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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The aim of this research to study.
The dimensions of organizational learning have been defined(learning dynamics, individuals empowerment, knowledge management and technology application) as well as the dimensions of learning organization have been defined (culture values, knowledge transfer, communication and employee characteristics), Asset completion questionnaire was used to collect data of this research from a purposely sample represent forty employees who works in Iraqi Planning Ministry at different positions. The research divided to four parts :
The first to the research methodology, the second to the theoretical review o
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a Cognitive- Behavioral Training Program in reducing Problems Solving among a sample of education university College Students, the study sample consisted of (50) students were randomly assigned to two groups: experimental, and control; (25) students per group, the results of (ANOVA) revealed that there were significant differences at (p < 0.05) between experimental and control group in Problems Solving level, while there were significant differences between both groups in achievement. The researchers recommended further studies on the other variables which after training students on the method of solving problems and techniques to reduce stress.<
... Show MoreIt is known that life is as series of variety of difficult problems that individual looks
forward to overcome so as to achieve adaptation and to reach the desired aims .The transition
of the students from the school stage to the stage of the university is actually regarded a
dramatic change where students face when they enter university life that differs from what
they lived in secondary school.
The executive functions are considered the main element that participate in solving the
problems of high orders , because it involves the mental abilities that assist individual to
think and initiative as well as solving problems .
These functions include operational planning and the activated memory and inhibition of
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This study is concerned with organizational learning and its impact on total quality management in the education sector. Organizational learning is a process that provides the educational sector with the ability to adapt and respond rapidly to developments and changes in a better way according to its main dimensions (Mental Models, Personal Mastery, Team Learning, Shared Vision, System Thinking) by adopting the philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM) in accordance with its basic dimensions (leadership, customer satisfaction, participation of workers, continuous improvement, training and education). The main purpose of this study is to know (the impact of the Senge model of organizational learni
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This study is concerned with organizational learning and its impact on total quality management in the education sector. Organizational learning is a process that provides the educational sector with the ability to adapt and respond rapidly to developments and changes in a better way according to its main dimensions (Mental Models, Personal Mastery, Team Learning, Shared Vision, System Thinking) by adopting the philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM) in accordance with its basic dimensions (leadership, customer satisfaction, participation of workers, continuous improvement, training and education). The main purpose of this study is to know (the impact of the Senge model of organizational learni
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