89 strategies would help the students, especially ELESP students to comprehend
English idioms. To explore more the effectiveness of those strategies in helping the students to acquire the intended meanings of English idioms, in the following
section, the researcher provides the data and discusses the findings.
B. The Effectiveness of the Strategies
The second problem which will be solved is about the effectiveness of using certain strategies to lead semester four students of ELESP to arrive at the
intended meanings. In the previous part, it has been stated that every student has their own choice to use certain strategies which are considered can help them to
process the meanings of English idioms. However, this preference does not mean that all the strategies chosen can lead the semester four students to the actual
meanings. Somehow, although the strategies have been used effectively, the intended meanings still cannot be acquired. This fact is supported by the results
found in this investigation. Similar to the previous section, the researcher is going to discuss the
findings separately in this part. Its aim is to get thorough and deeper discussion on the role of a certain category in helping the students to find the intended
meanings. In an attempt to answer the second question in this study, the researcher will display the total of the intended meanings answered in this
investigation in the following table, table 4.7:
90
4.7 Total of the Intended Meanings Acquired in this Research No.
Idiom Frequency
Relative Frequency
f
1 put all your eggs in one basket
5 4.13
2 dead beat
7 5.79
3 break the neck
- -
4 in the nick of time
8 6.61
5 apple of one’s eye
8 6.61
6 drink like a fish
11 9.09
7 burn the candle at both ends
3 2.48
8 fall on her feet
1 0.83
9 a fish out of water
6 4.96
10 call it a day
11 9.09
11 trump card
6 4.96
12 the devil to pay
- -
13 an eye for en aye
13 10.74
14 under the weather
26 21.49
15 weather the storm
16 13.22
Total 121
Table 4.7 shows that although the participants used either a single strategy or using combination of some strategies to reveal the meanings of English idioms,
not all the intended meanings could be achieved and not all the participants could find the actual meanings of the idioms in the questionnaire. Table 4.7 displays that
there are only 121 intended meanings which could be revealed by the students out of 450 meanings. It is only 28.89 of the total. Having seen the results, it can be
stated that the highest frequency 21.40 belongs to idiom under the weather,
meaning to say that the meaning of this idiom can be acquired by most of the
participants 26 students. In the second position, there is an idiom weather the storm
with 13.22 revealed by 16 respondents. And the frequency of the other
13 idioms is not that high. They cannot even reach 10, only idiom an eye for an eye
which can touch slightly above 10.74, and two idioms drink like a fish and call it a day which can almost achieve 10 9.09. There are two other
91
idioms which even cannot be answered by any student, namely, break the neck and the devil to pay.
There are many factors which influence the findings especially from the participants themselves. Sometimes, although some participants use the same
strategies, not all the respondents could acquire the meanings. It shows that individual ability has an important role in comprehending English idioms. Or
another aspect is the characteristics shared by the English idioms. Some of the idioms might be too unfamiliar for the students or the idioms have low
transparency so that when the participants tried to process the meanings it was too difficult for them. And there are other possible reasons why the intended
meanings cannot be acquired at all. The outcome has relation to the classification of idioms and the types of
idioms. It has been clarified in the previous section that the characteristics shared by the idioms can be the minor influencing factors to reveal the intended meaning
of certain idioms. Therefore, in the following table, table 4.8, the researcher will show the results of classification of those English idioms used in this
investigation, especially in the second questionnaire.
4.8 Classification of the Idioms No.
Idiom Categorization of
Idioms Types Idioms
1 put all your eggs in one basket
Pure idiom Verb + Noun Phrase
2 dead beat
Pure idiom Adjective + Noun
3 break the neck
Pure idiom Verb + Noun Phrase
4 in the nick of time
Literal idiom Noun phrase
5 apple of one’s eye
Pure idiom Noun phrase
6 drink like a fish
Pure idiom Verb + Noun Phrase
7 burn the candle at both ends
Pure idiom Verb + Noun Phrase
8 fall on her feet
Pure idiom Verb + Noun Phrase
92
No. Idiom
Categorization of Idioms
Types Idioms
9 a fish out of water
Pure idiom Noun phrase
10 call it a day
Literal idiom Verb + Noun Phrase
11 trump card
Pure idiom Noun phrase
12 the devil to pay
Pure idiom Noun phrase
13 an eye for en aye
Pure idiom Noun phrase
14 under the weather
Pure idiom Prep. + Noun Phrase
15 weather the storm
Pure Idiom Verb + Noun Phrase
Not included in the seven categories Table 4.8 shows that most of the idioms used in the second questionnaire
– the main instrument to gather the data for this research
– belong to pure idioms. It means that those idioms are difficult to be processed because the intended
meanings of those idioms have nothing to do with the meanings of the words which compose the idioms. Therefore, it is reasonable if the findings show that
there are not many intended meanings can be acquired by the participants. Moreover, the researcher also has classified the idioms into their types. The
purpose of understanding the types of certain idioms is to help people to determine the effective strategy which can be used to reveal the intended
meanings. The categorization of the words also has relation with factors in
comprehending idioms, especially about the degree of transparency and the degree
of familiarity. In the idiom under the weather, although it has low degree of
transparency, this idiom is quite familiar in daily conversations. Therefore, from 30 participants, almost all of them could guess the meaning 26 participants;
while in weather the storm, a slight half of the participants could acquire the actual meaning 16 students, and in an eye for an eye, 13 participants could
reveal the intended meaning.
93 Besides those three idioms which can be at the top three positions among
other English idioms in the questionnaire, there are two idioms the meanings of
which could not be acquired by the participants, namely, break the neck and the devil to pay
. It has been stated clearly that there is no participant who could find
the actual meanings. Break the neck
– belongs to pure idiom - the meaning of which: to accomplish the most important or difficult part, has low degree of
transparency. There is no relation between achievement and breaking a neck.
However, if it is examined more clearly, for both human being and animal, neck is an important part for their body. If somebody or something hurts the neck,
something bad will happen: causing death see appendix 1. Therefore, if somebody is
breaking one’s neck, it means that he has done something serious: achieve something great. Similar to break the neck, in the devil to pay belong
to pure idiom, it also has low transparency. There is not enough information from the idiom to lead the participants to the actual meaning: heavy price.
In the following section, after explaining the number of the intended meanings which can be revealed in this investigation, the researcher is going to
discuss how the strategies lead the students to arrive at the correct meanings in different categories: the effectiveness of using one strategy, the effectiveness of
using two strategies and the effectiveness of using three and more strategies. In addition, the researcher will explain the frequency of all strategies which lead the
participants to the actual meanings. If in the previous discussion the researcher explains the relation between
acquiring intended meanings and the characteristics shared by the idioms
94 classification into pure idioms, semi-idioms, and literal idioms and also types of
idioms, now, the researcher will move to how the relation between using certain strategies and revealing the intended meanings of English idioms. The explanation
on the effectiveness of using one strategy will start the discussion. The following table, table 4.9, displays the effectiveness of using one strategy to acquire the
intended meanings.
4.9 Effectiveness of Using One Strategy No.
Strategies Frequency
Relative Frequency f
1 Strategy 1
4 6.90
2 Strategy 2
30 51.72
3 Strategy 3
1 1.72
4 Strategy 4
14 24.14
5 Strategy 5
4 6.90
6 Strategy 6
1 1.72
7 Other strategies
4 6.90
Table 4.9 shows the frequency of the effectiveness of using only one strategy. The finding displays that strategy 2 takes the participants more to the
correct meanings than other single strategies. It achieves the highest percentage 52.72. By using context, regardless of the characteristics shared by the idioms,
people still have the access to collect the information which can help them to find the meanings. At least context can give clues of what actually the idioms are
about. In the second position, there is strategy two 24.14. The same principle also owned by strategy 4. By making use of the systems to process verbal and
nonverbal information together, people are able to find the actual meanings of English idioms although there is not much information carried by the idioms. The
results imply that in using single-strategy category, strategy 2 is considered as the
95 most effective strategy which leads the participants to the correct meanings. If the
findings are depicted in a chart, then the illustration will be as follows:
4.3 Chart of the Effectiveness of Using One Strategy
The pie chart in figure 4.3 shows that the yellow part fills more than half of the whole chart. It dominates other single strategies. Another bigger part is
occupied by strategy 4. While other small parts less than 10 are occupied by strategy 1, strategy 3, strategy 5, strategy 6, and other strategies. The results
depicted as figure 4.3 are more or less like the chart in figure 4.1 on the frequency of strategies single and combination. Strategy 2 and strategy 4 also occupy
bigger parts in the pie chart compared to other strategies. It can be inferred that besides being the major strategies used by semester four students of ELESP,
strategy 2 and strategy 4 also become the most effective strategies which lead the semester four students to the intended meanings compared to other single
strategies. As well as discussing the major combinations of two strategies used by the
participants, the researcher also analyzes how the combinations of two strategies
96 take the respondents to the correct meanings. The following table, table 4.10,
displays the frequency of the effectiveness of using combination of two strategies which lead the students to the intended meanings of English idioms. Among the
combinations, again, the combination of strategy 2 and strategy 4 achieves the top position 37.5. It is fantastic numbers because other combinations cannot even
reach 10, such as the combination of strategy 2 and strategy 3 9.375 which lead the students to the correct meaning three times and the combination of
strategy 5 and strategy 6 6.25 which lead the students to the correct meaning twice. Even, there are some combinations which only can reach 3.125 which
means that they are only occur once or they only can lead the students to the correct meanings once.
4.10 Effectiveness of Using Two Strategies No.
Strategies Frequency
Relative Frequency f
1 Strategy 1 and strategy 2
2 6.25
2 Strategy 1 and strategy 4
1 3.125
3 Strategy 1 and strategy 6
1 3.125
4 Strategy 2 and strategy 3
3 9.375
5 Strategy 2 and strategy 4
12 37.5
6 Strategy 2 and strategy 5
2 6.25
7 Strategy 2 and strategy 6
3 9.375
8 Strategy 3 and strategy 5
1 3.125
9 Strategy 4 and strategy 5
2 6.25
10 Strategy 4 and strategy 6
1 3.125
11 Strategy 5 and strategy 6
2 6.25
12 Strategy 1 and other strategy
1 3.125
13 Strategy 4 and other strategy
1 3.125
The frequency shown in table 4.10 implies that the combination of strategy 2 and strategy 4 takes the participants more to the correct meanings compared to
other combinations. It also means that it becomes the most effective strategy in
97 this category: using combination of two strategies. Having analyzed the findings,
the researcher tries to find the connection between using these two strategies together and their effectiveness in helping the students to find the actual
meanings. Then, the researcher deduces that by using the mental representation and context at the same time to acquire the intended meanings of English idioms,
it does help the students to reveal the intended meanings. By imagining the words on the idioms, the students will have some pictures of the meanings of the English
idioms. By using context which can tell more information about what idioms are about, the actual meanings will be acquired more easily. This claim is also
supported by the results of the interview. Some interviewees admitted that the existence of context was really helpful for them to comprehend the meanings of
idioms. Moreover, one of them also said that when she encountered idiom, she would try to make some pictures
– imagining the pictures based on the words which constructed the idiom - and after that, she used the context where the
idioms took place to help her to acquire the intended meaning. Hence, by combining strategy 2 and strategy 4, it can make people to have better
understanding in comprehending the meanings of idioms. In this part, the researcher also includes the explanation on the findings of
using three even more strategies at the same time to comprehend idioms. There are 16 combinations displayed in table 4.11 and they do not show great
differences on their frequency. There is only one combination strategy 2, strategy 3, and strategy 4 which attains the highest position 15, but there are two
combinations which occupy the second position, namely, the combination of
98 strategy 1, strategy 2, and other strategy and the combination of strategy 3,
strategy 4, and other strategy; while the rest only reach 5 which means they occur once to lead the students to the intended meanings. The results show that
there is no great range between the lowest and the highest percentage in this table. Moreover, the findings also explain that there is no big difference in terms of the
effectiveness of using combination of three or more strategies in comprehending the meanings of English idioms. Almost all the combinations only occur once in
leading the participants to the intended meaning; only those three top combinations occur twice and three times.
Although logically the more strategies used, the more actual meanings can be acquired, the fact is different. Although the participants used the combinations
of some strategies, it does not show a significant role to help the students to find the correct meanings. The following table, table 4.11, shows the frequency of the
effectiveness of all the combinations of using three and more strategies:
4.11 Effectiveness of Using Three and More Strategies
No. Strategies
Frequen cy
Relative Frequency f
1 Strategy 1, strategy 2, and strategy 4
1 5
2 Strategy 1, strategy 2, and strategy 6
1 5
3 Strategy 1, strategy 3, and strategy 6
1 5
4 Strategy 1, strategy 5, and strategy 6
1 5
5 Strategy 2, strategy 3, and strategy 4
3 15
6 Strategy 2, strategy 3, and strategy 6
1 5
7 Strategy 2, strategy 4, and strategy 5
1 5
8 Strategy 2, strategy 4, and strategy 6
1 5
9 Strategy 1, strategy 2, and other strategy
2 10
10 Strategy 2, strategy 4, and other strategy
1 5
11 Strategy 3, strategy 4, and other strategy
2 10
12 Strategy 1, strategy 2, strategy 5, and strategy 6
1 5
13 Strategy 2, strategy 3, strategy 4, and strategy 6
1 5
14 Strategy 2, strategy 4, strategy 5, and strategy 6
1 5
15 Strategy 1, strategy 2, strategy 4, and other strategy
1 5
16 Strategy 2, strategy 5, strategy 6, and other strategy
1 5
99
To encourage the readers to understand the findings, the researcher also presents the frequency in the form of bar chart. If figure 4.4 is examined carefully,
it can be seen that the length of the bars are the same except for the three bars. Among 16 combinations of some strategies, 13 combinations share the same
frequency. Moreover, if the findings are connected to the occurrence of the combinations, each of those combinations only occurs once and it means that it
succeeds lead the participants to the intended meanings only once. By looking at the results, the researcher claims that the combinations of three strategies or more
are not really effective to help the participants to reveal the meanings of English idioms.
4.4 Chart of Effectiveness of Using Three and More Strategies
Besides analyzing the effectiveness of using strategies to comprehend the intended meanings of English idioms separately, the researcher also tries to
100 investigate the effectiveness of using certain strategies in one table table 4.12.
However, the results do not show a great difference from the results of finding major strategies used to process the idioms. Strategy 2 27.27 still holds first
the position to be the most effective strategy among other strategies which can help the participants to find the correct meanings of English idioms. In the second
position, still, there is strategy 4 12.73 which is followed by the combination of strategy 2 and strategy 4 10.91. The major strategies used by semester four
students of ELESP also become the most effective strategies which can lead them to the intended meanings.
4.12 Frequency of All Stretegies which Lead to Intended Meanings
No. Strategies
Frequency Relative
Frequency f
1 Strategy 1
4 3.64
2 Strategy 2
30 27.27
3 Strategy 3
1 0.91
4 Strategy 4
14 12.73
5 Strategy 5
4 3.64
6 Strategy 6
1 0.91
7 Other strategies
4 3.64
8 Strategy 1 and strategy 2
2 1.82
9 Strategy 1 and strategy 4
1 0.91
10 Strategy 1 and strategy 6
1 0.91
11 Strategy 2 and strategy 3
3 2.73
12 Strategy 2 and strategy 4
12 10.91
13 Strategy 2 and strategy 5
2 1.82
14 Strategy 2 and strategy 6
3 2.73
15 Strategy 3 and strategy 5
1 0.91
16 Strategy 4 and strategy 5
2 1.82
17 Strategy 4 and strategy 6
1 0.91
18 Strategy 5 and strategy 6
2 1.82
19 Strategy 1 and other strategy
1 0.91
20 Strategy 4 and other strategy
1 0.91
21 Strategy 1, strategy 2, and strategy 4
1 0.91
22 Strategy 1, strategy 2, and strategy 6
1 0.91
23 Strategy 1, strategy 3, and strategy 6
1 0.91
24 Strategy 1, strategy 5, and strategy 6
1 0.91
101
No. Strategies
Frequency Relative
Frequency f
25 Strategy 2, strategy 3, and strategy 4
3 2.73
26 Strategy 2, strategy 3, and strategy 6
1 0.91
27 Strategy 2, strategy 4, and strategy 5
1 0.91
28 Strategy 2, strategy 4, and strategy 6
1 0.91
29 Strategy 1, strategy 2, and other strategy
2 1.82
30 Strategy 2, strategy 4, and other strategy
1 0.91
31 Strategy 3, strategy 4, and other strategy
2 1.82
32 Strategy 1, strategy 2, strategy 5, and strategy 6
1 0.91
33 Strategy 2, strategy 3, strategy 4, and strategy 6
1 0.91
34 Strategy 2, strategy 4, strategy 5, and strategy 6
1 0.91
35 Strategy 1, strategy 2, strategy 4, and other
strategy 1
0.91 36
Strategy 2, strategy 5, strategy 6, and other strategy
1 0.91
Total 110
Having analyzed the findings further, the researcher concludes that using many strategies is not a guarantee that it can help students to acquire the intended
meanings. The results shown in table 4.12 are the evidences. Although semester four students of ELESP used some strategies at the same time to find out the
intended meanings, the results show that there is only small frequency found in the table. In average, the combinations of the strategies only lead the participants
once to the correct meanings. The ability to recognize the intended meanings of English idioms is closely
related to the knowledge of theories of meanings. People who realize that there are many different types of meanings: conceptual meaning, connotative meaning,
social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning and thematic meaning Leech, 1981, p. 9 will also understand that idioms have what
is called as connotative meaning. Connotative meaning or usually called by figurative meaning is more than literal meaning which usually a word, a phrase or
102 a sentence has: the meaning carried by the word itself or the words which
compose the phrase or the sentence. Figurative meaning is usually found beyond
the words, such as in the idiom a piece of cake. The figurative meaning which is
owned by the idiom is not represented through the words; it is beyond the words. Therefore, people who realize this fact will have different consideration in
comprehending the intended meanings of English idioms. The study on finding the strategies used by ELESP students indicates that
most of ELESP students are not familiar enough with the English idioms. It is proved by the numbers of the meanings of English idioms which cannot be
revealed. Although the students realize their inability to comprehend English idioms, yet they know that it is importance to learn English idioms. In the
interview, most of the participants also said that it was essential for ELESP students to learn English idioms because somehow, they would be future teachers
who would teach the students about idioms or at least will encounter English idioms in the teaching process. Moreover, they also claimed that in their learning
process, they also sometimes found idioms. By comprehending English idioms, it will help them to enhance their knowledge and their English ability: using idioms
to beautify their language both in spoken and written form or improving their communicative competence by trying to avoid saying something hurt or
displeasure directly to someone by using idioms. To conclude this section, the researcher wants to state clearly that among
those strategies, there are three strategies from two different categories which are considered as the most effective strategies. They can lead semester four students
103 to the intended meanings. From using single-strategy category there are strategy 2
and strategy 4 and from using combined strategy category there is the combination of strategy 2 and strategy 4. The results are similar to the results of
finding majors strategies used to process the actual meanings of English idioms. Lastly, the researcher realizes that the findings of this study are only
limited to the major strategies used by ELESP students and the effectiveness of the strategies to lead ELESP students to the correct meanings. Recognizing the
limitations of this study, hence, the researcher provides some recommendations for the future research and current practice in the following chapter.
104
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
