The Problems Encountered by EFL Students in Understanding and Using Idiomatic Expressions in English

Abstract

This paper investigated the difficulties encountered by the students in understanding and using idiomatic expressions in English. The objective of this study is to explore to what extent the students find obstacles in using and figuring out the figurative meaning of idiomatic expressions in English. It is also an attempt to find solutions to the problems faced by the students in using and understanding idiomatic expressions in different contexts.

The researcher used descriptive method to investigate and handle these problems in collecting data.  The researcher conducted a questionnaire for the students in order to explore the difficulties in understanding and guessing the figurative meaning of idiomatic expressions in English.

The sample of the study composed of 22 students of English who are studying in the third-year at Faculty of Education, Nasir, Department of English, Zawia University.

The findings of the study emphasized that the students faced obstacles in using and understanding idiomatic expressions. It was also found that the majority of teachers do not give adequate and intensive practice in enhancing their teaching and learning of idioms. The study also proved that the nature of complexity of the idiomatic expressions confused the students to guess their figurative meaning in different context. The study came with a set of recommendations which highlighted the aims and the problems mentioned before.