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
2
nd
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 ForeignSecond 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 student
s’ 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 r
eferred 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 Thornbu
rry 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 learner
s from the intermediate ones‖ pp. 115-116. In a nutshell, learning lexical chunks will contribute a considerable
result towards the language learning progress.
