as a foreign language assigned to two different courses were given a vocabulary knowledge scale, revealing that the idioms were unfamiliar to the learners. Participants in both groups read 17 passages with definitions as hyperlink annotations for 18 idioms in a scorm package built via an authoring tool. In addition to the definitions of idioms in both groups, the visuals were given above the text in the first experimental group, while the etymological notes were provided as hyperlink annotation in the second. A comparison of the groups’ post-test scores  using Mann Whitney U test indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the groups’ median scores, (U= 1786.000, p = .819). 

Keywords

English Langage Teaching

Öğretim Yönetim Sisteminde Çevrimiçi Okumayla İngilizce Deyim Öğrenimi: Etimolojik Açıklamalarla Görsel Desteğin Karşılaştırılması

Abstract

Bu çalışma tanım + etimolojik açıklamalara karşın tanım + görsel desteğin İngilizcede deyim öğrenimine etkisini karşılaştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Anadili Türkçe olan 121 İngiliz dili öğrencisi iki farklı çevrimiçi derse kaydedilmiştir. Uygulama öncesi verilen sözcük bilgisi ölçeği, her iki gruptaki öğrencilerin deyimlerin neredeyse tamamını bilmediğini ortaya çıkarmıştır. Her iki gruptaki öğrenciler 18 deyim içeren 17 parça okumuşlardır. Birinci deney grubunda katılımcılara köprülenmiş açıklama şeklinde deyimin tanımıyla birlikte etimolojik bilgi verilirken, ikinci deney grubunda köprülenmiş açıklama şeklinde verilen tanıma ek olarak deyimle ilgili görseller metin üzerinde verilmiştir. Son-test puanlarının Mann Whitney U testi ile karşılaştırılması sonucunda gruplar arasında anlamlı bir fark olmadığı görülmüştür, (U= 1786.000, p = .819)

Keywords

Yabancı dil öğrenimi, deyimler, köprülenmiş açıklama, Moodle, etimolojik açıklama

References

• Abel, B. (2003). English idioms in the first language and second language lexicon: a dual representation approach. Second Language Research, 19(4), 329–358.
• Bagheri, M. S., & Fazel, I. (2010). Effects of etymological elaboration on the EFL learners’ comprehension and retention of idioms. Journal of Pan-Pacific Asso-ciation of Applied Linguistics, 14(1), 45–55.
• Boers, F. (2001). Remembering figurative idioms by hypothesizing about their ori-gins. Prospect, 16(3), 35–43.
• Boers, F., Demecheleer, M., & Eyckmans, J. (2004). Etymological elaboration as a strategy for learning figurative idioms. In P. Bogaards & B. Laufer (Eds.), Vo-cabulary in a second language: Selection, acquisition and testing (pp. 53–78). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/lllt.10.07boe
• Boers, F., Eyckmans, J. and Stengers, H. (2007). Presenting figurative idioms with a touch of etymology: more than mere mnemonics? Language Teaching Re-search, 11(43), 43–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1362168806072460
• Boers, F., Lindstromberg, S., Littlemore, J., Stengers, H., & Eyckmans, J. (2008). Variables in the mnemonic effectiveness of pictorial elucidation. In F. Boers & S. Lindstromberg (Eds.), Cognitive linguistic approaches to teaching vocabu-lary and phraseology (pp.189–216). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110199161.2.189
• Boers, F., Piquer-Piriz, A. M., Stengers, H., & Eyckmans, J. (2009). Does pictorial elucidation foster recollection of idioms? Language Teaching Research, 13(4), 367–382. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1362168809341505
• Cieślicka, A. B. (2013). Do nonnative language speakers chew the fat and spill the beans with different brain hemispheres? Investigating ıdiom decomposability with the divided visual field paradigm. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 42, 475-503. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10936-012-9232-4
• Dascal, M. (1987). Defending literal meaning. Cognitive Science, 11, 259–281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1103_1
• Drew, P. & Holt, E. (1995). Idiomatic expressions and their role in the organization of topic transition in conversation. In M. Everaert et al., (eds). Idioms: Structur-al and psychological perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500020200
• Drew, P. & Holt, E. (1998). Figures of speech: Figurative expressions and the man-agement of topic transition in conversation. Language in Society, 27, 495–522.
• Fernando, C. (1978). Towards a definition of idiom, its nature and function. Studies in Language, 2(3), 313–343. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sl.2.3.03fer
• Fernando, C. (1996). Idioms and idiomaticity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Gibbs, R.W., Nayak, N., Bolton, J., & Keppel, M. (1989). Speakers’ assumptions about the lexical flexibility of idioms. Memory and Cognition, 17, 58–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03199557
• Gibbs, R.W., Nayak, N. P., & Cutting, C. (1989). How to kick the bucket and not decompose: Analyzability and idiom processing. Journal of Memory and Lan-guage, 28, 576–593. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0749-596X(89)90014-4
• Golaghaei, N., and Kakolian, S. (2015). The effect of visual and etymological treatments on learning decomposable idioms among EFL learners. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 4(5), 72–81.
• Grant, L., & Bauer, L. (2004). Criteria for re-defining idioms: Are we barking up the wrong tree? Applied Linguistics, 25, 38–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/applin/25.1.38
• Irujo, S. (1986). A piece of cake: learning and teaching idioms. ELT Journal, 40, 236–242. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/elt/40.3.236
• Katz, J. J., & Postal, P. M. (1963). Semantic interpretations of idioms and sentences containing them. MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics Quarterly Progress Report, 70, 275–282.
• Kecskes, I. (2010). Formulaic language in English Lingua Franca. In P. Hanks and R. Giora (Eds.). Metaphor and figurative language: Critical concepts in lin-guistics. Oxford/New York: Routledge.
• Liu, D. (2003). The most frequently used spoken American English idioms: A corpus analysis and its implications. TESOL Quarterly, 37(4), 671–700. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3588217
• Moon, R. (1998). Fixed expressions and idioms in English. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Paivio, A. (1991). Dual Coding Theory: Retrospect and Current Status. Canadian Journal of Psychology/Revue Canadienne de Psychologie, 45(3), 255–287. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0084295
• Szczepaniak, R., & Lew, R. (2011). The role of imagery in dictionaries of idioms. Applied Linguistics, 32(3), 323–347. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/applin/amr001
• Simpson, R., & Mendis, D. (2003). A corpus-based study of idioms in academic speech. TESOL Quarterly, 37, 419–442. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3588398
• Softchalk. (n.d.). Softchalk create [Computer software]. Retrieved from http://www.courselab.com/view_doc.html?mode=home
• Stengers, H. Deconinck, J. Boers, F., & Eyckmans, J. (2016). Does copying idioms promote their recall? Computer Assisted Language Learning, 29(2), 289–301. doi: 10.1080/09588221.2014.937723
• Tabossi, P. & Zardon, F. (1993). The activation of idiomatic meaning in spoken language comprehension. In C. Cacciari &. P. Tabossi (Eds.), Idioms: Pro-cessing, structure, and interpretation (pp. 145–162). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Talebinezhad, M. R., and Farhadian, N. (2014). A comparative study of two cogni-tive models in teaching idiomatic phrasal verbs: Tyler and Evan’s vs. Lakoff and Johnson’s approach. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(8), 1621–1627. http://dx.doi.org/10.4304/tpls.4.8.1621-1627
• Tran, T. H. (2011). Using ready–made materials for teaching idioms. Paper present-ed at the 41st Annual New York State TESOL Conference. Melville, New York, October 28–29.
• Vasiljevic, Z. (2015). Effects of etymology and pictorial support on the retention and recall of L2 idioms. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 12(1), 35–55.
• Wesche, M., and Paribakht, T. S. (1996). Assessing second language vocabulary knowledge: depth versus breadth. Canadian Modern Language Review, 53, 1–28.