Research Article
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Cognitive processing of second language idiom comprehension: A comparative study

Year 2019, Volume: 15 Issue: 1, 307 - 325, 25.03.2019
https://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.547750

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Cognitive processing of second language idiom comprehension: A comparative study



This study examines the cognitive processes underlying the comprehension of L2 idiomatic expressions by using two different visual instructional techniques – pictorial representation of literal meanings versus pictorial representation of figurative meanings of each idiomatic expression – considering two settings (EFL vs. ESL), two different types of idioms (opaque vs. transparent) and two different proficiency levels (intermediate vs. advanced). The treatment included common pedagogical practices that use Dual Coding Theory as two different visual techniques with verbal support to teach different types of idioms. 67 ESL and 63 EFL learners attended the study. Idiom Comprehension Test was used before and after the treatment. Results of repeated-measure ANOVA based on pre- and post-test comparisons revealed that the comprehension of L2 idioms differed with respect to the learning setting, instructional technique, and idiom type. Nevertheless, proficiency level did not seem to have any effect on comprehension outcomes of any group. The results showed that in the ESL setting, the figurative technique was more successful than literal technique; while in EFL setting the literal technique resulted in better scores compared to figurative technique. ESL learners were better at learning idioms with opaque meanings than learners in EFL settings whereas EFL students were better at learning idioms with transparent meanings.  The results of this study support the view of the Dual Idiom Representation Model stating that ESL learners activate their existing idiom entry and they comprehend figuratively whereas EFL learners must decompose idioms.




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 Aydın, Burcu



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 Adnan Menderes University

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 Turkey



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 burcuaydin03@yahoo.com

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 Foreign Language Education Department

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References

  • Abel, B. (2003). English idioms in the first and second language lexicon: A dual representation approach. Second Language Research, 19(4), 329–58.
  • Author (2017). (Intentionally deleted for blinded review)
  • Ayto, J. (Ed.). (2010). Oxford dictionary of English idioms. Third Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Boers, F., Piriz, A.H.J., Stengers, H., Eyckmans, J. (2009). Does pictorial elucidation foster recollection of idioms? Language Teaching Research, 13(4), 367-382.
  • Boers, F. (2004). Expanding learners’ vocabulary through metaphor awareness: What Expansion, what Learners, what vocabulary? In M. Achard, S. Niemeler (Eds.), Cognitive linguistics, second language acquisition, and foreign language teaching (pp. 211-232). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Boers, F., Demecheleer, M., & Eyckmans, J. (2004). Etymological elaboration as a strategy for learning figurative idioms. In P. Bogaards & B. Laufer (Eds.), Vocabulary in a second language: Selection, acquisition, and testing. (pp. 53-78). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Bobrow, S. A., & Bell, S. M. (1973). On catching on to idiomatic expressions. Memory & Cognition, 1(3), 343-346.
  • Cacciari, C., & Levorato, M. C. (1998). The effect of semantic analyzability of idioms in metalinguistic tasks. Metaphor and Symbol, 13(3), 159-177.
  • Cacciari, C., Reati, F., Colombo, M. R., Padovani, R., Rizzo, S., & Papagno, C. (2006). The Comprehension of ambiguous idioms in aphasic patients. Neuropsychologia, 44(8), 1305-1314.
  • Cacciari, C., & Tabossi, P. (1988). The comprehension of idioms. Journal of Memory and Language, 27(6), 668-683.
  • Chitra, F. (1996). Idioms and idiomaticity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Cieslicka, A. (2006). Literal salience in on-line processing of idiomatic expressions by second language learners. Second Language Research, 22(2), 115–144.
  • Cooper, T. (1999). Processing of idioms by L2 learners of English. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 233-262.
  • Dörnyei, Z. (2009). Individual differences: Interplay of learner characteristics and learning environment. Language Learning, 59, 230-248.
  • Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Erman, B., & Warren, B. (2000). The idiom principle and the open choice principle. Text, 20(1), 29-62.
  • Ezell, H. K., & Goldstein, H. (1991). Comparison of idiom comprehension of normal children and children with mental retardation. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 34(4), 812-819.
  • Fogliata, A., Rizzo, S., Reati, F., Miniussi, C., Oliveri, M., & Papagno, C. (2007). "The Time Course of Idiom Processing". Neuropsychologia, 45(14), 3215-3222.
  • Gibbs Jr, R. W., & Nayak, N. P. (1989). Psycholinguistic studies on the syntactic behavior of idioms. Cognitive Psychology, 21(1), 100-138.
  • Gibbs, R. W. (1980). Spilling the beans on understanding and memory for idioms in conversation. Memory & Cognition, 8(2), 149-156.
  • Gibbs, R. W. (1991). Semantic analyzability in children’s understanding of idioms. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 34(3), 613-620.
  • Gibbs Jr, R. W. (2011). Evaluating conceptual metaphor theory. Discourse Processes, 48(8), 529-562.
  • Gibbs Jr, R. W., Nayak, N. P., & Cutting, C. (1989). How to kick the bucket and not decompose: Analyzability and idiom processing. Journal of memory and language, 28(5), 576-593.
  • Giora, R. (1997). Understanding figurative and literal language: the graded salience hypothesis. Cognitive Linguistics, 8, 183-206.
  • Grant, L. E. (2007). In a manner of speaking: Assessing frequent spoken figurative idioms to assist ESL/EFL teachers. System, 35(2), 169-181.
  • Howarth, P. (1998). Phraseology and second language proficiency. Applied Linguistics, 19, 24–44.
  • Huebner, T. (1995). The effects of overseas language programs. In B. F. Freed (Ed.), Second language acquisition in a study abroad context (pp. 171-194). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
  • Kovács, G. (2016). About the definition, classification, and translation strategies of idioms. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 8(3), pp. 85-101.
  • Langlotz, A. (2006). Idiomatic creativity: A cognitive-linguistic model of idiom-representation and idiom-variation in English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
  • Levorato, M. C., & Cacciari, C. (1995). The effects of different tasks on the comprehension and production of idioms in children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 60(2), 261-283.
  • Levorato, M. C., & Cacciari, C. (1992). Children's comprehension and production of idioms: the role of context and familiarity. Journal of Child Language, 19(2), 415-433.
  • Liontas, J. (2002). Context and idiom understanding in second languages. EUROSLA yearbook, 2(1), 155-185.
  • Liu, D. (2008). Idioms: Description, comprehension, acquisition, and pedagogy. New York: Routledge.
  • Matlock, T., & Heredia, R.R. (2002). Understanding phrasal verbs in monolinguals and bilinguals. In R.R. Heredia & J. Altarriba (Eds.), Bilingual sentence processing (pp. 251–274). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Mitchell, R. L., Vidaki, K., & Lavidor, M. (2016). The role of left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in semantic processing: A transcranial direct current stimulation study. Neuropsychologia, 91, 480-489.
  • Nippold, M. A., & Duthie, J. K. (2003). Mental imagery and idiom comprehension: A comparison of school-age children and adults. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 46(4), 788-799.
  • Nippold, M. A., & Rudzinski, M. (1993). Familiarity and transparency in idiom explanation: A developmental study of children and adolescents. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 36(4), 728-737.
  • Papagno, C., Curti, R., Rizzo, S., Crippa, F., & Colombo, M. R. (2006). "Is the Right Hemisphere Involved in Idiom Comprehension? A Neuropsychological Study". Neuropsychology, 20(5), 598.
  • Papagno, C., & Caporali, A. (2007). Testing idiom comprehension in aphasic patients: The effects of task and idiom type. Brain and Language, 100(2), 208-220.
  • Plonsky, L. (2011). The effectiveness of second language strategy instruction: A meta‐analysis. Language learning, 61(4), 993-1038.
  • Samburskiy, D. (2015). The effect of a dual coding elucidation technique on idiom comprehension in ESL and EFL learners. Doctoral dissertation, State University of New York, Albany.
  • Sasaki, M. (2007). Effects of study‐abroad experiences on EFL writers: A multiple‐data analysis. The Modern Language Journal, 91(4), 602-620.
  • Segalowitz, N., & Freed, B. F. (2004). Context, contact, and cognition in oral fluency acquisition: Learning Spanish in at home and study abroad contexts. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26(2), 173-199.
  • Steinel, M.P., Hulstijn, J.H., Steinel, W. (2007). Second language idiom learning in a paired –associate Paradigm. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29, 449-484.
  • Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Cognitive theory (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
  • Szczepaniak, R., & Lew, R. (2011). The role of imagery in dictionaries of idioms. Applied Linguistics, 32(3), 323-347.
  • Swinney, D. A., & Cutler, A. (1979). The access and processing of idiomatic expressions. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 18(5), 523-534.
  • Titone, D. A., & Connine, C. M. (1999). On the compositional and noncompositional nature of idiomatic expressions. Journal of Pragmatics, 31(12), 1655-1674.
  • Van de Voort, M.E.C., & Vonk, W. (1995). You don’t die immediately when you kick an empty bucket: A processing view on semantic and syntactic characteristics of idioms. In M. Everaert, E. van der Linden, A. Schenk, & R. Schreuder (Eds), Idioms: Structural and psychological perspectives (pp. 283-299). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Vasiljević, Z. (2013). Effects of learner-generated illustrations on comprehension and recall of L2 idioms. ELTA Journals, 1(1), 24-46.
  • Yang, F. G., Fuller, J., Khodaparast, N., & Krawczyk, D. C. (2010). "Figurative Language Processing After Traumatic Brain Injury in Adults: A Preliminary Study". Neuropsychologia, 48(7), 1923-1929.
  • Weinreich, U. (1969). Problems in the analysis of idioms. In J. Puhvel (Ed.), Substance and structure of language (pp. 23-81). Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Wu, H., & Zhang, L. J. (2017). Effects of different language environments on Chinese graduate students' perceptions of English writing and their writing performance. System, 65, 164-173.
  • Zyzik, E. (2011). Second language idiom learning: The effects of lexical knowledge and pedagogical sequencing. Language Teaching Research, 15(4), 413-433.
Year 2019, Volume: 15 Issue: 1, 307 - 325, 25.03.2019
https://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.547750

Abstract

References

  • Abel, B. (2003). English idioms in the first and second language lexicon: A dual representation approach. Second Language Research, 19(4), 329–58.
  • Author (2017). (Intentionally deleted for blinded review)
  • Ayto, J. (Ed.). (2010). Oxford dictionary of English idioms. Third Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Boers, F., Piriz, A.H.J., Stengers, H., Eyckmans, J. (2009). Does pictorial elucidation foster recollection of idioms? Language Teaching Research, 13(4), 367-382.
  • Boers, F. (2004). Expanding learners’ vocabulary through metaphor awareness: What Expansion, what Learners, what vocabulary? In M. Achard, S. Niemeler (Eds.), Cognitive linguistics, second language acquisition, and foreign language teaching (pp. 211-232). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Boers, F., Demecheleer, M., & Eyckmans, J. (2004). Etymological elaboration as a strategy for learning figurative idioms. In P. Bogaards & B. Laufer (Eds.), Vocabulary in a second language: Selection, acquisition, and testing. (pp. 53-78). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Bobrow, S. A., & Bell, S. M. (1973). On catching on to idiomatic expressions. Memory & Cognition, 1(3), 343-346.
  • Cacciari, C., & Levorato, M. C. (1998). The effect of semantic analyzability of idioms in metalinguistic tasks. Metaphor and Symbol, 13(3), 159-177.
  • Cacciari, C., Reati, F., Colombo, M. R., Padovani, R., Rizzo, S., & Papagno, C. (2006). The Comprehension of ambiguous idioms in aphasic patients. Neuropsychologia, 44(8), 1305-1314.
  • Cacciari, C., & Tabossi, P. (1988). The comprehension of idioms. Journal of Memory and Language, 27(6), 668-683.
  • Chitra, F. (1996). Idioms and idiomaticity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Cieslicka, A. (2006). Literal salience in on-line processing of idiomatic expressions by second language learners. Second Language Research, 22(2), 115–144.
  • Cooper, T. (1999). Processing of idioms by L2 learners of English. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 233-262.
  • Dörnyei, Z. (2009). Individual differences: Interplay of learner characteristics and learning environment. Language Learning, 59, 230-248.
  • Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Erman, B., & Warren, B. (2000). The idiom principle and the open choice principle. Text, 20(1), 29-62.
  • Ezell, H. K., & Goldstein, H. (1991). Comparison of idiom comprehension of normal children and children with mental retardation. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 34(4), 812-819.
  • Fogliata, A., Rizzo, S., Reati, F., Miniussi, C., Oliveri, M., & Papagno, C. (2007). "The Time Course of Idiom Processing". Neuropsychologia, 45(14), 3215-3222.
  • Gibbs Jr, R. W., & Nayak, N. P. (1989). Psycholinguistic studies on the syntactic behavior of idioms. Cognitive Psychology, 21(1), 100-138.
  • Gibbs, R. W. (1980). Spilling the beans on understanding and memory for idioms in conversation. Memory & Cognition, 8(2), 149-156.
  • Gibbs, R. W. (1991). Semantic analyzability in children’s understanding of idioms. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 34(3), 613-620.
  • Gibbs Jr, R. W. (2011). Evaluating conceptual metaphor theory. Discourse Processes, 48(8), 529-562.
  • Gibbs Jr, R. W., Nayak, N. P., & Cutting, C. (1989). How to kick the bucket and not decompose: Analyzability and idiom processing. Journal of memory and language, 28(5), 576-593.
  • Giora, R. (1997). Understanding figurative and literal language: the graded salience hypothesis. Cognitive Linguistics, 8, 183-206.
  • Grant, L. E. (2007). In a manner of speaking: Assessing frequent spoken figurative idioms to assist ESL/EFL teachers. System, 35(2), 169-181.
  • Howarth, P. (1998). Phraseology and second language proficiency. Applied Linguistics, 19, 24–44.
  • Huebner, T. (1995). The effects of overseas language programs. In B. F. Freed (Ed.), Second language acquisition in a study abroad context (pp. 171-194). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
  • Kovács, G. (2016). About the definition, classification, and translation strategies of idioms. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 8(3), pp. 85-101.
  • Langlotz, A. (2006). Idiomatic creativity: A cognitive-linguistic model of idiom-representation and idiom-variation in English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
  • Levorato, M. C., & Cacciari, C. (1995). The effects of different tasks on the comprehension and production of idioms in children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 60(2), 261-283.
  • Levorato, M. C., & Cacciari, C. (1992). Children's comprehension and production of idioms: the role of context and familiarity. Journal of Child Language, 19(2), 415-433.
  • Liontas, J. (2002). Context and idiom understanding in second languages. EUROSLA yearbook, 2(1), 155-185.
  • Liu, D. (2008). Idioms: Description, comprehension, acquisition, and pedagogy. New York: Routledge.
  • Matlock, T., & Heredia, R.R. (2002). Understanding phrasal verbs in monolinguals and bilinguals. In R.R. Heredia & J. Altarriba (Eds.), Bilingual sentence processing (pp. 251–274). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Mitchell, R. L., Vidaki, K., & Lavidor, M. (2016). The role of left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in semantic processing: A transcranial direct current stimulation study. Neuropsychologia, 91, 480-489.
  • Nippold, M. A., & Duthie, J. K. (2003). Mental imagery and idiom comprehension: A comparison of school-age children and adults. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 46(4), 788-799.
  • Nippold, M. A., & Rudzinski, M. (1993). Familiarity and transparency in idiom explanation: A developmental study of children and adolescents. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 36(4), 728-737.
  • Papagno, C., Curti, R., Rizzo, S., Crippa, F., & Colombo, M. R. (2006). "Is the Right Hemisphere Involved in Idiom Comprehension? A Neuropsychological Study". Neuropsychology, 20(5), 598.
  • Papagno, C., & Caporali, A. (2007). Testing idiom comprehension in aphasic patients: The effects of task and idiom type. Brain and Language, 100(2), 208-220.
  • Plonsky, L. (2011). The effectiveness of second language strategy instruction: A meta‐analysis. Language learning, 61(4), 993-1038.
  • Samburskiy, D. (2015). The effect of a dual coding elucidation technique on idiom comprehension in ESL and EFL learners. Doctoral dissertation, State University of New York, Albany.
  • Sasaki, M. (2007). Effects of study‐abroad experiences on EFL writers: A multiple‐data analysis. The Modern Language Journal, 91(4), 602-620.
  • Segalowitz, N., & Freed, B. F. (2004). Context, contact, and cognition in oral fluency acquisition: Learning Spanish in at home and study abroad contexts. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26(2), 173-199.
  • Steinel, M.P., Hulstijn, J.H., Steinel, W. (2007). Second language idiom learning in a paired –associate Paradigm. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29, 449-484.
  • Sternberg, R. J. (2003). Cognitive theory (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
  • Szczepaniak, R., & Lew, R. (2011). The role of imagery in dictionaries of idioms. Applied Linguistics, 32(3), 323-347.
  • Swinney, D. A., & Cutler, A. (1979). The access and processing of idiomatic expressions. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 18(5), 523-534.
  • Titone, D. A., & Connine, C. M. (1999). On the compositional and noncompositional nature of idiomatic expressions. Journal of Pragmatics, 31(12), 1655-1674.
  • Van de Voort, M.E.C., & Vonk, W. (1995). You don’t die immediately when you kick an empty bucket: A processing view on semantic and syntactic characteristics of idioms. In M. Everaert, E. van der Linden, A. Schenk, & R. Schreuder (Eds), Idioms: Structural and psychological perspectives (pp. 283-299). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Vasiljević, Z. (2013). Effects of learner-generated illustrations on comprehension and recall of L2 idioms. ELTA Journals, 1(1), 24-46.
  • Yang, F. G., Fuller, J., Khodaparast, N., & Krawczyk, D. C. (2010). "Figurative Language Processing After Traumatic Brain Injury in Adults: A Preliminary Study". Neuropsychologia, 48(7), 1923-1929.
  • Weinreich, U. (1969). Problems in the analysis of idioms. In J. Puhvel (Ed.), Substance and structure of language (pp. 23-81). Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Wu, H., & Zhang, L. J. (2017). Effects of different language environments on Chinese graduate students' perceptions of English writing and their writing performance. System, 65, 164-173.
  • Zyzik, E. (2011). Second language idiom learning: The effects of lexical knowledge and pedagogical sequencing. Language Teaching Research, 15(4), 413-433.
There are 54 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Burcu Aydın

Publication Date March 25, 2019
Published in Issue Year 2019 Volume: 15 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Aydın, B. (2019). Cognitive processing of second language idiom comprehension: A comparative study. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 15(1), 307-325. https://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.547750
AMA Aydın B. Cognitive processing of second language idiom comprehension: A comparative study. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies. March 2019;15(1):307-325. doi:10.17263/jlls.547750
Chicago Aydın, Burcu. “Cognitive Processing of Second Language Idiom Comprehension: A Comparative Study”. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies 15, no. 1 (March 2019): 307-25. https://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.547750.
EndNote Aydın B (March 1, 2019) Cognitive processing of second language idiom comprehension: A comparative study. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies 15 1 307–325.
IEEE B. Aydın, “Cognitive processing of second language idiom comprehension: A comparative study”, Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 307–325, 2019, doi: 10.17263/jlls.547750.
ISNAD Aydın, Burcu. “Cognitive Processing of Second Language Idiom Comprehension: A Comparative Study”. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies 15/1 (March 2019), 307-325. https://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.547750.
JAMA Aydın B. Cognitive processing of second language idiom comprehension: A comparative study. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies. 2019;15:307–325.
MLA Aydın, Burcu. “Cognitive Processing of Second Language Idiom Comprehension: A Comparative Study”. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, vol. 15, no. 1, 2019, pp. 307-25, doi:10.17263/jlls.547750.
Vancouver Aydın B. Cognitive processing of second language idiom comprehension: A comparative study. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies. 2019;15(1):307-25.