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 study aims to identify the level of cognitive beliefs, as well as to identify the level of self-organized learning strategies among intermediate school students. The study also aims to identify the differences in the level of self-organized learning strategies among intermediate school students in term of gender, branch (scientific, literary). In order to achieve the research objectives, the researcher designed a scale to measure the cognitive beliefs. As for the scale of self-organized learning strategies, the researcher adopted a scale of (Pintrich et al. 1991), which was translated by (Izzat Abdelhamid, 1999) , For self-organized learning strategies, the sample consisted of (400) students from the research population, whic
... Show MoreThe current research aims to find out ( the effectiveness of the structural model of learning in the acquisition of geographical concepts at the first grade average students ) , and achieving the goals of research has been formulating the null hypothesis of the following :
" There is no difference statistically significant when Mistoi (0.5 ) between the mean scores of the collection of students in the experimental group that is studying the general geographical principles " Bonmozj constructivist learning " and the mean scores of the control group , which is considering the same article ," the traditional way " to acquire concepts.
The researcher adopted th
... Show MoreThe present analysis targets to recognize the influence of the separate teaching approach on the accomplishment of grammar for scholars of the College of Islamic Sciences. The target of attaining this target led the investigations developing the subsequent null theories: 1. No statistically substantial variance is happened at the consequence level of 0.05 between the mean scores of the scholars in the investigational category who learnt consistent with the separate learning approach and the mean scores of the scholars in the control category who learnt in the conventional method in the accomplishment test. 2. No statistically substantial variance has been observed at the consequence level of 0.05 in the mean differences between the
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The study included adding antimony oxide to mixtures of coating metal surfaces (Enameling), after it was selected ceramic materials used in the coating metal pieces of the type of steel and cast iron in two layers. The first is called a ground coat and the second is a cover coat.
Ceramic materials layer for ground coat have been melted down in
platinum crucible at a temperature of 1200oC to prepare the glass
mixture (Frit). It was coated on metals at a temperature of 780oC for
two minutes, while the second layer was prepared glass mixture
(Frit) at a temperature of 1200oC, but was coated at a temperature of
760oC for two minutes.
Underwent tests crystalline state of powders (Frits) and enameled samples using X-ray di
Electronic banking services appeared as a result of laying the foundations for the application of electronic automation in the banking field, and despite the clear expansion in its adoption and implementation as an inevitable necessity imposed by international and national developments, its application was not ideal according to the level that was expected to occur after the abandonment of traditional banking services, which produced some risks Which is evident in the absence of a legal system, whether at the level of proving and authoritative electronic banking services such as electronic signature, Or at the level of protecting the confidentiality of these services and ensuring that they are not exp
... Show MoreThe serum protein test includes measurement of the level of total protein(albumin, globulin). Fetuin-A is a blood protein made in liver. It can inhibit insulin receptor, enhance insulin sensitivity and make the individuals more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, then disorder in lipid profile (Total cholesterol(TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), Triglyceride(TG) and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-c) . To evaluate Fetuin-A, total protein, albumin, globulin, HbAlc and lipid profile in 200 adult and elderly Iraqi patients with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus were taken and compare them with 200 subjects as a healthy control. The laboratory analysis(for patients and
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n this work, the adsorption of crystal violet dye from aqueous solution on charcoal and rice husk has been investigated, where the impact of variable factors (contact time; the dosage of adsorbent, pH, temperature, and ionic strength) have been studied. It has been found that charcoal and rice husk have an appropriate adsorption limit with regards to the expulsion of crystal violet dye from fluid arrangements. The harmony adsorption is for all intents and purposes accomplished in 45 min for charcoal and 60 min for rice husk. The amount of crystal violet dye adsorbed (0.4 g of charcoal and 0.5 g of rice husk) increased with an increasing pH and the value of 11 is the best. The effect of temperature on the adsorption process was studied
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In this work, the adsorption of crystal violet dye from aqueous solution on charcoal and rice husk has been investigated, where the impact of variable factors (contact time; the dosage of adsorbent, pH, temperature, and ionic strength) have been studied. It has been found that charcoal and rice husk have an appropriate adsorption limit with regards to the expulsion of crystal violet dye from fluid arrangements. The harmony adsorption is for all intents and purposes accomplished in 45 min for charcoal and 60 min for rice husk. The amount of crystal violet dye adsorbed (0.4 g of charcoal and 0.5 g of rice husk) increased with an increasing pH and the value of 11 is the best
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