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.
China is the first Asian country in the Far East that has been invaded by a foreign power, after following a policy of isolation against the outside world. Although Britain was the first foreign power that penetrated China and had many concessions within its lands, it was not the only one that directed its interests toward china. Russia was one of the powers which were interested in China, considering the special relationships that related together the neighboring countries, like the problematic boundaries. However, after World War II, the Soviet Union tries to extend its influence and power over Asia, and China was the first country that fell under the campaign on the Soviet Union. In spite of the fact that the political role of the Uni
... Show MoreThis paper describes a practical study on the impact of learning's partners, Bluetooth Broadcasting system, interactive board, Real – time response system, notepad, free internet access, computer based examination, and interaction classroom, etc, had on undergraduate student performance, achievement and involving with lectures. The goal of this study is to test the hypothesis that the use of such learning techniques, tools, and strategies to improve student learning especially among the poorest performing students. Also, it gives some kind of practical comparison between the traditional way and interactive way of learning in terms of lectures time, number of tests, types of tests, student's scores, and student's involving with lectures
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This study discusses risk management strategies caused by pandemic-related (Covid-19) suspensions in thirty-six engineering projects of different types and sizes selected from countries in the middle east and especially Iraq. The primary data collection method was a survey and questionnaire completed by selected project crew and laborers. Data were processed using Microsoft Excel to construct models to help decision-makers find solutions to the scheduling problems that may be expected to occur during a pandemic. A theoretical and practical concept for project risk management that addresses a range of global and local issues that affect schedule and cost is presented and results indicate that the most significant delays are due to a
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This study discusses risk management strategies caused by pandemic-related (Covid-19) suspensions in thirty-six engineering projects of different types and sizes selected from countries in the middle east and especially Iraq. The primary data collection method was a survey and questionnaire completed by selected project crew and laborers. Data were processed using Microsoft Excel to construct models to help decision-makers find solutions to the scheduling problems that may be expected to occur during a pandemic. A theoretical and practical concept for project risk management that addresses a range of global and local issues that affect schedule and cost is presented and results indicate that the most significant delays are due to a
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The present study discusses the problem based learning in Iraqi classroom. This method aims to involve all learners in collaborative activities and it is learner-centered method. To fulfill the aims and verify the hypothesis which reads as follow” It is hypothesized that there is no statistically significant differences between the achievements of Experimental group and control group”. Thirty learners are selected to be the sample of present study.Mann-Whitney Test for two independent samples is used to analysis the results. The analysis shows that experimental group’s members who are taught according to problem based learning gets higher scores than the control group’s members who are taught according to traditional method. This
... Show MoreThe present study discusses the problem based learning in Iraqi classroom. This method aims to involve all learners in collaborative activities and it is learner-centered method. To fulfill the aims and verify the hypothesis which reads as follow” It is hypothesized that there is no statistically significant differences between the achievements of Experimental group and control group”. Thirty learners are selected to be the sample of present study.Mann-Whitney Test for two independent samples is used to analysis the results. The analysis shows that experimental group’s members who are taught according to problem based learning gets higher scores than the control group’s members who are taught according to traditional method. This
... Show MoreLanguage Teaching & Leaning Problems at the Iraqi university level: Image & Reality
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Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, teach the pen, taught the human what he didn't know, Ihmad - Almighty - and thank him, and repent to him and ask forgiveness, which is the most forgiving, and bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone has no partner, gives and prevents, And I bear witness that Muhammad is a slave to Allah and his Messenger, who called for guidance and good speech and spoke, peace be upon him and his family and companions, and those who followed them until the Day of Judgment.