This study is intended to examine the
teaching and learning of idiomatic expressions and multi-word verbs of English
in the context of Sudan. It arises out of a deep and prolonged dissatisfaction
which the researcher has felt with both the past and present status of teaching/learning
of these multi-word lexical items in the context of Sudan.
Our main objective, in this research, is, therefore, to provide those engaged
in English Language teaching and learning in Sudan with the suitable means for
pre-empting and solving the problems and difficulties of teaching and learning
idiomatic expressions and multi-word verbs of English.
The following general and interrelated questions have been formulated on
the basis of the hypotheses of this study:
a)
What are exactly the problems/difficulties facing the teaching/learning
of idiomatic expressions and multi-word verbs in the context of Sudan?
b)
What are the possible causes of these problems/difficulties?
c)
How to solve these problems and eliminate these difficulties?
In
order to test our hypotheses and answer the associated question, two questionnaires
were distributed for the teachers of English and the students in Sudan universities.
This was followed up with an experiment in which 100 Sudanese’ university students
at the 3rd level were given a course of explicit instruction on idiomatic
expressions and multi-word verbs of English for 4 months, including a pre-test
as well as a post-test. In analyzing the data quantitatively, I have used the
percentage statistics known otherwise as the relative frequency.
The results and findings of the present study
are the following:
1. The Sudanese learners of English have
problems/difficulties with idiomatic expressions/multi-word verbs. In this area, the students commit frequently
errors at the orthographical, semantic, grammatical and stylistic levels such
as:
a. The use of the wrong particle and/or preposition with verb.
b.
Not being able to understand the multi-word verbs, which are also idiomatic
expressions.
c.
Generally, problems arising from the special nature of the multi-word verbs
(their difficult structural patterns, e.g., with pronouns, their special stress
patterns and so on).
d.
Unless one knows what an idiomatic expression means, they cannot, as rule,
guess its meaning.
e. One understands every word in a text and still fails to grasp
what the text is all about.
f.
One does not know whether for example, the words fall out form a unit of
meaning (an idiom) or not.
2. These problems and difficulties are due to various reasons
including :
a. The absence of idiomatic expressions and multi-word verbs from
syllabuses.
b. Lack and dearth of relevant/suitable materials.
c. Lack of attention and awareness of the importance of these
multi-word lexical items.
d. Unfamiliarity of the learners with those two components
of vocabulary.
e.
Unfamiliarity of some of the lecturers themselves with the literature dealing
with their teaching/learning.
f. The scarcity of MWV in the students’ L1 (Arabic).
g.
Others: causes which could be related to the general situation of English
Language and ELT in Sudan.
3. The solutions of those problems and
the elimination of difficulties reside in the following:
a.
The introduction of a separate course on these two multi-word lexical items
in the tertiary level syllabus in Sudan. This
course could have the title ‘idiomatic expressions and multi-word verbs’ or any
similar suitable one.
b.
The provision / selection of necessary and relevant materials especially
those which could be used as teaching and learning aids (dictionaries, textbooks,
supplementary materials, workbooks etc.)
c.
To direct the attention to their importance and raise the awareness of
their position and status in language.
d.
To familiarize the learners with those two complex and crucial but overlapping
components of vocabulary.
e.
To equip the lecturers with the recent literature dealing with the teaching
and learning of idiomatic expressions and multi-word verbs of English.
f. To train the learners in the strategy of guessing the meaning
from context.
Overall the study revealed that the teaching/learning of idiomatic expressions
and multi-word verbs of English in the context of Sudan faced various and different
problems and difficulties which are as a result of several external and internal
factors such as the inherent/potential difficulty and complexity of these multi-word
lexical items in the system of the target language (English) as well as those
related to the students’ mother tongue (Arabic) and the general situation of English
and ELT in Sudan. The possible means for
solving these problems and eliminating these difficulties seem to reside in introducing
an explicitly taught course on IEX/MWV working within the framework of the mentalistic/cognitive
view of language teaching/learning among other suggested ways to improve the situation.
The evidence of the effectiveness of the course is the significant difference
between the subjects’ performance in the pre-test and the post-test. In the PRT the total number and percentage(s)
of correct/wrong answers are as follows: 6942 (38.57%) / 11058 (61.43%) respectively
while for the POT they are: 17025 (94.58%) / 975 (5.42%)
The study runs into two main parts (theoretical and empirical / practical)
divided further into seven chapters.
Chapter one incorporates mainly the research methodology and procedures
adopted for obtaining the required data. It
starts with a brief introduction about the place of the present study in applied
linguistics, then it gives a concise account of the importance of the research,
objectives and methodological questions, hypotheses and research questions.
Moreover, there is clarification of the sampling procedures, the conditions
during the study and the statistical analysis used here.
Chapter two is solely to provide a detailed and thorough review
of the literature on idiomatic expressions and multi-word verbs of English. In spite of the large amount of literature
on these multi-word word lexical items, no research has been carried out on the
teaching and learning of idiomatic expressions and multi-word verbs of English
in the context of Sudan. Therefore, the
present study attempts to fill a gap and provide a starting point for further
research on this topic.
In Chapter three, the researcher has tried to show the position
(status) of idiomatic expressions and multi-word verbs of English in language
and in the existing English language syllabuses in Sudan.
Moreover, an attempt has been made to indicate how these two components
are taught and learnt in the universities in Sudan and demonstrate the importance
of these complex, expressions for the native speakers and the second/foreign language
learners alike.
In Chapter four, an attempt has been made to equip the reader with
a general linguistic description of idiomatic expressions and multi-word verbs
of English (with special emphasis on the semantic aspects) in order to establish
and provide a theoretical background which could serve, besides chapters two and
three, as a framework for the practical and empirical part of this study.
Chapter five mainly tries to answer the following set of questions:
What are the problems and difficulties of teaching/learning of idiomatic expressions
/ multi-word verbs in the context of Sudan? What
are the causes of these problems and difficulties?
Chapter Six attempts to outline as to how to solve the problems
and eliminate the difficulties of teaching and learning of idiomatic expressions
and multi-word verbs of English in the context of Sudan.
And finally, Chapter seven presents the summary and conclusions
as well as suggestions and recommendations. It
is followed by references and appendixes.