An Investigation on the Comprehension of English Idioms Among Moi Primary School Children in Nairobi

Ngoge Tabley Amos, Imelda Hermilinda Abas

Abstract


The competence in identifying and comprehending the meaning of idiomatic expressions developed at an early age. However, second language learners reach the comprehension skill differently within the age and at pace. There are many unresolved questions regarding the age which children start to comprehend L2 idioms. The objective of this study was to investigate the age at which children in Moi primary school in Nairobi were able to identify and comprehend the meaning of English idioms. The 60 participants were selected using purposive sampling. The children were divided into three age groups: 5-8 years old, 9-12 years old, and 13-16 years old. The participants were balanced in gender and level of formal education. They were asked to identify the correct non-literal meaning of the 20 idioms presented. It was reported that the group with an age range from 5-8 years old scored the lowest among the other.The findings showed that as early as five years of old (preschool age), children begin to understand some kinds of idiomatic expressions and that such ability slowly develops throughout childhood. At the age of 9, children mainly interpreted idioms literally. By the age of 12, they started to understand the non-literal meanings of idiomatic expressions correctly and continued to expand until the age of 16. It implied that age is a factor in the comprehension of idioms among children. Therefore, exposure to language input is vital in the process of early acquisition. The study provides pedagogical observation on early language acquisition. This study also assists the language teachers and language practitioners and material developers in decision making that lead to the development of a better curriculum.

Keywords


Second Language Learners, Idioms Comprehension, Language Acquisition, Children, Cloze Test

Full Text:

PDF

References


Boers, F., Demecheleer, M., & Eyckmans, J. (2004). Etymological elaboration as a strategy for learning idioms. In Paul Bogaards & Batia Laufer, Vocabulary in a second language: Selection, acquisition and testing, 53-78. Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V, (Chapter 4).

Bolinger, D., & Bolinger, D. L. M. (1989). Intonation and its uses: Melody in grammar and discourse. Stanford university press.

Davies, M., Kalliovalkama, A., Lehtonen, E., Nikkanen, L., Sutela, T., Säteri, L., & Vuorinen, P. (2002a). In touch, course 2: Been there, done that. Porvoo Helsinki: WSOY.

Davies, M., Kalliovalkama, A., Lehtonen, E., Nikkanen, L., Sutela, T., Säteri, L., & Vuorinen, P. (2002b). In Touch. Course 3: Get a life!. Porvoo Helsinki: WSOY.

Davies, M., Kalliovalkama, A., Lehtonen, E., Nikkanen, L., Sutela, T., Säteri, L., & Vuorinen, P. (2002c). In touch, course 4: A world of difference. Porvoo Helsinki: WSOY.

Dixon, R.J. (1994). Essential Idioms in English. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.

Ellis, N. (1997). Vocabulary acquisition: Word structure, collocation, word-class, and meaning. In N. Schmitt, and M.McCarthy. (Eds.): Vocabulary, description acquisition and pedagogy, 122-139. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Feinberg, F. M., Kinnear, T., & Taylor, J. R. (2012). Modern marketing research: Concepts, methods, and cases. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Gass, S. M. &Selinker, L. (2001). Second language acquisition: An introductory course (2ndEdt.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Gibbs, R. W. (1987). Linguistic factors in children’s understanding of idioms. Journal of Child Language, 14(3), 569-586. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900010291

Gibbs, R. W. (1991). Semantic analyzability in children’s understanding of idioms. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 34. 613-620.

Gibbs, R. W. (1995). Idiomaticity and human cognition. In M. Everaert, E. van der Linden, A. Schenk and R. Schreuder (Eds.) Idioms: Structural and psychological perspectives, 97- 116. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Glucksberg, S. (2001). Understanding figurative language: From metaphor to idioms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Johnson, R. & Christensen, Larry. (2014). Educational Research Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches (5th Ed.). US: Sage Publications.

Kothari, C. (2004). Research methodology: Methods and techniques (2ndEdt.). New Delhi, India: New Age International Publishers.

Kövecses, Z., & Szabco, P. (1996). Idioms: A view from cognitive semantics. Applied Linguistics, 17(3), 326-355. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/17.3.326

Kurnia, G. R.( 2016). The students’ ability of using idiomatic expression in speaking skills. [Bachelor’s Thesis, University of SyarifHidayatullah Jakarta]. Department of English Education Faculty of Tarbiyah, University of SyarifHidayatullah Jakarta.

Larson, M. (1984). Meaning-based translation: A guide to cross language equivalence. New York: University Press of America.

Le Sourn-Bissaoui, S., Caillies, S., Bernard, S., Deleau, M., & Brulé, L. (2012). Children’s understanding of ambiguous idioms and conversational perspective-taking. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 112(4), 437-451.

Levorato, M. C. & Cacciari, C. (1992). Contextual variation, familiarity, academic literacy and rural adolescents’ idiom knowledge. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Levorato, M. C., & Cacciari, C. (2002). The creation of new figurative expressions: psycholinguistic evidence in Italian children, adolescents and adults. Journal of Child Language, 29(1), 127-150.

Levorato, M. C., Nesi, B., & Cacciari, C. (2004). Reading comprehension and comprehension of idiomatic expressions: a developmental study. Brain and Language, 91, 303-314.

Littlemore, J., & Low P. (2006). Metaphoric competence in the first and second language: Similarities and differences. In M.Pütz and L. Sicola (Eds.), Cognitive processing in second language acquisition: Inside the learner's mind. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.

Loizou, E. (2006). Young children’s explanation of pictorial humor. Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(6), 425-431.

Lundblom, E. E., & Woods, J. J. (2012). Working in the classroom: Improving idiom comprehension through classwide peer tutoring. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 33(4), 202-219.

McGhee, P. E. (1971). Cognitive development and children's comprehension of humor. Child Development, 123-138.

Moon, R. (1995). Collins COBUILD dictionary of idioms. London and Glasgow: HarperCollins.

Nippold, M. A. (2000). Language development during the adolescent years: Aspects of pragmatics, syntax, and semantics. Topics in language disorders, 20(2), 15-28.

Nippold, M. A. (2006). “Language development in school-age children, adolescents and adults,” in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (Vol. 6), 2nd Edn. ed K. Brown (Oxford, UK: Elsevier Publishing), 368–372.

Nippold, M. A., & Rudzinski, M. (1993). Familiarity and transparency in idiom explanation: A developmental study of children and adolescents. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 36(4), 728–737. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.3604.728

Nippold, M. A., & Taylor, C. L. (1995). Idiom understanding in youth: Further examination of familiarity and transparency. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 38(2), 426-433. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.3802.426

Nunan, D. (2003). Practical English language teaching. New York: McGraw Hill.

Orodho, A., J., &Kombo, D., K. (2002). Research methods. Nairobi, Kenya: Institute of Open Learning, Kenyatta University.

Perner, J., & Wimmer, H. (1985). “John thinks that Mary thinks that…” attribution of second-order beliefs by 5-to 10-year-old children. Journal of experimental child psychology, 39(3), 437-471.

Rizq, W., M. (2015). Teaching English idioms to L2 learners: ESL teachers’ perspective. [M.A. Thesis]. St. Cloud State University. Culminating Projects in English. 19. https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/engl_etds/19

Roberts, R. M., & Kreuz, R. J. (1994). Why do people use figurative language? Psychological Science, 5(3), 159-163. https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1467-9280.1994.tb00653.x

Schultz, T. R., & Horibe, F. (1974). Development of the appreciation of verbal jokes. Developmental Psychology, 10(1), 13.

Tomasello, M. (1992). First verbs: A case study of early grammatical development. Cambridge University Press.

Tomasello, M. (2003). On the different origins of symbols and grammar. Studies in the Evolution of Language, 3, 94-110.

Vulchanova, M., Vulchanov, V., & Stankova, M. (2011). Idiom comprehension in the first language: a developmental study. Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics, (8), 206-234.

Wood, D. (2002). Formulaic language in acquisition and production: Implications for teaching. TESL Canada Journal, 20(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v20i1.935




DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.12n.4.p.1

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2010-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

Advances in Language and Literary Studies

You may require to add the 'aiac.org.au' domain to your e-mail 'safe list’ If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox'. Otherwise, you may check your 'Spam mail' or 'junk mail' folders.