Omani EFL Learners' Proficiency in Using Idiomatic Expressions: Researched Pedagogical Perspectives

Abstract

The purpose of this pretest/posttest quasi-experimental study was to explore the strategies English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students use on understanding the meanings of idioms both in oral and written submissions. The study also investigated the strategies on comprehending the meaning of idioms and improving idiomatic vocabularies in the language learning processes to both English teachers and students. Further, the study began to identify the criteria of idiom and idiom-understanding aspects so that the identified EFL students will be able to guess and become familiar with frequently used idioms and their desired contexts.Omani university students in English 101 Basic Academic English course comprised the experimental (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. Both groups were exposed to the same curriculum and set of idioms. The experimental group received direct instructions: (pictures, videos and discussions) while learning idioms and the control group received input through traditional methods of lecturing in learning idioms. Students completed the Inference Task (Al-­‐hassan, Haidar 2007) as pretest and posttest. Results indicated that Direct Instruction of idioms provided significant improvement of students’ performance on the Inference Task.

Given the positive study outcomes, EFL teachers would benefit from incorporating visual aids, direct instructions and active discussions which will automatically support specific common idioms, increase students’ comprehension and thereby their communication skills.

Keywords: Omani EFL learners, idiomatic expressions, proficiency, direct instruction, inference task