English Figurative Chunks Teaching and Comprehension among Chinese Private University Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/abacodijournal.2022.25Keywords:
figurative language, chunks, figurative chunks, comprehension, L2 learner, translanguagingAbstract
The comprehension of figurative language is a known difficulty among L2 learners, particularly with idiomatic expressions. As such the teaching of figurative chunks is of great significance. This study involved a pedagogical intervention for teaching figurative chunks through translanguaging to improve students' idiomatic expressions. Based on pretest of 108 students' comprehension of figurative chunks, 40 students were selected to participate in the translanguaging pedagogical intervention. The effectiveness of teaching can be dtermined through observations, the comparison of students' test results, and interviews. The main factors affecting the comprehension of figurative chunks were literal meaning and contextual factors. L2 learners' initial comprehension of figurative chunks was difficult to change without considering other factors. Therefore, during teaching, the teacher guided students in analyzing context and improving the ability to make inferences from figurative chunks. Through this intervention, students were able to develop the semantic and pragmatic comprehensive mode of figurative chunks in a specific context, which improved students' comprehensive ability and communicative ability.
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