Table of contents

Title

Acknowledgements

Abstract    1

Chapter One

 Introduction 3
Statement of the problem 4
Significance of the study 7
Objective of the study 8
Research question 8
Research hypotheses 8
Definition of the key words 8

Chapter Two

2.0Introduction 11

2.1       Brief review of idiom structure and definition 13

2.2.1    Structure of Idioms .13

2.2.2   Definition of idioms .16

2.3       Employed strategies in idioms learning .18

2.3.1 Communicative Skills: Teach English Idioms with Dialogue Writing and 19

Role-Play

2.3.2 Applying English Idioms through Dialogue Writing and Role-play in a .19   Particular context

2.4 figurative and literal meaning of idiom . .23

2.4.1 Idioms and Metaphors … . .24

2.4.2 Idioms and Clichés . .. . . 24

2.4.3 Idioms and Proverbs . . . 25

2.4.4 Idioms and Fixed Expressions .. . 26

2.5 Transparent and Opaque idioms . .. . .26

2.6 The study of idiomaticity in a glance . . . .30

2.7 Problems in Teaching L2 Idioms . . . 31

2.8 Strategies Employed in L2 Idiom Processing . . …32

2.9 The Role of Vocabulary and Culture in Understanding Idioms ..33

2.10 The Role of Context in Idiom Comprehension . 34

2.11 Idiomatic Competence . .37

2.11.1 Measuring Idiomatic Competence . 38

2.12 Idiom-Related Research in Language Learning and Use .39

2.13 The Importance of Idioms and the Case for the Lexicon .41

2.14 Idiom Acquisition 42

2.15 The Dual coding theory 45

2.16 Etymological elaboration . .46

2.16.1 Etymological Elaboration, an Effective Strategy in Teaching Idioms 51

Chapter Three

3.0. Introduction 56

3.1. Participants …56

3.2. Instruments …56

3.3. Procedures 57

Chapter Four

4.0. Introduction .61

4.1. Descriptive statistics for experimental and control groups’ posttest …62

4.2. Results of Hypothesis Testing 63

4.3. Summary of the results …64

Chapter Five

5.0. Introduction .66

5.1. Summary of the findings .66

5.2. Pedagogical implications 67

5.3. Limitations and delimitations of the study 68

5.4. Suggestions for the further research .68

5.5. Interview 69

Abstract

On Etymological Elaboration and its Potential Effect on the Iranian EFL Learner’s Knowledge of Opaque Idioms.

Idioms are much more than ‘decorative icing’ to the language; they are an integral feature of both written and spoken English. The ability to comprehend and use idiomatic language is one of the distinguishing marks of native-like competence. In this research study, the target population of this study were 60 female EFL students at intermediate level of proficiency. All of the participants were native speakers of Persian studying at the Iran Language Institute of Rasht; Iran. After calculating OPT results and validating the idioms test through pilot study, the participants were divided into two groups to receive different treatments: Control Group:received no Etymological knowledge, but they received treatment through a conventional method, (definition of the opaque idioms with examples).Experimental Group:received instruction through etymological elaboration, (Etymological Information with examples). The research question sought to investigate which technique of teaching idioms yields better results in improving learners’ opaque idioms knowledge. The results of the opaque idioms posttest indicated that the group instructed through etymological elaboration had better performance, the group receiving explicit instruction of opaque idioms’ definitions had lower performance. However, the T-Test procedure revealed that the difference between the performances of the two groups were statistically significant. In other words, etymological information of the opaque idioms had significantly different effect on the learners’ knowledge of opaque idioms.Based on the results, it can be concluded that etymological information of idioms has differential effects on the