PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI - core.ac.uk · Contoh-contoh idiom Bahasa Inggris tersebut meliputi kosa kata idiom beserta artinya, mengisi pertanyaan rumpang, dialog dan

BENEFITS OF LEARNING ENGLISH IDIOMS FOR ENGLISH

EDUCATION STUDENTS

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN FINAL PAPER

Presented as a Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Antonius Damas Putra Gautama

Student Number: 091214092

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAMDEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATIONFACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITYYOGYAKARTA

2014

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJIPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

i

BENEFITS OF LEARNING ENGLISH IDIOMS FOR ENGLISH

EDUCATION STUDENTS

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN FINAL PAPER

Presented as a Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By


Student Number: 091214092

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAMDEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATIONFACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITYYOGYAKARTA

2014






vi

“BAD LUCK TODAY,

FORTUNE TOMORROW”

Dedicated to:

My Lord Jesus Christ

My family

Grandma

&

“Three idiots”


vii

ABSTRACT

Gautama, Antonius Damas Putra. (2014). Benefits of Learning English Idioms

for English Education Students.Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study

Program, Department of Language Arts and Education, Faculty of Teachers

Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.

English idioms become part of creating natural and informal English

communication. In reality, idioms are frequently used by native speakers as daily

speech. The previous studies show that the learners will acquire better vocabulary

and communicative skill after learning idioms. It shows that learning idioms has

considerable benefits especially for English Language Education students who

want to be more advanced in English. This research aims to find out the benefits

of learning English idioms for English Language Education students.

Thus, the research problem is formulated as follows; What are the benefits

of learning English idioms for English Language Education students? The

researcher explored the answers to the research question using two kinds of major

theories on vocabulary learning and lexical chunks. Based on these two theories,

the researcher answered the research question by giving examples of essential

English idioms adapted from supporting sources.

The examples of English idioms in this study cover vocabulary on idioms

provided with the meaning, filling in the blanks questions, dialogues and stories

containing idioms as well as the authentic examples of idioms which appeared in

newspaper headlines like The New Yorker, Burton Mail and one of BBC articles.

The researcher found three benefits of learning English idioms. Firstly, the

learners could escalate vocabulary knowledge. Secondly, the learners could

achieve fluency in speaking English which means that they will be able to build

expressions which sound more natural and informal. As the result, they will be

more advanced in English. Besides, the learners would be able to describe

something non-literally using idioms. Thirdly, the English Language Education

students could avoid misinterpretation when communicating with native speakers

who use idioms on a daily basis. This benefit also helps the learners to use idioms

which are appropriate according to the topic or theme of conversation being

discussed. This study also proposed recommendations for future researchers in

order to investigate the difficulties in learning idioms as well as for lecturers of

English Language Education Study Program in order to participate in explicit

teaching of idioms.

Keywords: English idioms, benefits, English Language Education Students


viii

ABSTRAK

Gautama, Antonius Damas Putra. (2014). Benefits of Learning English Idioms

for English Education Students.Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study

Program, Department of Language Arts and Education, Faculty of Teachers

Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.

Idiom Bahasa Inggris menjadi bagian untuk menciptakan komunikasi

Bahasa Inggris yang informal dan alami. Pada kenyataannya, idiom sering

digunakan oleh penutur asli sebagai bahasa sehari-hari. Penelitian sebelumnya

menunjukkan bahwa pelajar akan akan mencapai kemampuan kosa kata dan

komunikasi yang lebih baik setelah mempelajari idiom. Hal ini menunjukkan

bahwa mempelajari idiom memiliki keuntungan besar terutama bagi mahasiswa

Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris yang ingin lebih maju dalam Bahasa Inggris.

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan keuntungan belajar idiom Bahasa

Inggris bagi mahasiswa Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris.

Jadi, masalah penelitian dirumuskan sebagai berikut; Apa keuntungan

belajar idiom bahasa Inggris bagi mahasiswa Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris?

Peneliti menyelidiki jawaban dari pertanyaan ini menggunakan dua teori pokok

tentang vocabulary learning dan lexical chunks. Berdasarkan kedua teori ini,

peneliti menjawab pertanyaan penelitian dengan memberikan contoh idiom

bahasa Inggris yang penting dari sumber-sumber yang mendukung.

Contoh-contoh idiom Bahasa Inggris tersebut meliputi kosa kata idiom

beserta artinya, mengisi pertanyaan rumpang, dialog dan cerita mengandung

idiom, dan juga contoh tentang idiom yang muncul di pokok berita surat kabar

seperti The New Yorker, Burton Mail, dan salah satu artikel BBC.

Peneliti menemukan tiga keuntungan dari mempelajari idiom bahasa

Inggris. Pertama, pelajar dapat meningkatkan pengetahuan kosa kata. Kedua,

pelajar dapat mencapai kelancaran dalam berbicara Bahasa Inggris yang berarti

bahwa mereka akan mampu membuat ungkapan yang terdengar lebih alami dan

informal. Sebagai hasilnya, mereka akan lebih maju dalam bahasa Inggris. Di

samping itu, pelajar mampu menggambarkan sesuatu secara non-harafiah

menggunakan idiom. Ketiga, mahasiswa Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris dapat

menghindari salah penafsiran saat berkomunikasi dengan penutur asing yang

menggunakan idiom setiap hari. Keuntungan ini juga membantu pelajar untuk

menggunakan idiom yang sesuai menurut topik atau tema percakapan yang

sedang dibicarakan. Peneliti juga mengemukakan anjuran bagi peneliti di masa

mendatang supaya menyelidiki kesulitan-kesulitan mempelajari idiom dan juga

bagi dosen Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris agar berpartisipasi dalam pengajaran

yang gamblang mengenai idiom.

Kata kunci: English idioms, benefits, English Language Education Students


ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank My Lord, Jesus Christ the

greatest Father of all Fathers to whom the spirit, hope, mercy, life, and ease be

upon me during the process of studying in Sanata Dharma University. The period

of being a student at Sanata Dharma University has come to an end along with the

fulfilment of this final paper. The greatest gratitude is for Him that in each of my

sincere prayers, God always gives me a new faith and blesses my efforts.

The fulfilment of this final paper cannot be separated with people granted

by God to me so that I can finish this final paper. Thus, this study cannot be

accomplished without the roles of lecturers of English Language Education Study

Program. Particularly, I would like to give my best gratitude to my academic

lecturer, C. Sih Prabandari, S.Pd., M.Hum., who has guided me in this study,

and also my sponsor, Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D., who has contributed his

time and energy to assist me in finishing this final paper. I am really grateful for

their support and care.

Furthermore, I do not forget to thank all the lecturers of the English

Language Education Study Program who have sincerely taught me all courses in

this study program and gave me inspiration in accomplishing this final paper. I

also give my gratitude to Laurentia Sumarni, S.Pd., M.Hum., and Caecilia

Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd., for willing to share their ideas and information for me.

I also appreciate and thank all of the staffs of Sanata Dharma University for

giving me their best service as well as the ELESP (English Language Education


x

Study Program) staffs who dedicate themselves in giving service and information

to English Education Students.

As the researcher of this final paper, I deeply thank my family especially

my parents who always support me in any condition, care about me, give me

affection, pray for me and give financial support. They are important figures in

my life. I will also not forget my comrades; Andreas Dwi Septiaji Pamungkas,

Agustinus Prastowo Pandu, and Melynna Trianingsih. We are friends who

have shared many things together. I thank them for the support, help, care, jokes,

and happiness in hard times. I also remember my friend from Papua, Elias Duyala

who was willing to allow me to live in his boarding house each Sunday during the

SPD (Service Program Design) time.

Last but not least, this gratitude is also for my PPL (Program

Pengalaman Lapangan) comrades; Tita, Gita, Aurel, Lusi, Ambulans, Yesi,

Indah, Novita, Sandy, Hendra, Ari, Rita, Adven as well as all of ELEGY play

performance members and SPD members. For PPL comrades, ELEGY and SPD

members, I would like to thank them for their support, help, and experiences we

had together. At the end, this final paper is dedicated for people I could not

mention here. Their help, support, and care are valuable.



xi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE........................................................................................................... i

APPOVAL PAGES................................................................................................ ii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY...................................................... iv

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI........................................................ v

ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................... vii

ABSTRAK............................................................................................................. viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................... ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS....................................................................................... xi

LIST OF APPENDICES....................................................................................... xii

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study........................................................... 1

B. Research Method....................................................................... 5

CHAPTER II. DISCUSSION

A. Review of Related Literature.................................................... 7

B. Findings................................................................................... 20

CHAPTER III CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

A. Conclusions............................................................................ 38

B. Recommendations.................................................................. 40

REFERENCES...................................................................................................... 41

APPENDICES....................................................................................................... 45


xii

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Tables of Idioms Classification ....................................................... 46

Appendix 2: BBC article, January 1, 2014 ........................................................... 56

Appendix 3: Burton Mail, June 10, 2008 ............................................................. 58

Appendix 4: The New Yorker, July 20, 2011 ...................................................... 60


xiii

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 2.1 The Types of Idioms............................................................................ 21

Table 2.2 Vocabulary Building with the Meaning............................................... 25


1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The researcher presents two sections in this chapter. First, the background

of study and second, research method used by the researcher. The background of

study focuses on English idioms as daily speech and its significance of using

idioms in daily speech. The research method presents how the researcher gathered

and processed the information.

A. Background of the Study

It is known that the three notions of language existence (Aitchison, 2003)

have resulted the variety in language as found in English language like idioms for

example. Caro (2009) contends that English will lose much variety without idioms

especially in writing and speaking context. On the other hand, idioms are part of

communication that can help to improve effective and interactive social

interaction (Caro, 2009, p.1). Dixon (1971) asserts that “most English speakers

use idioms for they are accepted as part of simple, everyday speech and play a

great role in building what is called by real speech, without having adequate

vocabulary in idioms such as to get along, to put out, to call for, etc, the speech

will remain unnatural and awkward (p. 1). According to oxforddictionaries.com,

idiom is defined as a group of words with established usage, has a fixed order and

meaning which cannot be deduced from the individual words.

Idioms are often used by foreign students as daily speech and they find it

easy to use them (Dixon, 1971). Idioms can be a social tool to communicate


2

(Casas & Campoy, 1995) and thus they become the media for second language

learners to understand the different social context of idioms each of which has

different use in daily speech. In addition, the better comprehension on idioms is

likely to improve the communicative skill in non-formal context (Caro, 2009) and

acquire better comprehension on imaginative description (Leah, n.d.). A small

scale project conducted by Caro (2009) also unveiled the use of idioms in English

learning course contributed advantages for students and teachers in terms of

communicative skill and vocabulary. According to oxforddictionaries.com, the

term ‘benefit' is an advantage gained from something. While, it shows that

learning idioms may give considerable impacts or benefits especially for Asian

learners in several fields.

In the case of idiom learning among ESL (English as Second Language)

students, they may have different understanding in using idioms appropriately and

they tend to avoid using idioms because of the different cultures. This case is

prevalent among ESL (English as Second Language) students. However, it should

not be taken for granted as most sources such as mass media; textbooks are rich of

idiomatic expressions (Wu, 2008). Further responses from Cooper (1999) and

Buchwald (2000) through previous studies which indicated that “English idioms

may be may be difficult for native speakers, and will be more problematic for ESL

students” (as cited in Wu, 2008, p. 1). Wu (2008) finds that there are many

effective activities for improving English idioms competency through teaching

idioms in context with visuals, dialogue writing, group talk, and collaborative

activities.


3

Furthermore, the clearest difficulties in understanding English idioms are

noticed when students find a word that has no correlation with other words. For

example, to pull someone’s leg. Literally, this idiom seems simple which at first

means that a person pulls another person’s leg. Moreover, this idiom has another

literal meaning which means to “tease someone”. That is why in this matter, most

ESL (English as Second Language) students misunderstand how to use certain

idiomatic expressions, fixed sequences of words (phrases or sentences), with a

fixed meaning that is not composed of the literal meaning of the individual words

(Cipollone et al., 1998). Many ESL (English as Second Language) students do not

know the literal meaning of idioms and then misuse them in wrong context.

Some idiomatic expressions are not transparent and make most ESL

(English as Second Language) students cannot predict the meaning of an

idiomatic expression. The whole meaning of transparent idioms has a very

different meaning with the constituent parts. Kicked the bucket for example cannot

be derived from the meaning of kick and bucket. In literal sense, kicked the bucket

means “to die” (Hsu, n.d). Furthermore, Irujo (1986a) points out that “the non-

literalness property would result in difficulties for ESL learners in learning

idioms. In addition, idioms are formed by cultural background as well as

commonly shared experience; learning idioms in fact is an essential but complex

task for ESL students who lack of cultural references” (as cited in Hsu, n.d, p. 32).

Nonetheless, the complex task as known in idiom learning should not be a

burden because Tran (2013) posits English idioms as interesting subtopic to learn

among Asian learners in learning foreign language. On the other hand, this can be


4

a challenge for them that such kind of learning will finally give positive

contribution in the future. Further, he marks that idioms can be necessary in the

process of learning English as foreign language. As a proponent, Celce-Murcia

emphasizes “the English idioms learning helps Asian students to achieve

figurative competence in the communicative competence model” (as cited in Tran,

2013, p.23).

Aside from the above, English Language Education students have entered

the period to whom they are supposed to be able to achieve good English

communication. The competency in understanding English idioms brings about

considerable impacts for them. In other words, these students can gain

sociolinguistic appropriateness which requires an understanding of the social

context in which the language is used: the rules of participants, the information

they share, and the functions of interaction. Furthermore, Bachman (1990)

explains “sociolinguistic appropriateness consists of aspects which deal with

registers, metaphors, formality, politeness, and culturally related aspects of

language.” (as cited in Muniandy et al., 2010).

Thus, the understanding about idiomatic expressions should not just

theoretically be exposed but is also practically applied in real experiences of

college environment particularly for English Education students in Sanata Dharma

University. There are underlying reasons why learning English idioms takes years

of practice and need not to be neglected, this is mainly due to help English

education students to be competence in everyday use of language and thus,

English idioms must be made as part of second language learning (Dixon, 1971).


5

Therefore, the researcher aims to major a research problem to investigate;

“what are the benefits of learning English idioms for English Language Education

students? This research has one objective that aims to find out the benefits of

learning English idioms for English Language Education students as the language

users. For the focus of this study, the researcher gives a limitation only to the

benefits of learning English idioms investigated through the supporting data

sources about idioms.

B. Research Method

This research followed the steps of library research from George (2008).

Library research is an inquiry which can be conducted in any field and allows the

researchers to determine what related work which has been done before (George,

2008). According to George (2008), there are nine stages of library research. Yet,

the researcher only used four stages of library research which include (1) choosing

the general topic, (2) formulating the research question and background of the

study, (3) identifying and obtaining the data sources, (4) processing the

information and literature review to answer the research problem based on the

theories that become the basis of this study. The data were collected during the

period of January 2014 to March 2014 at the library of Sanata Dharma University.

The data sources of this study were taken from the book of Advanced

Vocabulary & Idiom by B. J. Thomas, Essential Idioms in English by Dixon

(1971), and English Idioms and How to Use them by Seidl and McMordie, (1980).


6

Those books were used as guidelines to arrange the table of idioms classification,

vocabulary building, and the examples of idioms in written context.

The researcher also provided stories and dialogues that contain idioms as

the data of this study. The stories were taken from the book of How to Teach

Vocabulary by Thornburry (2002) and the journals; The Comprehension of Idioms

by Cacciari and Tabossi (1988), while the source of dialogues in the findings

section was taken from the journal; A Piece of Cake: Learning and Teaching

Idioms by Irujo (1986). There are several books and journals which were used for

theories on vocabulary such as Vocabulary: Applied Linguistic Perspective 2nd

Edition and How to Teach Vocabulary. The researcher took some vocabulary

learning theories from those sources.

In detail, the researcher used the book of Essential Idioms in English

which provides commonly-used English idioms. In order to get the specific types

of English idioms, the researcher used the book of English Idioms and How to

Use them. The examples of English idioms are necessary to support this research.

Thus, the researcher adapted some examples of English idioms that are used in

written context from the book, Advanced Vocabulary & Idiom.


7

CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

This chapter is divided into two sections. The first section is the review of

related literature that presents several theories to support this research. The second

section discusses the results of this research or the findings.

A. Review of Related Literature

There are several theories used by the researcher to support the research

problem mentioned in previous chapter. The theories which are presented cover

foreign language learning, theories on idiom, and vocabulary. To begin with, the

researcher would like to give a brief description on:

1. Theories of Foreign/Second Language Learning

Each language has idioms and while learning idioms may belong to

language learning. Foreign or second language learning is often linked to the

theory of Krashen (1981) that presents “subconscious language learning”

(Krashen, 1981, p.1). In the case of English idioms learning, the researcher found

that language learning and language acquisition differ. Language acquisition

requires caretakers and native speakers who will help the acquisition process

(Snow & Ferguson, 1977 as cited in Krashen, 1981).

Krashen (1981) presents his well-known theory about foreign language

learning called „Monitor Model‟. There are five hypotheses of second language

learning. However, the most relevant theory for this research is the acquisition-

learning hypotheses. In Acquisition, learning language is subconscious process.


8

The acquirers are aware of using language for communication but not aware of

language rules or the correctness of using language. Meanwhile, idiom learning

among Asian students is the conscious process of using language through lessons.

In this case, the acquirers tend to focus on the appropriateness and the

grammatical rules of language; as known in learning idioms. This means that non-

native speakers like ESL learners are subconscious learners meaning that they

need the awareness of language “rules” and a “feel” for grammatically while they

have to use idioms in different context (Krashen, 1981, p. 2).

The need of learning foreign or second language is also based on the

theory of Gardner and Lambert (1972) who state “the pragmatic purpose for

learning a second language was derived from a personal desire to know the native

speakers of the target language that is later called instrumental motivation” (as

cited in Engin, 2009, p. 35). On the other hand, there are some considerable points

about foreign language learning. Curtain and Dahlberg (2004) show that “learning

another language can enhance the knowledge of language structure and

vocabulary” (as cited in World Language Education, 2007, p. 2). While according

to Troike (1984) “Mastering the vocabulary of a second language enhances

students‟ comprehension and abilities in reading, writing, mathematics and other

subjects and promotes achievement in English vocabulary and reading

(Masciantonio, 1977)” (as cited in World Language Education, 2007, p. 3).

2. The Aspects of Lexical Chunks

Phrases are composed of several words which unite together and form a

meaning. According to Bolinger (1975) “words are stored not only as individual


9

morphemes, but also as parts of phrases, or as longer memorized chunks of speech

(as cited in Nattinger & Carrico, 1992, p. 31). Furthermore Nattinger and Carrico

(1992) state that lexical chunks help language users to speak fluently. While

idioms are categorized as the multi word chunks whose meanings cannot be

derived from the meaning of their constituent parts. This statement is supported

by Maisa and Karunakaran (2013), who present that multi-word chunks are also

referred to as „lexical items‟, „lexical phrases‟ or „lexical chunks‟ (Thornburry,

2002). Furthermore, they continue that multi-word chunks include idioms,

collocations, phrasal verbs, proverbs, and sayings (p. 111).

Thornburry (2002) also points out the same notion about the different

types of chunks. The lexical chunks cover collocation, phrasal verbs, discourse

markers, sentence frames, and especially idioms. In further explanation, he asserts

that those chunks categories are defined in terms of fixedness and idiomaticity.

According to Thornburry (2002) “fixed chunks do not allow variation, for

example over the moon and not under the moon nor over the full moon. Chunks

are formed from words that cluster but not join up. They are considered as single

words and some have idiomatic meaning. The meaning of chunks is not inferable

from the individual words and thus, some chunks are not transparent and much

more idiomatic as in to spill the beans or to knock off. The ability to understand a

wide range of chunks distinguishes advanced learners from the intermediate ones”

(pp. 115-116). In a nutshell, learning lexical chunks will contribute a considerable

result towards the language learning progress.


10

However, Nattinger and Carrico (1992) contend that “idioms are phrases

that are invariable and the structure cannot be derived by the traditional rules of

syntax. Lexical phrases are variable units and can be derived from the regular

rules of syntax. Then, lexical phrases are different from other conventionalized or

frozen forms such as idioms or clichés because they perform certain functions”

(pp. 35-36). Still, idioms are the part of multi-word chunks or lexical chunks that

are useful in speech production. Idioms are also a kind of prefabricated speech

which means that idioms may bring advantages to help learners speak with

fluency.

Idioms as one of the parts of word categories and multi-word chunks have

nearly the same advantages as lexical phrases do. Lexical chunks offer many

advantages for conversation and they consist of expressions that are stored in

memory and are yet constructed because they are still in form of chunks.

Significantly, lexical phrases are effective means of interacting with others and

learning language. Lexical chunks help speakers to be capable in constructing

responses and expressions from word chunks and this goes the same with idioms

as multi-word chunks (Nattinger & Carrico, 1992, p. 114).

The statement above is also supported by Lewis (1997) who states that

idioms, collocations, and other fixed expressions belong to chunks. The chunks

can be defined as “formulaic language” which can become the key to fluency.

Idioms may belong to formulaic language that can give considerable benefits in

native like fluency especially in speech. To be fluent in speech, it also depends on


11

the understanding of phrases and larger chunks stored and retrieved from memory

(Tajali & Tehrani, 2009 as cited in Maisa & Karunakaran, 2013, pp. 110 -111).

3. Theories on Vocabulary Learning

This research also includes the relevance of theories on vocabulary with

idioms learning. The point is that the researcher sees vocabulary knowledge is as

significant part of foreign language learning. While, learning idioms can be part of

escalating vocabulary in second language learning. Simply, there is a correlation

between vocabulary knowledge and English idioms learning. Thus, the previous

statement is presented into theories on vocabulary learning. First and foremost, the

researcher would like to present how significant vocabulary is towards foreign

language learning.

According to British council, „language users are expected to use some

less common and idiomatic vocabulary‟ (as cited in Tran, 2013, p. 24). The

researcher sees English idioms as one of important elements to create good

English communication that can get rid of the gaps when interacting with native

speakers. It can be an effort to enhance the academic language and basic

interpersonal communication skills for learning idioms are essential for second

language learners so that they can ascend to higher level of English learning

(Guduru, 2011).

Nonetheless, vocabulary knowledge is a long process which begins since

childhood. The first time of learning starts when children notices the physical

objects in the surrounding and then differentiate what object it is (Halliday, 1993).

The process of learning vocabulary which begins from childhood will develop as


12

a child grows up and the progress will be significant or develops rapidly when

children are in pres-school years (Lightbown & Spada, 1993). Thus, Clark

explains this process as complex and takes long time while children may still have

around fifty words and then develop the words into hundreds (as cited on Carter,

1998, p. 184).

Apart from it, the vocabulary learning is important for it deals with

knowing how to use the word syntactically, semantically and pragmatically

(Carter, 1998, p. 232). To clarify this statement, the researcher mentions a

perspective about vocabulary from another expert. Thornbury (2002) shows the

perspective of the linguist, David Wilkins related to the importance of vocabulary

that without grammar, there are little things to say and without vocabulary we

have nothing to convey. By studying grammar at the most of time will not

improve English skills. More improvement lies on how the learners learn words

and expressions in vocabulary not in grammar. It will make the learners can say

anything with words although with low grammar (p. 13).

Nonetheless, vocabulary has been a difficult matter for ESL (English as

Second Language) students particularly. The hardness of learning vocabulary is

clearer as Gleason (1961) asserts that vocabulary can be very easy but this is what

students fear most (p. 7). Carter (1998) has a certain view that vocabulary

becomes less important element in learning a second language due to more

specialization on syntax and phonology (p. 184). Based on previous descriptions,

the researcher posits vocabulary learning theory as its relevance with English

idiom learning. The relevancy of those two is clarified with the position of idioms


13

as fixed expression as well. Carter (1998) presents “fixed expression” like English

idioms as the example of vocabulary in discourse, memorization type, and

language-focused learning type (p. 230). Hence, the researcher refers to some

theories of vocabulary learning (Carter, 1998). The theories comprised of:

a. Memorization

This shows that words cannot be learned effectively in context and thus it

needs to be assimilated as single items. The realization can be providing the list of

words of target language and the translation in mother tongue. Furthermore,

picture and other means of graphical representation are provided (Carter, 1998).

b. Vocabulary in Discourse

The vocabulary development focuses on written text which includes the

reading activities that become the part of explicit teaching. The main purpose of

vocabulary teaching-based discourse is to help the learners encode and negotiate

the ways in which items can be scaled in relation to each other for different

communicative functions (Carter, 1998, p. 222). Lexical discourse also plays a

major role for learning fixed expressions such as English idioms.

c. Language-focused Learning

This type of learning focuses on language item and includes the learning of

vocabulary and grammar. The activities and techniques cover direct learning,

intensive reading, and training in vocabulary strategies (Nation, 2003, p.1). Direct

learning involves the learners to study the meaning of words, the written and

spoken words and how to use them. Regarding to the vocabulary theory from

Carter (1998), Thornburry (2002) presents some ways how to remember the


14

words in vocabulary learning such as through long-term memory that seems to

have enormous capacity and is durable over time. The research findings which are

related to word learning include repetition; the way of memorising new material

or repeat an item, retrieval; retrieving or recalling word from memory, and

mnemonics; retrieving items stored in memory which are not retrievable

(Thornburry, 2002, p. 24).

4. Theory of Fluency in English

The theory of fluency is closely related to the use of idioms. According to

Fillmore (1979) the term „fluency‟ is specifically defined into four different kinds

(as cited in Brumfitt, 1984). The four kinds of fluency include (1) ability to talk

without significant pauses, (2) ability to talk in semantically dense sentences, (3)

ability to say appropriate things in a wide range of contexts, (4) ability to be

creative and imaginative in language use such as creating metaphors, jokes, puns,

varying styles, etc.

5. Idioms and Other Types of Fixed Expression

English language possesses much variety related to the study of words

pattern and meaning. Previous studies have shown that language changes as time

goes by and it is called historical or diachronic linguistics (Hockett, 1958, p. 303).

According to Lyons (1995) semantics is traditionally defined as the study of

meaning. In the study of meaning, there are several types of theories of meaning

as in referential meaning (denotation) theory that focuses on the meaning of an

expression to which it refers to or stands for (Lyons, 1995, p. 40). Apart from the

importance of the study of meaning, Boer (1982) affirms, “having a large


15

vocabulary is valuable asset in speaking and writing.” He means that the

effectiveness of speaking and writing is determined by the large measure of words

you know. Thus, this makes choice of words is important (p. 42).

Boer (1982) classifies the choice of words, how those words differ. The

classification includes denotation, connotation, trite expression, figurative

language, and especially idiomatic expressions (p. 42). Idioms are different from

other types of words choice as explained below:

a. Denotative meaning

Denotative meaning stands for something that is called referent, for example

rocks, horse, etc (Boer, 1982).

b. Connotative meaning

It has collocations that are called connotations, for instance cheap which refers to

low price and has unfavourable connotation of “being of little value” (Boer, 1982,

p. 43).

c. Trite expressions

It is one of figures of speech and also known as clichés for example good as gold,

green with envy, cool as cucumber, quick as flash, etc (Boer, 1982).

d. Figurative Language

Figurative language is commonly known as figures of speech that makes

comparison or use words in an unusual way (Boer, 1982, p. 50). The most

common figures of speech in figurative language are simile and metaphor. Simile


16

is a comparison that often uses like or as. For instance, “The stadium looks like a

large bowl”, while metaphor is a comparison that does not use like or as. For

example, “The Atlantic is a stormy moat” by Robinson Jeffers. Other commonly

used figures of speech are personification, metonymy, litotes, hyperbole, irony,

etc (Boer, 1982).

Furthermore, idioms are part of English linguistic that are also important

in “choice of words”. Previous studies have shown several definitions of idioms,

their origin, and formation. According to Adisutrisno (2008), idioms are type of

collocation to which the meaning cannot be traced from the meaning of the

individual words that collocate (p. 40). Idioms and collocations, both are different.

The examples of collocations are added brain, blond hair, sour milk, flock of

sheep etc (Palmer, 1981, pp. 76-79). The study of idioms is broad, as second

language learner, idioms must be differed from other types of non-literal language.

Learning idioms covers idioms formation, the definitions of idioms, and the types

of idioms.

a. The birth of idioms

The birth of idioms has a long story and becomes the result of language

which develops over time. However, how idioms exist can be traced from the

significance of defining idioms. Thus it is necessary to get the clear understanding

of what idioms are. According to Vizetelly and Bekker (1926) idioms have caused

so much criticism so that there is a necessity to get the clearest understanding

about the nature and the functions of idioms. In addition to it, they mention that


17

idioms are derived from the Greek ίδιοѕ which means “own, proper to, private.” It

conveys a message of peculiarity or specialty (p. 1).

While Hockett (1958) states that a speaker may say something that has

never heard before and it is later understood. Further, this new utterance is a

nonce-form, built from familiar material by familiar patterns. Yet, the occurrence

of a nonce-form does not constitute the creation of idioms. He emphasizes the

additional ingredients that are required in the creation of idioms like something

that is more or less unusual either about the structure of the newly-produced

nonce-form, the attendant circumstances, or both, which render the form

memorable.

b. The definitions of idioms

There have been a number of studies about idioms and hence, idioms have

several definitions. Yet, each definition of idiom has the same point. Idioms are

expressions whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words

that comprise it (American University, 2009, p. 1). While according to 1993

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines idioms as peculiar language and cannot be

explicated easily; therefore, people need to learn not only the separated words but

also need to fully understand the whole meaning of the phrases because it cannot

be derived from the conjoined meaning of their elements (Bill, personal

communication, June 30, 2005).

Palmer (1981), Adisutrisno (2008) and Carter (1998) have the same point

about the definition of idioms. In the same point, they give definition of idioms as

a group of words that requires collocation to which the meaning cannot be


18

expressed individually or by a single word but as a whole. Further, Carter (1998)

explores more about idioms that can also be transformed or allow “structural

changes to its form” as in “to drop a brick” (= to make a mistake). In other

structural changes, it can be “he dropped a really enormous brick this time” or “a

brick has been dropped” (p. 65). However, he asserts that not all idioms allow

insertion and are structurally flexible because some of them are syntactically and

morphologically fixed. Carter (1998) “tentatively defined idioms as (1) non-

substitutable or fixed collocations, (2) usually more than single word units, (3)

semantically opaque” (p. 66). Thus, he concludes idioms as fixed expression.

The same idea goes the same with the definition of idiom by Cruse (1986)

that idioms are “semantically peculiar” and traditionally, they are defined as

“expressions whose meaning cannot be inferred or deduced from the meaning of

their parts or components (Vizetelly & Bekker, 1926)” or “an expression whose

meaning cannot be accounted for as a compositional function of the meanings its

parts have when they are not parts of idioms” (p. 37). Cruse (1986) tends to define

an idiom according to the number of lexical constituent and its semantic

constituent. Cruse (1986) gives example as in “This will cook Arthur’s goose”. In

this example, it is shown that it “constitutes a minimal semantic constituent”

while “cook ___’s goose is therefore and idiom”. (p. 37). In addition, Cruse (1986)

interprets “any expression which is divisible into semantic constituent, even if one

or more of these should turn out on further analysis to be idioms” (p. 37). The last,

Fowler defines idiom as “a phrase where the words together have a very different


19

meaning from dictionary definition of the individual words” (as cited in Caro,

2009, p. 127).

c. The classification of idioms

Since English language has a wide range of idioms, some experts have

tried to classify idioms into some types. Gibbs (1987) generally classifies idioms

into two kinds; transparent idioms and obscure idioms based on the

compositionality of idioms. The meaning of idioms can be predicted by the

lexical items in transparent idioms; for example, lay one’s cards on the table that

means „to reveal the secret‟. However, the obscure idioms are contrary. They

convey obscure meaning between literal meaning and figurative meaning; for

example, kick the bucket meaning „to die‟ (as cited in Hsu, n.d., p. 32).

Further studies present the classification of idiom differently. Idioms can

be classified according to the pattern or idioms formation and the “the idiom-

creating events called naming” (Hockett, 1958, pp. 310-311). The first is

Anaphoric substitutes in the types of idioms which are referred to the formation of

new idioms, and the second is proper names.

Carter (1998) likely determines the types of idiom according to the

fixedness of lexical patterns are. Accordingly, he classifies idioms into three types

such as compound idioms; for example, dead drunk, red tape, full idioms; for

example, to rain cats and dogs, to be in the doghouse, to smell a rat, and semi-

idioms; for example, a fat salary, beefy-looking (p. 67).

Furthermore, according to Palmer (1981), there are many kinds of idioms

containing a verb and a noun as in spill the beans, fly off the handle, put on good


20

face, etc. Phrasal verbs are common type of idioms that are frequently used in

many contexts. They are combination of verb plus adverb, verb plus preposition,

and also sequences of verb, adverb, and preposition; for instance, put down, give

in, look after, go for etc. In phrasal verbs, there are some types that are not

idiomatic and thus have different degree of idiomaticity (p. 80).

In accordance with idioms classification, idioms are classified according to

the parts of speech that are used, situation/theme, categories, and comparison.

Seidl and McMordie (1980) specifically provide a wide range of idiom examples

like with the combination of adjectives as in a dead language, a dead weight, to

leave someone for dead. And then with noun, as in to gain one’s end, to shoot a

line. Idioms with verb, as in to run a risk, to throw a stone. According to the

categories, idioms can be colour idioms as in black magic. Animal idioms; to

bark up the wrong tree, to hold your horses. Parts of body; to foot the bill, to be at

hand, to learn something by heart and many more.

B. Findings

In this section, the researcher presents the result or the answers of the

research problem of this research. In previous section, the researcher presented

three major theories that are theories of idioms, vocabulary learning, and foreign

language learning. This research focuses on the benefits of learning idioms for

English Language Education students. To support the findings, the researcher

used the main theories taken from Thornburry (2002) about vocabulary learning,

the theory of lexical chunks from Nattinger and Carrico (1992), Thornburry (2002)


21

as well as theory of fluency in English from Fillmore (1979) as cited from

Brumfitt (1984).

1. Enhancing Idiomatic Vocabulary on English Idioms

The significance of learning idiomatic vocabulary is based on British

council that „language users are expected to use idiomatic vocabulary‟ (as cited in

Tran, 2013, p. 24). Apart from it, there are many studies who have tried to classify

idioms and their kinds into several types. Hence, the researcher would like to

discuss the classification or the categories of idioms based on the book of

Advanced Vocabulary & Idiom by Thomas (1989), Essential Idioms in English by

Dixon (1971), and English Idioms and How to Use them by Seidl and McMordie

(1980). Based on those three books, the researcher has compiled the classification

of idioms into their categories. The classification is shown below:

Table 2.1 The Types of Idioms

No. Idioms

categories/types Note Example

1 Animals Idioms dog‟s life, guinea pig, puppy fat

2 Idioms of Body parts to let one‟s hair down, to be all ears

3 Idioms of colors a red herring, to have green fingers

4 Food idioms butter-fingers, in a jam, full of beans

5 Idioms of Names peeping Tom, smart Alec, Jack of all

trades

6 Idioms of Numbers catch 22 situation, one-armed bandit,

7 Idioms of time pressed for the time, it's high time, to kill

time

8 Idioms of

comparisons

with

adjectives/noun as cool as cucumber, as gentle as a lamb

with verbs to work like a Trojan, to fight like cat

and dog

9 Idioms with

adjectives a dead-end job, a pretty kettle of fish

10 Idioms with nouns to drop someone a line, to make up one's

mind


22

11 Pairs of adjectives few and far between

12 Pairs of nouns babes and sucklings

13 Adjective + noun

phrase a cat burglar, flying colors

14 Noun phrases bags under the eyes

15 Adverbial phrases first and foremost

16 to be +

noun/adjective phrase to be a party to something

17 to be + prepositional

phrase to be at daggers drawn

18 with common verbs to break prison, to come clean

19 with less common

verbs to smell a rat, to stick around

20 Phrasal Verbs

call off, to pick out, to keep off, to burn

down, turn up, get away, come around,

set off, run out

21

with special

situations

Banking the rate of interest

Business bad debts, to go bankrupt, on business,

Buying and

selling to be up for sale, to do a roaring trade

Health, illness to get over an illness, to pass away, to go

on the sick

Holiday and

Travel a rubberneck, to travel light

Motoring to hog the road

Politics and

government a back-bencher, the shadow-cabinet

Telephoning a party line, to ring someone up

Work and

industrial

relations

to make someone redundant, to give

someone the sack

(Source: Thomas B. J., Advanced Vocabulary & Idiom,; Dixon J. Robert,

Essential Idioms in English; Seidl, J., & McMordie W., English Idioms and How

to Use them ).

From the table shown before, it is clear that idioms have a lot of variations.

There are hundreds kinds of idioms that vary. Each idiom is used differently

according to the situation that happens. In another study, the classification of

idioms is basically the same as explained before. According to Maisa and


23

Karunakaran (2013), the classification of idioms is defined according to the theme

and situations:

1. Animals: don’t count your chicken, the black sheep of the family.

2. Idioms formed by rural life: eat like a horse, strike when the iron is hot,

put the cart before the house.

3. Idioms affected by technology: I need to recharge my batteries.

4. Idioms that come from the entertainment and sports world, for example,

play the second fiddle, behind the scenes, etc.

5. Idioms in history and literature: sour grapes, the streets are paved with

gold, etc.

6. Idioms from bible and Shakespeare‟s works such as ships that pass in the

night, your pound of flesh, etc.

7. Idioms that show feelings and emotion: lose your bearings, in high spirits,

come out of your shell, etc.

Idioms are often used by native speakers or foreign students (Dixon, 1971)

when communicating each other. In fact, it indicates that speaking with English

idioms means that the speakers are able to use “natural English” which is spoken

in informal way and then creates a language more conversational (Caro, 2009, p.

129). When speakers use idioms, it means that the communication sounds

idiomatic, natural (Dixon, 1971) and has variety (Caro, 2009, p. 124). The wide

variety of idioms is used in many fields such as in mass media like newspaper and

articles. In electronic media, idioms are used in some blogs and websites, and in

printed media such as textbook and newspaper headlines. Therefore, it indicates


24

that idioms are widely applied both in oral and in discourse (Maisa &

Karunakaran, 2013).

In this research the researcher would like to answer the first benefit of

learning English idioms for English Language Education students. First of all, the

researcher used the theories of vocabulary learning and lexical chunks/approach

as the base. The theory from Thornburry (2002) about lexical approach shows that

the high frequency of words in the form of word combinations like chunks (e.g.

idioms) can improve vocabulary. While according to Curtain & Dahlberg (2004)

about foreign language learning that it can enhance the knowledge of structure

and vocabulary. David Wilkins, the linguist clarifies the significance of

vocabulary in learning foreign language that by learning words and expressions,

the learners will improve their English (Thornburry, 2002, p. 13).

Further, the vocabulary knowledge can enhance other skills such as

reading and writing. The second theory is about lexical approach which points out

that high frequency of words including the form of word combination like

chunks becomes the base of vocabulary learning (Thornburry, 2002, p. 112).

According to Thornburry (2002) lexical chunks have different types and degree of

„chunkiness‟ which also include idioms (p. 115). Based on the theories mentioned,

the researcher would like to give examples of idioms in written context based on

the table in the following page:


25

Table 2.2 Vocabulary Building with the Meaning

No. VOCABULARY

1 a back-bencher a less important member of the Commons

2 a cat burglar a burglar who enters house from the roof by climbing

3 a party line, a telephone line shared to two or more people

4 a pretty kettle of

fish a confusing situation

5 a red herring unimportant or irrelevant matter

6 a rubberneck a tourist who turns his head as much as possible when

seeing sightseeing

7 as cool as

cucumber

a person who remains calm in difficult or dangerous

situation

8 babes and

sucklings innocent children

9 bad debts debts which are not expected to be paid

10 bags under the eyes dark skin under the eyes

11 butter-fingers someone who cant‟s hold objects properly or tends to

drop it

12

catch 22 situation a problem that cannot be solved and is impossible to

escape because one problem must be solved before

solving other problems.

13 dog's life a miserably unhappy existence

14 few and far

between rare

15 full of beans energetic, badly mistaken

16 go bankrupt to become insolvent

17 guinea pig the subject for any sort of experiment

18 in a jam in hard situation

19 peeping Tom a person getting pleasure from watching others secretly

20 pressed for the time feeling that one has to hurry

21 puppy fat a fat like on the body of a child and will disappear at

adolescence

22 shadow-cabinet the group of ministers of the parliamentary opposition

23 smart Alec a person who like to show off his cleverness or

knowledge

24 to be a party to

something to take part in it

25 to be all ears to listen eagerly

26 to break prison to escape from prison

27 to burn down to burn to the ground


26

28 to do a roaring

trade to do good business and make high profits

29 to drop someone a

line to write to someone

30 to get over an

illness to recover from it completely

31 to go on the sick to give a report to the workplace that you are sick

32 to have green

fingers to be good at gardening

33 to hog the road to drive in the middle of the road

34 to keep off to stay away from

35 to let one's hair

down to relax and enjoy

36 to make someone

redundant

to end a worker's employment because he is no longer

needed

37 to work like a

Trojan to work very hard


Essential Idioms in English; Seidl, J., & McMordie W., English Idioms and How

to Use them)

Note: The idioms‟ meanings of number 10, 11, 12, 15, 17, 19, 29 the above were

taken from http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/ and

http://dictionary.reference.com/.

The table above presents vocabulary building on English idioms. It is

presented with the random categories or types of idiom with their meaning. There

are idioms of names, animals, idioms of colours, and other kinds mentioned above.

The English language learners or English Language Education students can learn

each idiom and its meaning in English through repetition or memorizing which is

done through repeated rehearsal of the material (Thornburry, 2002, p. 24). With

the two methods of learning such as memorization and repetition, the learners can

effectively absorb and memorize the chunks of idioms as well as the meaning.

Repetition method can strengthen the memory about expression or chunks stored

in mind. This will assist them to be more advanced in vocabulary knowledge.


27

There are many kinds of idioms that often appear in written context as in

many texts in the books, magazines, articles, textbook and especially news

headlines. Some newspaper headlines contain idiomatic expressions that are

difficult to understand. In that situation, the readers may need to understand

several idioms because of most newspaper headlines sound idiomatic as in the

news titled Minna’s skirts all the rage taken from http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/

News/Minnas-skirts-are-all-the-rage-.htm (Appendix 3). It contains the idiom, all

the rage (Jones, 1990, p. 14) which means to be very popular at particular time

(dictionary.cambridge.org). Idioms in news headlines also appear in the leading

city newspaper such as Daily News and New York Post.

The researcher has cited some idioms from those two city newspapers

from http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/07/murdoch-new-

york-post.html (Appendix 4). The Daily News’ headline is Humble Pie which

means humility forced upon someone; usually under embarrassing situation

(http://dictionary.reference.com). While the New York Post‟s headline is All In

the Family means that something is not for people who are not in our family

(http://www.goenglish.com). The news taken from www.bbc.com/news/world-us-

canada-25565898 titled ‘Obamacare’ health reforms come into force in US

(Appendix 2) contains idioms as well. The idiom, come into force (Jones, 1990, p.

14) means to become effective (http://www.english-

test.net/forum/ftopic3531.html). There are still many idiomatic words in news

headlines or articles. Thus, it might be necessary for readers to enhance their


28

idioms knowledge through reading. Otherwise, reading English newspapers or

articles will enhance idioms vocabulary.

The most common idioms in written context are phrasal verbs which are

combined from verb plus adverb (Palmer, 1981, p. 80). They can be categorized

as one of idioms because many of them sound idiomatic. The use of phrasal verbs

in written text is shown in the example below:

The story

We had broken out in the desert kingdom and we realized that we had to

get away. Amanda turned up at my apartment three hours late, so we

immediately got the car and set off across the desert. Soon, our petrol supply ran

out, but we managed to beg some from a passing lorry. We were within sight of

the border, when there was a sudden, loud bang, and everything went black. When

I came around, night had fallen and Amanda was watching over me with a

worried expression. It was then that I realized we had driven over a landmine.

Completing the sentences using right phrasal verbs from the story

1. He is still unconscious; I‟ll call you when he (comes around)

2. She was so unhappy at home that she just had to (get away)

3. If you (turn up) late, you won‟t be allowed into the concert

4. We‟ll have to (set off) really early to catch the ferry.

5. Just use a cheque if your cash (runs out)

6. A flu epidemic has (broken out) at work; I hope I don‟t catch it.


29

(The story and questions were taken from Naunton J, Think Ahead to First

Certificate, Longman; as cited in Thornburry, 2002, p. 126)

The story above consists of six phrasal verbs which are common in

English. The learners will find those kinds of phrasal verbs either in oral

conversation or texts. From the text, the phrasal verbs which are mentioned cover

broken out (No. 6) meaning to begin suddenly, get away (No. 2) meaning to

escape, turned up (No. 3) meaning to arrive, set off (No. 4) meaning to leave, ran

out (No. 5) meaning to finish, came around (No. 1) meaning to recover

consciousness. After reading the text, the learners should have understood the

meaning of each phrasal verb and therefore, they have to be able to apply the

phrasal verbs if used in different context as in the six questions above.

This kind of story as in written example above can be a good way of

learning idioms. The learners will find so much variety of idioms such as phrasal

verbs which frequently appear in texts particularly. The frequent occurrence of

idioms in text creates an effective way to enhance vocabulary through idioms with

the reading passage especially with the questions that test the comprehension of

those six phrasal verbs. The previous statement is suitable that according to

Thornburry (2002) the high occurrence of idioms like phrasal verbs in the text is

conducive ingredient to successful vocabulary learning (p. 126). He adds that

working out with idiomatic meaning in text contributes to passive vocabulary

knowledge and improve reading skill as well (Thornburry, 2002, p. 128). The

point here, lies on when the learners study the idioms especially with story as the

illustration or passage, it will both escalate the learner‟s vocabulary and the


30

reading skill. On the other hand, if the learners know well about idioms

vocabulary, they will be able to understand the reading passage then answer the

question. Simply, involving the learners how to work out with idiomatic meaning

like in reading passage will contribute to passive vocabulary knowledge but also

improve reading skills as well (Thornburry, 2002, p. 128).

The researcher further contends that by learning idioms, the English

language learners especially English Language Education students will achieve

better comprehension on speaking fluency (Nattinger & Carrico, 1992) or

communication particularly if a person interacts or communicates with native

speakers. On the other hand, the learners can achieve what is called by natural

English through learning idioms. It means that learning idioms can help the

learners speak English in informal way (Caro, 2009, p. 129) and with an easy or

relaxed tone (Casas, 1995, p. 59).

2. Achieving fluency in speaking English

Other types of idioms can function to help learners describe human‟s

phenomena, feelings, emotions, characters of someone and the present situation.

This means that idiom is one of non-literal ways to describe person, situation,

time, action, one‟s skill, or object and conveys ideas or intention of speakers. It is

shown in the following page:


31

Completing sentences using verbs in the box

1. Hard work – not much money, no time to enjoy yourself. It‟s a (dog's life)

2. I was once (a guinea pig) in a medical experiment to test a new drug

3. Wait a minute! It has been very tiring all day, I need to (let my hair down)

4. If you want to be a successful gardener, of course you‟ve got (to have

green fingers)

5. Someone who can do many different things is called (Jack of all trades).

6. This gambling machine is called (one-armed bandit)

7. I want to (kill the time). The principal's speech has been for hours.

8. Although it was very dangerous but he could manage to be (as cool as

cucumber).

9. It‟s (a pretty kettle of fish). I do not know what decision to take.

10. I‟d like to (drop her a line) by the time I finish this assignment.

11. Johnny used to show his action at night by being (a cat burglar).

12. My mom has (bag under the eyes). She must be unhealthy.

13. 150 convicts managed to (break prison) a month ago.

14. The corruption eradication commission has recently (smelt a rat) among

the officials.

dog‟s life let my hair down Jack of all trades

guinea pig kill the time have green fingers

one-armed bandit drop her a line as cool as cucumber

a pretty kettle of fish break prison smelt a rat

bag under the eyes a cat burglar


32


Essential Idioms in English; Seidl, J., & McMordie W., English Idioms and

How to Use them)

The „filling in the blanks questions‟ in the previous page may be very

useful for English Language Education students. With idioms above, English

Language Education students will have better descriptive skill by using non-

literal language like idioms. This is supported by Maisa and Karunakaran (2013)

who explain the use of idioms to describe personality, character, appearance,

work, success, illness, and health (p. 112). While, the idioms above are taken

from random types of idioms each of which helps them to be able to use them in

describing many things. Specifically, the good knowledge on the variety of word

combination such as idioms will become an aid to fluency (Thornburry, 2002,

p.112). The term „fluency‟ in using English is later asserted by Thornburry (2002)

that the capacity to use chunks (e.g. idioms) in conversation will develop fluency.

The theory of fluency is taken from Fillmore (1979) as cited in Brumfitt (1984).

Fluency has four different kinds including the ability to say appropriate things in

a wide range of contexts and to be creative and imaginative in language use such

as creating metaphors, jokes, puns, varying styles, etc. This means that speaking

English more informally or idiomatically can contribute to fluency in English.

Improving fluency is shown through various examples of filling the blank

questions mentioned before.

Of all 14 questions before, there are some aspects that are described like

person‟s situation as in number 1; dog’s life which means to a miserable or

unhappy life, 7; kill the time which means that someone as if wanting to do


33

something so that the time can run faster. He or she might be boring, 9; a pretty

kettle of fish meaning to a confusing situation. The skill/capability of a person is

described in number 4; to have green fingers meaning to be good at gardening

and 5; Jack of all trades or someone who can do many different things. The

idioms above also describe an object as in 6; one-armed bandit which means a

gambling machine and one‟s character as in 8; as cool as cucumber (a person

who is always calm in dangerous or difficult situation). The idioms attached in

each question above also describe one‟s activity or action, one‟s experience,

physical appearance, and feeling. Number 10; drop her a line (an activity or

action to write to someone), 13; break prison (an action to escape from prison),

and 3; let may hair down (an activity to feel relaxed) describe the activity or

action of a person. Number 11; a cat burglar which describes a person who likes

to climb the roof by climbing the pipe, 2; a guinea pig (a person who always

becomes a subject of experiment) represents or describes a person‟s bad

experience. Idioms also function to describe one‟s physical appearance and

feeling as in number 12; bag under the eyes (dark skin under the eyes) and 14;

smelt a rat means to suspect something.

Direct interaction absolutely requires interface communication. It

deliberates two speakers or more. The plot or the topic of the conversation may

use many kinds of expressions which sound idiomatic. At this situation, the

speakers are required to understand the topic being discussed especially if it

contains idioms. The previous statement shows that the learners need to figure out

various themes or topics of lexical chunks (idioms) in the conversation which are


34

used. This variation can be found in idioms which have different topic to be used

in conversation. Nattinger and Carrico (1992) point out the significance of lexical

chunks or phrases to provide effective and efficient way of interaction about self-

selected topic with other speakers and it will test the speakers how to construct

responses accurately.

In real life, if the speakers want to discuss a certain topic, they can use

idioms according to the theme whether it is about holiday or travel, motoring,

politics or government, telephoning, or about job. Several idioms are classified

according to the theme or situation. Learners who intend to learn idioms according

to the theme of the conversation will know how to use idioms which suit the topic

of the conversation. When they are discussing about business, they can use idioms

like bad debts (see. p. 27, no. 8) which means debts that are not expected to be

paid, go bankrupt (see. p. 28, no. 15) or to become insolvent. If it is about holiday

and travel, a speaker can describe the behaviour of tourist in common with idiom

as in rubberneck (see. p. 27, no. 5) which means a tourist who often turns around

his head for being amazed of sightseeing around him.

People also often discuss about politics and government. They can say

terms of idiom like a back-bencher (see. p. 27, no. 1) which means a less

important member of House of Commons, the shadow-cabinet (see. p 28, no. 22)

meaning the group of Ministers of Parliamentary Opposition. In another situation

as in public relations or job, a superior can use idiomatic expression as in to make

someone redundant (see. p. 29, no. 37) which means to end one‟s employment

because he is no longer needed. The use of idiom in every topic of conversation


35

will make it varies and more lively. In other words, when it comes to a specific

conversation, the speakers can respond with the appropriate idioms in right

context. Learning idioms according to their theme will enhance learner‟s

vocabulary towards specific idioms.

3. Avoiding Misinterpretation in Conversation

Maisa and Karunakaran (2013), in their research, presents the teachers‟

perspective on the advantages of learning idioms that knowledge on idiomatic

English can promote language fluency in terms of language capacity and give the

learners opportunity to convey message in shorter manner in flowery language (p.

117). The real advantage is learning idiom may assist learners to avoid

misinterpretation when communicating with non-literal language like idioms. It

also depends on how the learners understand the conversation or dialogues

containing idioms (Caro, 2009, p. 133). This notion is also based on the dialogue

example cited from Irujo (1985) and was adapted from Phap (1980). It contains

the misinterpretation in using several idioms. The dialogue example as follows:

Girl : why don‟t you give me a ring some time?

Foreign boy : Oh, no! I don‟t know you well enough to marry you!

Girl : you must be pulling my leg!

Foreign boy : How can I pull your leg? I‟m not even near you!

The dialogue above shows misinterpretation that occurs between the girl

and foreign boy. The girl says „pulling my leg’ which implicitly means to tease her.

She tends to say so in non-literal way rather than saying “you must be teasing me”.

The context of the dialogue above is joking. However, the foreign boy


36

misinterprets it and supposes that the girl accuses him. In accordance with the

idiom misinterpretation, the speakers who learn idioms will know how to use

them in appropriate situation of the topic being discussed. It will create adequate

understanding of idioms in proper context of conversation. Cacciari and Tabossi

(1988) give illustration about two stories containing non-literal interpretation of

idiom and its literal interpretation. The stories are shown below:

Idiom story

Alice was telling her friend about her brother Bob. “Bob saw someone steal

diamond bracelet in a jewellery shop.” “Did he tell anyone?” the friend asked.

“No,” Alice replied, “he kept it under his hat.”

Literal Story

Grace and Mary were watching a magician perform at their school. For one trick,

he held out a rabbit and made it disappear. Grace couldn‟t figure it out. “Where is

it?” she asked. “It‟s obvious,” Mary replied, “he kept it under his hat.”

Based on the two stories and dialogues above, it can be concluded that the

idiom, kept under one’s hat has two different meanings. Literally, kept under

one’s hat means to keep something as a secret (idioms.thefreedictionary.com). In

that case one has to understand its idiomatic meaning as well to avoid

misunderstanding in conversation. While the conversation between the girl and

the foreign boy ends up with misinterpretation among the two. The foreign boy

cannot get what is meant by the girl‟s utterance. Thus, misunderstanding happens.

Simply, the speakers have to understand what topic or context being

discussed in conversation. In this case, good comprehension on English idioms

contributes a certain kind of concept for learners how to differentiate idioms in


37

different context. In short, it means that with the adequate comprehension on

idioms or by learning idioms, the learners will know how to create conversation

containing idiomatic expressions appropriately in right context and situation so

that the utterance will not be ambiguous. Nattinger and Carrico (1992) also point

out that “lexical chunks like idioms help speakers to be able to construct

responses and expressions from word chunks and this goes the same with idioms

as multi-word chunks” (p. 114). According to Nattinger and Carrico (1992) the

knowledge on lexical chunks such as idioms provide effective and efficient way

of interaction about self-selected topic and it will train the speakers to speak

accurately. It also means that learning idioms will give considerable benefits

towards the learners to use idioms in right situation and context.

The explanation above presents the benefits of learning idioms especially

for English Language Education students. There are many benefits of learning

idioms which are visible. Yet, the most significant benefit is that learning idioms

can enhance vocabulary knowledge (Curtain & Dahlberg, 2004). From the stored

vocabulary of idioms and with the good comprehension of idioms, the learners

will be able to use idioms in many kinds of situation either written context or oral

communication. At the end, this will contribute to considerable benefits towards

the learner‟s fluency (Lewis, 1997; Tajali & Tehrani, 2009 as cited in Maisa &

Karunakaran, 2013, pp. 110 -111) in using foreign language.


38

CHAPTER III

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This section presents the conclusions of the study about the benefits of

learning idioms for English learner especially for English Language Education

students as well as the recommendations for future researchers and lecturers of

English Education Study Program.

A. Conclusions

English idioms are widely used by native speakers for daily speech in

informal way. In written context, the English learners will often find idioms in

magazines, articles, and newspaper headlines. This fact shows that idioms play

significant role in English language learning. From the previous chapter, it is

known that learning idioms contributes considerable benefits towards English

language learning and English Language Education students. Regarding to this

statement, thus, what are the benefits of learning English idioms for English

Language Education students?

There are three benefits of learning idioms for English Language

Education students. Firstly, it can enhance the learner’s vocabulary knowledge

and later increases the learner’s ability in reading, writing, and speaking skill. In

Chapter II, the researcher has provided the examples of idioms in discourse such

as reading passage, idiom vocabulary building, dialogues about idioms, and some

idioms that appear in news headlines. They can be good media for learning idioms.

In a nutshell, learning idioms can help English Language Education students to


39

achieve advanced vocabulary skill which will ease the learners to figure out

idioms which often appear in discourse like articles, common texts, dialogues, etc.

Secondly, the benefit of learning idioms is that English Language

Education students can achieve fluency in using English which means that they

can speak more informally and idiomatically using idioms in a wide range of

contexts. By learning idioms, the learners will understand how to construct and

build expressions or utterances containing non-literal message. As said from the

theory of fluency, the language users have the ability to be creative and

imaginative in language such as using in conversation. Specifically, the English

Language Education students will have good describing skill. This means that by

using idioms, the learners can describe certain phenomena, situation, one’s

physical appearance, one’s character and any others; particularly with simple

language that can represent something as a single unit. In other words, they will

be able to use simpler language which sounds idiomatic.

Thirdly, the further benefit of learning idiom is the learners can avoid

misinterpretation when using non-literal language like idioms particularly. There

are many kinds of types of idioms and many of them have different use and theme.

The use of idiom should be based on the topic of the conversation being discussed.

Thus, with good idiom comprehension on various types of idioms and themes, the

English Language Education students will be able to use them in appropriate topic

of conversation. At the end, by learning idioms the learners will be able to

differentiate the non-literal meaning of idioms and their literal meaning to avoid


40

misinterpretation when communicating with native speakers who use idioms on

daily basis.

Learning English idioms triggers the learner to achieve fluency in using

English from the basis of idiom vocabulary. With good comprehension on idioms

vocabulary, the learners are able to exploit idioms in wider context; either in oral

or written communication with non-literal track.

B. Recommendations

The researcher presents some recommendations that may be useful for the

future researchers and the lecturers in the English Education Study Program.

1. For Future Researchers

This study only focuses on the benefits or the positive result of learning

idioms that are visible. There may be some difficulties of learning idioms. Thus,

the future researcher can investigate what difficulties faced by English Language

Education students in learning idioms.

2. For Lecturers of English Education Study Program

Idioms should be widely applied in many context of learning so the

learners can achieve fluency in using English. Thus, the lecturers can participate

more in explicit teaching of idioms by giving the students the authentic materials

of idioms that are closely related to real phenomena.


41

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APPENDICES


46

Appendix 1

Table of Idioms Classifications

(Taken from: (1) Thomas B. J., Advanced Vocabulary & Idiom, (2) Dixon J.

Robert, Essential Idioms in English; (3) Seidl, Jennifer., & McMordie W., English

Idioms and how to use them, (4) http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com, (5)

http://dictionary.reference.com)

Idioms of animals, body, colours, food, names, numbers, and times

No. Categories Idioms Meaning Example

1 Animal dog's life (1) A miserably unhappy

existence (4)

Hard work – not much

money, no time to enjoy

yourself. It’s a dog's life (1)

puppy fat (1)

A fat like on the body of

a child and will

disappear at adolescence

(4)

Little Johnnie’s parents were

worried that he was very big,

but the doctor told them not

to worry as it was only puppy

fat. (1)

pigeon-holes (1)

Open compartments

used for papers, letters,

etc (4)

In offices and hotels, letters

are often placed in little,

open-ended compartments

called pigeon's holes labelled

with letters of the alphabet

(1)

guinea pig (1) The subject for any sort

of experiment (4)

I was once a guinea pig in a

medical experiment to test a

new drug. (1)

frog in my

throat (1)

A person having

problem with his throat

Can I get some water? I have

a frog in my throat (1)

Bookworm (1)

Someone who likes to

read a lot (4)

She’s a bookworm, likes to

read a lot. (1)

to hold one’s

horses (3) to be patient, to wait (4)

Hold your horses! We must

make sure it is empty. (1)

2 Body

to keep one's

fingers crossed

(3)

To hope the best thing

will happen

You had better keep your

fingers crossed although

your father has serious illness

(3)

to let one's hair

down (3) To relax and enjoy

Wait a minute! It has been

very tiring all day, I need to

let my hair down (3)

To say/do

something off-

hand (3)

To do it without

preparation

Our presentation is bad

because we did it off-hand

(3)

To be all ears

(1) To listen eagerly (3)

I will be all ears when you

are ready to tell me what (1)


47

happened

to keep an eye

(3) on someone

To observe or watch

carefully

Carl looks very suspicious;

we have to keep an eye on

him frequently (3)

elbow grease (3) a hardwork

I'm not sure he can finish the

task, it is an elbow grease.

(3)

to keep one's

head (3) To remain calm

She always keeps her head

when bad situation comes.

(3)


3

Color a red herring (1)

Unimportant or

irrelevant matter (3)

In class pupils sometimes

introduce a red herring to

distract the teacher from his

subject (1)

blue eyed-boy

(1)

The favorite of a person

or group (4)

Everyone thinks he’ll be the

Director of the firm one day.

He’s the blue-eyed boy. (1)

a white-collar

job (1) A job for office worker

He said he didn’t want to

have a white-collar job and

sit in an office all day (1)

a black sheep

(1)

A family member who

is considered

undesirable (4)

The rest of the family were

respectable, honest people

but he was always in trouble.

I’m afraid he was a black

sheep. (1)

to have green

fingers (1)

To be good at gardening

(4)

If you want to be a successful

gardener, of course you’ve

got to have green fingers. (1)

4

Food in a jam (1) in hard situation (4)

Oh my God! My wallet is

gone, I’m in a jam! (1)

the salt of the

earth (1)

A person considered as

the noblest part in

society (3)

The priest is very generous

and helpful to the poor. He is

really the salt of the earth.

(1)

piece of cake (1) An easy thing to do (4)

These kind of Math questions

are just piece of cake for me

(1)

butter-fingers

(1)

Someone who cant’s

hold objects properly or

tends to drop it (5)

You dropped of my plate

again? You are really butter-

fingers. (1)

full of beans (1) Energetic, badly

mistaken (4)

The children were full of

beans after watching that

movie. (1)

5

Names

Peeping Tom

(1)

A person getting

pleasure from watching

others secretly (4)

Someone looking through

windows is called a peeping

Tom. (1)

Smart Alec (1) A person who like to

show off his cleverness

He thinks he knows

everything. He's just a smart


48

or knowledge (4) Alec (1)

Tom, Dick, or

Harry (1)

Unknown persons who

are not important (4)

He's only interested in rich

people. He won't talk to Tom,

Dick , or Harry. (1)

Jack of all trades

(1)

A skillful man who can

do various kinds of

work (5)

Someone who can do many

different things is called Jack

of all trades. (1)

Bobby (1) A male given name for

policeman (5)

The bobby will catch the

gangster in the streets. (1)

Doubting

Thomas (1)

A person who will not

believe anything without

evidence (5)

There are so many doubting

Thomas who don't believe

how that supernatural

phenomenon happened. (1)

Robbing Peter

to pay Paul (1)

To take something from

certain source and then

use it for another

purpose (5)

So, you borrowed money

from Jim to pay your debt.

That's juts robbing Peter to

pay Paul.(1)


6

Numbers

One-armed

bandit (1)

A slot machine that is

used for gambling (4)

This gambling machine is

called one-armed bandit. (1)

To have second

thoughts (1)

To consider changing

decision that has been

made

At first she liked him, but

she's beginning to have

second thoughts. (1)

Catch 22

situation (1)

A problem that cannot

be solved and is

impossible to escape

because one problem

must be solved before

solving other problems.

(4)

You can't get a job without

experience without a job you

won't get experience. It's a

catch 22 situation. (1)

One-man band

(1)

A business person who

works alone (4)

Although he has occasional

help, the firm is really a one-

man band. (1)

One-track mind

(1)

Person’s mind on

obsessed thing (5)

He's got a on-track mind. He

only thinks about money. (1)

Four-letter word

(1)

Short word which is

offensive or obscene (5)

The television viewers

protested at the use of four-

letter word. (1)

7

Time

pressed for the

time (1)

Feeling that one has to

hurry (3)

Sorry but, I'm pressed for the

time. I have got to go now!

(1)

To kill time (3)

To do something so that

the time can run faster;

it may be boring (3)

I want to kill the time. The

principal's speech has been

for hours. (1)

In no time (1) Very quickly (5) I can make such an article in

no time. (1)

It’s high time

(3)

It is the time when

something must be (3)

done without more delay

Wake up it's high time!

You'd better go to work. (3)


49

To be behind

time (3) To be late (3)

I missed the bus so I was

behind the time to go to

school. (3)

At the same

time (1) Simultaneously (5)

She can do those chores at

the same time (1)

Behind the

times (3) Old-fashioned (3)

Why do you wear that jeans?

It is behind the times. (3)

Idioms of comparisons with adjectives/noun/verbs

No. Idioms of

comparisons Idioms Meaning Example

1 with

adjective or

noun

As like as two

peas in a pod

(3)

Two things or

person who are

alike in appearance

or character (3)

Those two girls are as like

as two peas in a pod. I

cannot differentiate them.

(3)

As warm as

toast (3)

Used of the way

someone is clothed

warmly in winter

(3)

This sweater is as warm as

toast. I never wear this

kind of clothing before. (3)

As cool as

cucumber (3)

A person who

remains calm in

difficult or

dangerous situation

(3)

He is as cool as cucumber

although it was very

dangerous but he could

manage to feel relax. (3)

As red as

beetroot (3)

Someone who

becomes flushed

with anger or

embarrassment. (3)

What is going on with

him? He’s as red as

beetroot. (3)

As dumb as

fish (3)

Used of a stupid

person (3)

I know he is as dumb as

fish in any situation. (3)

As gentle as

a lamb (3)

Used of a well-

behaved child (3)

Don’t worry, my son is as

gentle as lamb. He won't

be annoying. (3)

As greedy as

pig (3)

For person who

eats more than he

needs (3)

Bob is overweight because

he always eats a lot. He is

as greedy as pig. (3)

As sound as

bell (3)

Healthy or in good

condition (3)

Mr. Harold is as sound as

bell. He looks so well. (3)

As trick as

monkey (3) Clever (3)

That little kid is annoying

bus is as tricky as monkey.

(3)

2 with verbs To drink like

a fish (3)

To drink large

quantities of

alcohol (3)

No wonder that he got

drunk. He drank like a fish

last night. (3)


50

To eat like a

horse (3)

To eat large

quantities of food

(3)

As usual, Mr. Ben always

eats like a horse wherever

he eats out. (3)

To go like the

wind (3)

To move very fast

(3)

Where is she? She went

like the wind. (3)

To fight like

cat and dog

(3)

To argue violently

(3)

Mr. Smith and Mrs. Smith

fight like cat and dog. It

has been their habit. (3)

To work like

a Trojan (3)

To work very hard

(3)

My dad is our hero. He

works like a Trojan for

family. (3)

To swim like

fish (3)

To swim very well

(3)

She's amazing, can swim

like a fish. (3)

To sleep like

a dog (3)

To sleep very

deeply (3)

It seems that Rin is

extremely exhausted. She

sleeps like a dog. (3)

Other Types of Idioms with Verbs, Adjectives, and Nouns

No. Classification Element Idioms Meaning

1

with adjectives

dead dead right! (3) exactly right (3)

a dead weight (3) very heavy (3)

a dead-end job (3) job without prospect (3)

flat to sing flat (3)

not to reach or keep the

pitch of

note exactly (3)

And that's flat! (3)

used to end an argument

or

tell someone what to do

or not to do (3)

good

for own's good (3) to one's own advantage

(3)

a good drink (3) a large quantity (3)

a good deal (3) Often (3)

hard a hard nut to crack (3) a difficult problem to

solve (3)

hard lines! (3) bad luck (3)

high high and low (3) Everywhere (3)

Pretty

pretty much (3) Almost (3)

a pretty kettle of fish

(3) a confusing situation (3)


51

short short of (3) except

to have a short temper

(3) to be angry easily

thick to lay it on thick (3) to exaggerate it

thin a thin excuse (3) an unconvincing excuse

2

with nouns

end odds and ends (3) various small articles.

Matters (3)

to no end in vain

to come to a bad end

(3)

to develop in a criminal

case (3)

line

to drop someone a line

(2) to write to someone (3)

in line with (3) in agreement with (3)

mind to keep in mind (2) to remember (3)

to make up one's mind

(2)

To decide or do

something (3)

point to miss the point (3) not to understand

something (3)

way by way of (3) Through (3)

to have one's own way

(3) to do what one wants (3)

word big words (3) Boasting (3)

mark my words! (3) listen to me! (3)

world a man of the world (3) an experienced man (3)


3

pairs of

adjectives

few and far between

(3) rare (3)

free and easy (3) casual, unworried (3)

4 pairs of nouns body and soul (3) (with) one's entire self (3)

babes and sucklings

(3) innocent children (3)

5

Adjective +

noun phrase

a cat burglar (3)

A burglar who enters

house (3)

from the roof by climbing

flying colors (3)

to accomplish something

with

great success (3)

a hot potato (3)

an awkward issue to deal

with (3)

a sitting duck (3)

a person or object that is

easy to attack (3)

6 bags under the eyes dark skin under the eyes


52

Noun phrases

(3) (3)

a bed of roses (3) an easy situation (3)

the ins and outs (3) the know the full details

(3)

a bull in a China shop

(3)

a clumsy or an awkward

person (3)

7

adverbial

phrases

on and on (3) without stopping (3)

first and foremost (3) firstly; in the first place

(3)

by and large (3) on the whole (3)


8

to be +

noun/adjective

phrase

to be a party to

something (3) to take part in it (3)

to be a prey to

something (3) to be troubled by it (3)

9 to be +

prepositional

phrase

to be at daggers drawn

(3) to be enemies (3)

to be in good hands

(3) to be in care (3)

to be off the rails (3) to be in confusion (3)

to be in one's toes (3) ready to act (3)

to be out of one's

depth (3)

engaged in a difficult

work (3)

to be up tree (3) to be In difficulties (3)

to be under someone's

thumb (3)

to be under one's control

(3)

10 with common

verbs

break to break prison (3) to escape from prison (3)

bring to bring something to

light (3) to disclose it (3)

come to come clean (3) to tell the truth (3)

fall to fall flat (3) to be a failure, e.g. a joke,

performance (3)

11 with less

common verbs

to be barking up

the wrong tree (3)

to be making a mistake

(3)

to smell a rat (3)

to suspect that

something's wrong (3)

to stick around (3)

to stay in a place and wait

(3)

to burn midnight oil

(3)

to stay up late for working

or

studying (3)


53

Phrasal Verbs

No. Idioms Meaning Example

1 to pick out (2) to choose, select (2) If you want me to treat you to a

dessert, pick one out (2)

2 try on (2) to test (said only of

clothes) (2) Try this brown suit on next (2)

3 call off (2) to cancel (2) The workers call the strike off

(2)

4 put out (2) to extinguish (2) Put your cigarette out in that

ashtray! (2)

5 put off (2) to postpone (2) The meeting was put off until

next week (2)

6 turn around (2) to make an opposite

direction (2)

The man turned his car around.

(2)

7 to wear out (2) to become shabby (2) Rough roads wear my tires out.

(2)

8 to mix up (2) to confuse (2) The postman mixed up my mail.

(2)

9 to keep off (2) to stay away from (2) Keep off the grass! (2)

10 to call down (2) to reprimand (2) Johan was called down by his

boss for coming late. (2)

11 to burn down (2) to burn to the ground (2) Their home burned down and

they had to build a new one. (2)

12 to burn up (2) to burn completely (2) All his books were burned up in

the fire. (2)

13 to burn out (3) to stop functioning (2) If you overload that fuse, you

will burn it out. (2)

14 to take up (3) to study or begin a course

(2)

William wants to take up

medicine. (2)

15 to run over (3) to strike or pass over with

a moving vehicle (2)

The man was run over by a train

and killed. (2)

16 to cut out (3) to remove by cutting, to

stop doing something (2)

I wish I could cut out smoking.

(2)

17 to tear down (3) to demolish (2) They tore down the old building.

(2)

18 to tear up (3) to tear completely into

small pieces (2)

He tore up the letter and threw it

to the air. (2)

19 to cut up (3) To cut completely into

small pieces (2)

The butcher cut the meat up and

weighed it. (2)

20 to think up (3) to invent, discover (2) Every day they think up some

new tricks. (2)


54

Idioms from Special Situations

No. Theme Idioms Meaning Example

1

Banking

the rate of

interest (3)

the amount of money

charged by bank (3)

The businessmen checked

the rate of interest (3)

to cross a

cheque (3)

to draw two parallel

lines across it (3)

Wait, I would like to cross

a cheque. (3)

2

Business

bad debts

(3)

debts which are not

expected to be paid

(3)

I cannot imagine that I

have to pay these bad

debts. (3)

on business

(3)

for the purpose of

doing business (3)

We are on business, stop

disturbing me! (3)

to talk

business (3)

to talk about business

(3)

I cannot understand what

they are talking. They are

talking business. (3)

sharp

practices (3)

business dealings

which are not honest

(3)

The more sharp practices

we have, the more benefits

we will get. (3)

3

Buying and

selling

to shop

around (3)

to compare prices at

different shops before

buying (3)

it's better you shop around

to get the best price. (3)

to settle an

account (3) to pay a bill (3)

wait a moment, I've got to

settle an account. (3)

a shop-lifter

(3)

a person who steals in

the shop (3)

he used to be a shop-lifter

(3)

to be in/out

of pocket

(3)

to have/lack money

(3) (3)

but sorry, I can't go, I am

out of money now. (3)

to be up for

sale (3)

to be offered for sale

(3)

The store sells items that

are on sale. (3)

4

health,

illness,

death

to get over

an illness

(3)

to recover from it

completely (3)

By the time I come back,

she will get over an illness

(3)

to catch a

disease (3)

to become ill with it

(3)

I think, Ms. Mia is

catching a disease. (3)

to die by

one's own

hand (3)

to commit suicide (3) to commit suicide (3)

to die before

one's time

(3)

to die young (3) She died by her own hand

two years ago. (3)

to bring

someone

round (3)

to revive him (3) what a poor Joe, he died

before his time. (3)

a a tourist who turns his I have got to bring my


55

5

Holiday and

Travel

rubberneck

(3)

head as much as

possible when seeing

sightseeing (3)

brother around. (3)

to put

someone up

(3)

to provide him bed

and food (3)

Funny tourist! he's a

rubberneck. (3)

to go on

holiday (3)

to have vacation by

air, land, sea (3)

I put my girlfriend up

when we had holiday. (3)

to sleep in

the open (3)

to sleep out of doors

(3)

it feels hot here, I'm going

to sleep in the open. (3)

No. Theme Idioms Meaning Example

6

Motoring

to have a

smash (3)

to have quite bad

incident (3)

He had a smash 15 years

ago, that is why he has a

trauma. (3)

a dead end

(3)

a road which does not

lead anywhere (3)

Now we are lost in this

dead end, any idea? (3)

to hog the

road (3)

to drive in the middle

of the road. (3)

The gangsters love to hog

the road. (3)

to put one's

foot down

(3)

to drive fast (3)

Hold your horses! you

don't have to put your foot

down. (3)

7

Politics and

government

a back-

bencher (3)

a less important

member of the

Commons (3)

as we have known, Sir

Alex Schmidt is just a

back-bencher. (3)

the right/left

wing (3)

the parliamentary

members whose

views are more

extreme (3)

The left wing is trying to

be a dictator in the

parliament. (3)

8

telephoning

a party line

(3)

a telephone line

shared to two or more

people (3)

we had a party line

yesterday. (3)

a trunk call

(3)

a long distance call

(3)

That was just a trunk call.

(3)

9 work and

industrial

relations

to make

someone

redundant

(3)

to end a worker's

employment because

he is no longer

needed (3)

Let's say that we are

planning to make him

redundant at this company.

(3)

a white-

collar

worker (3)

an office worker (3) Neither the white-collar

workers nor the blue-collar

workers aren't afraid to

give a strike. (3) a blue-collar

worker (3) a manual worker


56

Appendix 2

1 January 2014 Last updated at 10:16

'Obamacare' health reforms come into

force in US

The federal website offering a range of health care plans has suffered a number of

technical problems since its launch in October

Millions of Americans are to receive health insurance cover for the first time as

President Obama's flagship healthcare reforms come into effect.

The reforms are part of the president's aim to ensure affordable healthcare is

available to everyone.

But the policy is controversial and the roll-out of the new system has been beset

with problems.

Some religious-affiliated groups won a last-minute reprieve from being forced to

provide birth control cover.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor temporarily blocked the government

from forcing such groups to offer health insurance that would include

contraception.

She acted at the request of a group of Catholic nuns in Colorado, the Little Sisters

of the Poor, who had earlier lost their request for a preliminary injunction at an

appeals court in Denver.

They had argued that the ruling conflicted with the Catholic Church's stance

against the use of contraceptives.

Glitches

Obamacare setbacks

Nov 27: Year's delay in online insurance enrolment for small businesses

Nov 26: Spanish-language sign-up tool is postponed until December

Nov 22: Enrolment deadline for individuals is pushed back a week in

December


57

Nov 14: Obama announces insurers can keep customers on existing plans

for another year

Oct 23: Deadline for individuals to avoid penalties is pushed back six

weeks to March 2014

July: Businesses with over 50 workers given until 2015 to provide

insurance or pay a penalty

Under the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, it is now

compulsory for people to have health cover - either provided for by their employer

or by buying one of the private health plans now on offer.

Those who cannot afford it will get help, but those without any insurance will be

fined.

As of 1 January 2014, health insurance companies are also no longer able to deny

coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

More than 2.1 million people have enrolled so far for private health plans - short

of the government's original target.

But the phased roll-out of the new law has suffered a number of difficulties.

The federal website offering the new health plans was plagued with technical

glitches when it was launched in October. There were long sign-in wait times, log-

in difficulties, insurance account creation problems, slow page loads and outages.

Insurance companies have also announced the cancellation of millions of policies,

saying they did not meet the law's minimum requirements.

This came despite President Obama's promise that people would not be forced to

move from plans they were happy with.

Mr Obama's approval ratings fell in the wake of the problems, but the White

House says things have been fixed, the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan reports from

Washington.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-25565898


58

Appendix 3

Minna's skirts are all the rage . . .

Published: 10/06/2008 00:00 - Updated: 19/02/2009 09:25

Written by SAMERA KHATOON

A FASHION student is set to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Stella

McCartney, Julien Macdonald and Hussein Chalayan by showcasing her creations

at Graduate Fashion Week.

Minna Ramsay, 22, of Burton Road,

Branston, has been chosen from hundreds

of promising fashion students from around

the country to show off her designs at the

event, which was taking place at London's

Earls Court today.

Miss Ramsay is a final year student at

Manchester Metropolitan University

(MMU) and will be one of 20 MMU

fashion students chosen to showcase their

work.

She said: "I'm so excited to have been

chosen to show my collection at Graduate

Fashion Week, especially considering some

of the designers who started their careers

there, I hope my garments get a great

response."

Miss Ramsay, who one day hopes to develop her own high-end fashion label, is

said to take her inspiration for the collection to be shown from the 1920s,

especially a coat from that era which has been passed down through her family.

She said: "Whatever happens I'm going to enjoy every minute of it."

Manchester Metropolitan University is traditionally one of the strongest fashion

schools in the country, and will also be showing off Miss Ramsay's work at the

University's Manchester Fashion Show on Monday, June 16.

Programme Leader for Fashion at MMU Alison Welsh, said: "It's difficult for

designers starting out to get noticed by the fashion industry and Minna has done

fantastically well to be picked for Graduate Fashion Week."


59

Graduate Fashion Week offers a selection of the best fashion students from

around the country a platform to show off their talents in front of some of the

biggest names in the business including, Donna Karan, Gucci and Calvin Klein as

well as press and industry professionals from around the globe.

Read more: http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/News/Minnas-skirts-are-all-the-rage-

.htm#ixzz2zguBJWkw


60

Appendix 4

July 20, 2011

“Frank Talk” in the New York Post?

Posted by Samantha Henig

The New York Post cover this morning was, in some respects, just what you’d

expect the day after James and Rupert Murdoch endured hours of questions from

members of Parliament. The headline: ―ALL IN THE FAMILY.‖ Beside it, a

white-haired man with a furrowed brow and the look that he’d like to be anywhere

but there. The man in question: Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The paper doesn’t even

mention yesterday’s inquiry until Page 35, where an uncharacteristically dry

headline reads: ―Frank Talk at Probe: Murdochs testify in UK.‖ And the family

referred to in the Post headline is that of Tristane Banon, who has accused D.S.K.

of rape. Her mother, Anne Mansouret, says she had a ―consensual but brutal‖ fling

with the former I.M.F. chief.

This is hardly the first example of News Corp. properties shying away from

covering the phone-hacking scandal ensnaring their boss. (We at The New Yorker

have had no such compunction!) But today’s tabloid disparity is particularly

jarring: its rival, the Daily News, came through with the two-inch-high play on

words you’d expect—―HUMBLE PIE.‖

Elsewhere in the press, the coverage was drier, though still front-page: ―Murdochs

Deny That They Knew of Illegal Acts‖; ―Murdochs Apologize to Lawmakers‖;

―Murdochs Are Grilled.‖ One of these things, as ―Sesame Street‖ would sing it, is

not like the others. The passive voice; the implicit focus on those doing the


61

grilling rather than the ones doing the denying or apologizing. If I were to say that

the headlines came from today’s front pages of the New York Times, the

Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, would anyone struggle to

determine which one came from the News Corp.-owned property?

Source: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/07/murdoch-

new-york-post.html


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