Idioms are a very important part of the English language: you are told that if you want to go far (succeed) you should pull your socks up (make a serious effort to improve your behaviour, the quality of your work, etc.) and use your grey matter (brain).1 Learning and translating idioms have always been very difficult for foreign language learners. The present paper explores some of the reasons why English idiomatic expressions are difficult to learn and translate. It is not the aim of this paper to attempt a comprehensive survey of the vast amount of material that has appeared on idioms in Adams and Kuder (1984), Alexander (1984), Dixon (1983), Kirkpatrick (2001), Langlotz (2006), McCarthy and O'Dell (2002), and Wray (2002), among others. The paper concentrates on idioms as a learning-translation problem; it makes no claim to be comprehensive or academically rigorous. Leech (1989) defines an idiom as follows: “An idiom is a group of two or more words which we have to treat as a unit in learning a language. We cannot arrive at the meaning of the idiom just by adding together the meanings of the words inside it. E.g.John and Mary usedto be hardup (='They had very little money'.)”(P.186) To be more exact, an idiom is a sequence of words which is semantically and syntactically restricted, so that they function as a single unit. From a semantic point of view, the meanings of the individual words cannot be summed to produce the meanings of the idiomatic expression as a whole. Thus, fly off the handle, which means lose one's temper, cannot be understood in terms of the meanings of fly, off, or handle. The idiom phrase hot air, which means empty or boastful talk, is neither hot nor air; with hot air we are dealing with a set phrase where the meaning cannot be suggested on the basis of the two constituent words. The idiomatic meaning of spill the beans in So who spilt the beans (=told the secret) about her affair with David? has nothing to do with beans or with spilling in its literal sense. The foreign-language learner is left trying to figure out where and how the beans were spilt. From a syntactic viewpoint, the constituent parts of an idiom often do not permit the usual variability they display in other contexts. The point to be emphasized here is this: most idioms do not lend themselves easily to manipulation by speakers and writers; they are invariable and must be learned as wholes, but concord ofnumber, person and gender in the idiom phrase is still necessary, i.e. the verbs must be put into the correct form, and pronouns must agree with their antecedents: I don't give a hoot for her opinion! 2 • She doesn't give a hoot for my opinion! etc.)║He won, but only by the skin of his teeth2• She won, but only by the skin of her teeth• Iwon, but only by the skin ofmy teeth,I had to run for the train, and caught it by the skin of myteeth, etc.║He kept pullingmy arm, throwing me off my balance 2 • She kept pulling his arm, throwing him off his balance • We kept pullingher arm, throwingher offher balance, etc.2 The present paper is divided into five parts, as follows: Part I: An Overview; PART II: Learner’s Difficulties with Idioms; PART III: Some Pedagogical recommendations and Suggestions about Idioms; Part IV: Activities to Practice Idiomatic Expressions; Part V: Summary and Conclusion.
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Background: One of the major problems in endodontics is micro-leakage of root canal fillings which might contribute to the failure of endodontic treatment. To avoid this problem, a variety of sealers have been tested. The objective of this, in vitro, study was to evaluate the shear bond strength of four resin based sealers (AH plus, silver free AH26, RealSeal SE and Perma Evolution permanent root canal filling material) to dentin. Materials and Methods: Forty non-carious extracted lower premolars were used. The 2mm of the occlusal surfaces of teeth were sectioned, to expose the dentin surface. The exposed dentin surfaces of teeth were washed with 5ml of 2.5% NaOCl solution followed by 5ml of 17 % EDTA then rinsed by deionized water to remov
... Show MoreViolence is one of the most serious threats facing societies because it affects their internal structure and threatens the security and stability of society. It is classified as one of the types of security crises that are emerging in Arab and Islamic societies in particular, and in most countries of the world in general.
The threat of this crisis is increasing. Terrorism is considered as one of the most serious aspects of that all the countries of the world, currently, suffer from. The terrorism has begun to penetrate deep into society in one way or another starting from the Second World War, which led to the emergence of leftist movements in Western Europe, Japan, France, Italy and other countries as a result of emerging ideas
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Many Iraqi students are reluctant to actively participate in the English
language classroom. This reluctance is attributed to a number of factors, above which
is students' lack of thinking skills necessary to express their points of view. This
eventually results in passive learning, a real problem in English language learning in
Iraq.
A need for educational reforms and innovations seems essential. These involve
developing relevant teaching materials, adopting learner-centered approach,
promoting learner autonomy, and enhancing critical thinking.
This study is hoped to assist teachers of English to initiate change and foster
the expansion of thinking, and adopt various new strategies to increase classroom
par
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Many Iraqi students are reluctant to actively participate in the English
language classroom. This reluctance is attributed to a number of factors, above which
is students' lack of thinking skills necessary to express their points of view. This
eventually results in passive learning, a real problem in English language learning in
Iraq.
A need for educational reforms and innovations seems essential. These involve
developing relevant teaching materials, adopting learner-centered approach,
promoting learner autonomy, and enhancing critical thinking.
This study is hoped to assist teachers of English to initiate change and foster
the expansion of thinking, and adopt various new strategies to increase classroom
par
The research aims to determine the strength of the relationship between time management and work pressure and administrative leadership, where he was taken a sample of (47) of the administrative leadership at the Higher Institute of security and administrative development in the Ministry of Interior was used questionnaire as a key tool in collecting data and information and analyzed the answers to the sample surveyed by using Statistical program (spss) in the arithmetic mean of the calculation and test (t) and the correlation coefficient, the research found the most important results: the existence of significant moral positive relationship between both time management and work pressure and administrative leadership, the leadership of th
... Show MoreThe purpose of the study is to identify the teaching techniques that mathematics' teachers use due to the Brain-based learning theory. The sample is composed of (90) teacher: (50) male, (40) female. The results have shown no significant differences between male and female responses' mean. Additionally, through the observation of author, he found a lack of using Brain-based learning techniques. Thus, the researcher recommend that it is necessary to involve teachers in remedial courses to enhance their ability to create a classroom that raise up brain-based learning skills.
Iraq has seen many changes at the social, economic and political levels. This led to cause many shifts in the structure of its society and imposed great challenges reflected in the behavior and awareness of that society in general and youth in particular.
Those changes made the Iraqi society undergoing the transformation of value and culture aspects formed a political awareness that caused cultural and political diversity within the family and society. A greater openness to the outside world caused by the communication revolution, as the world has witnessed during the past two decades, has helped in making that change. Iraq had its share of media and political openness, which were included after the US occupation in 2003. As a re
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