English Idioms Errors Made by Jordanian EFL Undergraduate Students
Ghada Abdelmajid Alkarazoun
Abstract
This study investigated English idioms errors made by Jordanian EFL undergraduate students. The study also
aimed to examine the areas of idioms where EFL learners scored the highest as well as the lowest and tackle
their overall achievement in identifying meanings of idioms. The data of the study was collected through a test
composed of (20) multiple choice items covering various areas of idiomatic expressions. The test was
administered to a randomly selected sample consisting of (60) fourth-year EFL students (50 females, 10 males)
in the Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Arts (FESA) in
UNRWA University in Amman, Jordan. Results revealed that the EFL students got the highest scores in nouns
related to key words with idiomatic uses, idioms with noun phrases, adjectives and nouns, idioms with
keywords from special categories including food, and idioms with a comparison form. However, they got the
lowest scores in idioms of pairs of nouns, adjectives and adverbs, and idioms with keywords from special
categories including animals and body parts. Results also showed that that there are statistically significant
differences in the EFL students’ achievement on all the domains of the test. However, the EFL students were of
a low achievement in figuring out meanings of idioms. Correct answers were (490) representing (40.7%) of the
total number of the answers. In light of these results, the researcher proposes a number of pedagogical
recommendations related to teaching idioms and future research.
Full Text: PDF