T1 112009014 Full text

TEACHING IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS FOR
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS OF SATYA WACANA
CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY: STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Ratna Widiarti
112009014

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013

TEACHING IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS FOR
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS OF SATYA WACANA
CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY: STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Ratna Widiarti
112009014

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or
accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any
other person except where due reference is made in the text.

Copyright@ 2013. Ratna Widiarti and Dra. Martha Nandari S. Handoko, M. A.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University, Salatiga.
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Teaching Idiomatic Expressions for English Department Students of Satya Wacana
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TEACHING IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS FOR
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS OF SATYA WACANA
CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY: STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES
Ratna Widiarti

Abstract
In order to communicate naturally, it is necessary for English Department students to learn
idioms and use them in written or spoken speeches. In fact, English Department students‟
abilities to use idiomatic expressions are very limited. Keeping this issue in mind, this paper
aims to present students‟ perspectives toward learning and teaching idioms in order to find
the best way of learning idiomatic expressions so that it raises teachers‟ creativities in
teaching and their willing to help their students learn idioms. In addition, this paper intends to

find what techniques teachers should use in teaching idiomatic expressions, which are helpful
to support their students learn idiomatic expressions. The 5 English Department students are
chosen as participants that are required to share their thought about learning idioms, their
own experiences in leaning idioms, and their thought about how their teachers should teach
them idioms. The results from the interviews reveal that students are interested in materials
that using idiomatic expressions, unfortunately there is no certain course that teaches idioms
specifically at The English Department. Mostly, the ways that students like to learn idioms
are by using media, by discussing, by remembering, and by practicing. Furthermore,
suggestions to teach idioms and help the students to learn idioms are provided throughout this
study.
Keywords: idioms, idiomatic expressions, teaching, learning, students‟ perspectives

Introduction

Idiomatic expression is a language style that is usually used by native speakers of
English to communicate naturally. It is kind of expression, which cannot be understood from
the literal meanings of the words of which they are composed (Rachmadys Sabrony,
1986:15). An idiom itself, is a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning,
which are different from the meanings of each word understood on their own (Cambridge
Advance Learner‟s Dictionary, 2003). Since idiomatic expressions are important part of

language for native speakers of English, it means that idioms are important for the English
learners.
Considering that importance, the writer assumed that English Department students
must learn idiomatic expressions. But, the problem is that it is not easy to make English-asforeign-language learners understand and be able to communicate using idiomatic
expressions. Moreover, English comes from some versions, like British English, American
English, Australian English, etc, which means there is no standard to use which culture to be
used in teaching English. Thus, knowing where the idioms came from is enough to identify
where those idiomatic expressions are appropriate to be used. In addition, the learners can use
idiomatic expressions from global English.
Based on the writer‟s experiences while studying at The English Department of Satya
Wacana Christian University, the writer finds that most English Department students use
idiomatic expressions rarely in their speech and writing, neither in classroom nor outside
classroom. One possible reason is that Indonesian as English learners might face difficulties
in mastering it.
The other difficulty in mastering idioms is like what Kaschak said in his book
“Idiomatic Syntactic Constructions and Language Learning (p. 46), cited from Fillmore et al.

(1988) that students‟ core grammar limit their idiomatic construction. In this case, the learner
will pass on the grammar they learned, so that everything will be translated as the way they
learn and based on their knowledge of grammar, whereas idiomatic expression cannot be

translated in that way.
Thinking about idiomatic expressions, besides Kaschak‟s study there was also a study
by Ismail Cakir from Kayseri, Turkey, about how learners perceive idioms in EFL classes.
The finding of that study shows that the idioms provided cannot be easily interpreted by the
students, except for identical and partly similar ones (Cakir, 2011), which means that in that
study the EFL students are lack of idioms. Cakir (2011) also noted in support of teaching
idioms,
“It should also be noted that in language teaching, it is not
pedagogical acceptable that some concepts like proverbs, idioms,
metaphors should be skirted. On the contrary, a good language
teacher should strive to teach them in a communicative and
meaningful way together with the culture of that target language in
order to foster learners‟ lexical competence (Cakir, 2011).”
In addition, Liu (2008, p. 124) remind us the reasons not to incorporate idiom learning into
the entire curriculum because idioms are best learned naturally in normal language use and
because of the amount of time allocation for exclusive idioms. Because of that, it is debatable
about using a special class only to teach idioms.
Considering those arguments, the writer wants to conduct a study to find appropriate
ways of teaching idiomatic expressions that are fit to English Departmet of Satya Wacana
Christian University students. Using some techniques provided by Liu and theories used by

some researchers, the writer interviewed the participants, which are the third and fourth year
students of English Department. This study is limited in scope of way or techniques in

teaching and learning idioms or idiomatic expressions. And the research questions to be
answered are “What do students think about the best way of learning idiomatic expressions,”
which is aimed to reveal what techniques that students think and experience are helpful for
them to learn idioms, and “What techniques do teachers have to use in teaching idiomatic
expressions?” By knowing students‟ needs and interests in their ways of learning idioms,

teachers may understand what they have to do to help their students learn idioms.
By finding those, the writer hopes that this study will be significant, not only for the
writer, but also for the reader. From students‟ perspectives, teachers hopefully will know and
understand what the students‟ interests in learning idiomatic expression are and consider
those perspectives to improve their techniques in teaching, especially teaching idioms, to
become more creative, interesting, and challenging for the students.
Idioms in Second/ Foreign Language Learning
Since this study is about students‟ of English Department students‟ perspectives, it is
necessary to know how idioms in forein language learning are. The use of idioms and
idiomatic expressions are characteristics of competency in a language.

Cakir (2011)

described that the failure of using them refers to the lack of pragmatic competence. If the
students cannot understand or produce idiomatic expressions it means they have not reached
a high level of second-language proficiency. Because of that, the ESL/EFL learners should
know how to use idioms in the right way and in appropriate context or collocation. By
learning idioms, learners are provided with a good opportunity to acquire information about a
language‟s culture (Agar, 1991; Glucksberg, 2001), which should not be underestimated
during the learning process.
What the Teachers Have To Do
Cakir (2011) stated that Idioms are usually used in a numerous of daily situations, and
consequently they must be taught as a part of the lesson in classroom until the students can

practice using idioms as the product. Because of that, teachers have to help students become
communicatively competent in target language. Teachers also should attempt to teach the
students in a communicative and meaningful way.
In delivering the lesson, teachers must consider students‟ levels in learning idiomatic
expressions. Tarcaoanu (2012) mentioned some levels in learning idiomatic expressions. One
of them is the historical level, where the idiomatic competence refers to traditional language
knowledge of a community which can draw a history of the idioms, and this is important

when a teacher teaches idioms because knowing the background or history of idioms they
teach is good to strengthen them in mastering the language itself.
The writer uses this theory as consideration and base of what the teachers should do.
Since what teachers have to do are not only limited above, the writer will explain more
techniques in the next parts. In addition, to grab what students think about how their teacher
should help them to learn idiomatic expressions, the writer asks the students about it in an
open-ended question in the writer‟s interview.
Teaching Idioms
The first thing teachers can do to teach idioms is by explaining the idioms. In a
classroom activity where a teacher teaches some language skills in a meeting, practicing
idioms sometimes may not be feasible or time cost-effective. In this situation, a teacher uses
idioms to speak or to give instructions then gives a brief explanation, and simplifying them.
This explanation helps students to notice them. Liu (2008) stated that when students listen to
a story, brief explanation about vocabulary items increases students‟ lexical learning. To
encourage it, teachers need to raise students‟ awareness and interest in idioms as what Liu
(2008) cited from Allis (2008) and Schmidt (1997) that idiom awareness is very important for
L2 learners because, as second language acquisition (SLA) theory suggested, noticing is

needed for language learning to take place (Liu, 2008). The following are techniques teachers
can use in teaching idioms to raise students‟ awareness and interests in idioms.

The courses students learn idioms.
Liu (2008 p. 124) remind us the reasons not to incorporate idiom learning into the
entire curriculum. These are because idioms are best learned naturally in normal language use
and because of the amount of time allocation for exclusive idioms. But, the writer thinks that
it is important to know in what courses students learn idioms to give a description of
idiomatic expressions teaching and learning in The English Department.
How the teacher teach idioms.
Liu‟s (2000a) study proved that teachers who provides assistance to their students
when practice using idioms are very limited. Mostly, they used three principal explanations
strategies, which are definition, elaboration, and paraphrasing to help students grasp the new
idioms.
Tarcoanu (2012) provided different steps in teaching idioms and their meaning. The
first step is choose 5-8 idioms that may be easily to be grouped. Then introduce idioms in
context, not in the isolation. Third, students create the conversations using the idioms. After
that, students act their conversations. Students also can practice those using games and
activities. And they use them in their real life as authentic material.
The materials related to idioms given.
An example of material related to idioms is teachers can use reading passage or
listening passages (depends on the focus of language skills) that contain idioms as the
material in classroom activity, then ask the students to identify and discuss it (Liu, 2008 p.
141). If teachers use material contains idioms to teach the students, then explain or discuss it,
the writer sure, that students can produce better idioms.

Learning idioms in daily use.
Liu (2008) shared what Irujo (1986b) said that exploring idioms by reading and
discussing idioms in cartoon, comics strips, TV, and other media are fun and very helpful for
college students, especially intermediate and higher level students. Teacher can encourage
them by asking them to write down the idioms they encounter and then grab the meaning of
them.
From those media, students learn idioms as the contents of media they find, and
connect those contents to students‟ real life. This kind of activity is included in Contextual
Teaching and Learning (CTL). Based on Berns and Erickson (2001) theory, CTL help
students to connect the contents they are learning in classroom with the real life and this
learning process will build their understanding of meaning, which in this context is an idiom.
Discussing idioms.
Students read and highlight all the idioms in a reading passage or other natural
language data (Liu, 2008). Then, teacher asks the students to discuss with their partners about
the meaning and uniqueness of highlighted idioms. But, the writer also asks the students
about how discussion helps them to learn idioms.
Knowing culture of idioms.
Liu (2008) said that idioms are conceptually motivated figurative expressions, and
conceptual motivation of idioms sometime may vary from culture to culture. Some idioms
that exist in L2 may be absent in L1, which makes students face difficulty. Considering it,
teachers have to help the students to develop their understanding of cultural knowledge. Cakir
(2011) also said that establishing students‟ mutual understanding of culture and cultural value
of the language is an important thing that teachers should put in their teaching agenda.

How native language affect idioms learning process.
Liu (2008) gives an example of identifying and comparing idioms in L1 and L2.
Students have to examine, compare, and contrast the idioms, so that students become more
conscious not only of the ubiquitous existence of idioms but also of the similarities and
differences between idioms and different languages. And the writer asks the students about
how their native language idioms affect idioms learning process, either by contrasting it or by
finding the similarity.
Learning idioms through corpus research.
Teacher asks the students to repeatedly notice and read idioms in authentic context
(corpus), then determine the context and register, or to decide whether the idioms have
negative or positive meaning (Liu, 2008). Conducting corpus research is a very challenging
and complex task. The research assignment should be specific and the teacher guides the
students continuously.
Figurative meaning vs literal meaning.
According to Grant (2007), a person needs to first understand the literal meaning and
recognize its untruth in the context, and then “pragmatically” reinterpret it to find the
intended truth or meaning, in working out the meaning of a figurative idiom. The teacher has
to make sure that the students understand all the words in the idiom and the literal meaning of
the idiom. Liu (2008) added that is because students generally need to understand the literal
meaning to work out the meaning of a figurative idiom. It facilitates in-depth comprehension
and memorization of the idioms.
Students’ own way of learning.
The other useful activities are picture drawing and the dramatization of idioms, but
this is preferable for young learners and students with low English proficiency. This is a kind
of student-center activity. It was stated in Liu (2008) that student-centered activity is very

efficient to develop students‟ understanding of idioms and other figurative language
elements. Here, the writer does not only limit the students‟ ways of learning in that way, but
also open for their answers.
Students’ expectation.
Expectation is something that perhaps does not need any theory. However, here the
writer provides some interesting activities that are used as the example that students might
expect their teachers to conduct it in their learning process. This is aimed to give the
participants what the writer means when asks them about their expectations. Those activities
are not limited in the classroom meeting, because Liu (2008) said that classes are not the
most effective instructional setting for idiom learning. Here, the activities are such as by
using idiom corner, which is a space on a wall in a classroom or inside the faculty building
used to post idioms that students have encountered or that the teacher would like students to
learn (Liu, 2008). Besides useful for the writers of the idioms, it is also useful for the readers,
because they can read the idioms and learn the idioms unconsciously. Guessing idiom
meanings by using contextual information is very useful and effective. In this activity, firstly
look at the idiom very closely to see what grammatical function it plays. Next, examine the
immediate context, and then move on to the larger context. Liu (2008) proposed the type of
clues to look for to help figure out an idiom meaning, which include cause-effect, contras/
antonym, explanation/ definition, and synonymous expressions.

The Study
Context of the Study
This research was a qualitative study, which was meant to find some useful and
helpful ways to learn idiomatic expressions, based on students‟ perspectives, compared to the
literature review and their own opinions. The writer also wanted to reveal what teachers can
do to help their students learning idiomatic expressions.
The setting of the study took place in Satya Wacana Christian University, a private
University located in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. Considering that idiomatic
expressions are not included in The English Department‟s courses, the subjects of this small
study are not limited by the course they have taken. The reason of choosing The English
Department of The Faculty of Language and Literature was that the writer saw and
experienced that the students rarely use idiomatic expressions in their speech, whether in
written or spoken language. And it has made the writer curious to explore what the students
like or want to make them interested in learning idiomatic expressions and using them
actively.

Participants
The subjects of this research are 5 students who are in the third or fourth year study at
The English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University. The writer chose five
students instead of hundreds of students of ED because some students gave similar answers in
some questions. Thus, it would be more efficient for the writer to use only five students of
English Department who are in the third or fourth year students. The researcher chose the
participants randomly, provided that the participants know what an idiom is. Considering that
the use of idiomatic expression is a kind of skill, the researcher selected the students who
were in semester 4 or above (the third or fourth year students) at The English Department.

The reason is that in those levels of study, the students have learned the language skill
courses. Since the gender was not a variable in this study, the subjects were not grouped in
terms of gender, so that the numbers of students from both genders were freely selected.

Instruments
In this study, the interview was used as the main instrument to collect the main data.
The interviews were semi-structured interviews, which included 13 open-ended questions and
some unstructured questions to gather additional information from the students.

Data Collection Procedure
The data were gathered through a semi-structured interview with 13 questions, but the
researcher followed up some points if the writer needed more information. The interviews
were recorded. The time given was approximately 15-20 minutes for each participant.
Finally, the recordings were transcribed and analyzed by grouping the data based on the
category derived from the data that the researcher has made.

Data Analysis
In the data analysis procedure, in order to answer the research question, the categories
were derived from the data and analyzed. The students‟ responses to the open-ended
questions, which were not stated in the literature review, were accepted as their own ideas.
The data were analyzed according to the theory that the writer stated in the literature review
by comparing the theory with the data. Finally, after finishing the categorization and
analyzing of the data, the writer then concluded and got the findings.

Discussion
Students’ Understanding of Idiomatic Expressions
According to Rachmadys Sabrony (1986:15), an idiomatic expression is an
expression, which cannot be understood from the literal meanings of the words of which they
are composed. And according to Cambridge Advance Learner‟s Dictionary (2003), an idiom
is group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning, which are different from the
meanings of each word understood on their own.
From the five ED students that the writer interviewed, all of them said that they quite
know about idioms, but some of them said that they just know a little bit. The Student A said
that she does not know theoretically about what an idiom is. She thinks an idiom is kind of
words that express something in an indirectly way. She gave the example of “running nose”
and explained that it does not mean that the nose runs and leaves the face, but it means
someone who gets influenza. Student B said that an idiom is a kind of sentence that has a
meaning behind it, or in other words, the meaning is not explicit, but implicit. Student C said
that an idiom or idiomatic expression is kind of expression whose meaning is different from
the real meaning. Student D said that an idiom is kind of special expression. He added that
every language has its own different expression that delivers the special meaning and it is
kind of part of culture. And Student E said that firstly she taught that an idiom or idiomatic
expression is the same as a proverb. But, then she knew that an idiom is a special expression
that is used in special situations.
To make sure that they really know about what an idiom or idiomatic expression is,
the writer gave them three examples of phrases. They were “down to earth”, “my name is”,
and “the floor is yours”. Student A, Student B, Student C, and Students D chose the first and
the third one as the idiom. And Students E chose only the third phrase as the idiom.

From the data above, the writer finds that the participants quite know what an idiom
or idiomatic expression is and they can identify which are included as idioms. Even though
they did not understand it theoretically, but they can grasp the concept of how idioms are. It
is shown by their ability to choose the idiomatic expressions from examples given. And,
comparing the definitions of idioms and idiomatic expressions above with their answers, it
seems that they need more explanation about idiomatic expressions until they can describe
what an idiom is, based on the theory. It is important to understand the theory of idioms
because there are also words or phrases, which are formed in special or fixed form but they
are not idioms. It may cause confusion if the students do not understand idioms well. The
example of confusion can be found from what students E said that previously she thinks
idioms are just the same as proverb, but then she thinks that they are different. She also faces
difficulties when she chose the idioms from examples given. She only chose the third one
instead of first and third.
Courses That Teach Idioms or Idiomatic Expressions
Cakir (2011) said that idioms are usually used in numerous daily situations in the
target language, and consequently it should be included in the syllabus and should be taught.
Actually, The English Department syllabus does not include any idiom or idiomatic
expression chapter in any course. When asked in what course the students learn idiomatic
expression, Student A said that she knew idioms from grammar class, but she forgot about
what kind of grammar that taught her about idioms. Students B said that she learned
idiomatic expressions from Introduction to Linguistics, Semantics, and English to Indonesian
Translation. Students C said that she learned idioms from Cross Cultural Understanding class
and Semantics. Students D said that he learned idiomatic expressions from Basic Grammar,
Semantics, Cross Cultural Understanding, and a class that he forgot what class it was, but he
remembered that the teacher was one of the native speakers of English. Student E said that

she got idioms from Semantics Class and American Literature, which was taught by a native
speaker of English.
The data show that the participants mentioned different courses that taught them about
idiomatic expressions. It is obvious that the fact that students learned idiomatic expression in
English Department do not depend on what courses they have taken, but it depends on the
teachers that taught them. Compare those answers to what Liu (2008) said that idioms are
best learned naturally in normal language use, additionaly it needs more time allocation for
exclusive idioms. From data above, the writer finds that most of the participants learn
idioms from Semantics course. One student who did not say the same was a student who did

not take Semantic course yet. It means that they learn idioms in Semantics, a course which
teaches the students about the meaning of words. But, relating their answers in number one,
the writer thinks that the material of idioms which are taught in Semantics are very limited
because the focus of Semantic course is not idiomatic expressions, thus there are only a few
exaple of idioms in the materials. And the rests of courses that they mentioned are various,
two of them are CCU, and one for Grammar, Introduction to Linguistics, English-Indonesian
Translation, Basic Grammar, and American Literature. It shows different courses and it
means that idioms are not included as part of the syllabus . Also considering the answers of
two students, about the teacher who are native speakers of English, the writer thinks that
besides idioms that included in the materials or passages, students learned idiomatic
expression does not depend on what courses they have taken, but it depends on the teachers
that taught them. If the teachers have many idiomatic expressions, they can share it to their

students, as the native speaker of English teachers did for these students.
How the teachers teach idioms.
To know more about the ways their teachers teach them idiomatic expressions, the
writer questioned about how the teacher taught or introduced idiomatic expressions to the

students. Student A, B, C, and D answered that their teachers explain about idiomatic
expressions and give the example of idiomatic expressions, but especially for Student C‟s
teacher, he/ she started by asking the students to write an essay about a metaphor and told the
similarities and differences. Student D‟s teacher also shared idioms he/ she has, similar to
what Student E‟s teacher who inserted the idioms spontaneously when they were teaching in
classroom.
Comparing Liu‟s (2000a) finding that mostly, teachers used three principal
explanations strategies, which are definition, elaboration, and paraphrasing to help students
grasp the new idiom, data above reveal that English Department teachers mostly share the
idiomatic expressions they have as the way they teach idioms. It can be seen from answers

given by Student A, Student D, and Student E. Because of that, the more teachers know
about idioms, the more they can share them to their students . For example native speakers

of English who have many idioms, they can share more to their students. Different ways
come from answers that Student B and Student C given. Student B‟s teachers teach it by
explaining first, then giving the example. Student C‟s teachers teach idioms by comparing
idioms to metaphor. Both of them are also different from Tarcoanu (2012) provides, which
are by preparing 5-8 idioms, introduce them in context, then asks the students to create
dialogue as products using those idioms.
Students’ Opinions Toward Idiomatic Expressions They Have Got
Responding what the participants said about their teachers, the writer wanted to know
further if what the teachers taught are enough or not. Student A, D, and E said that it was not
enough. Student B and C said that it was enough if only to learn the basic knowledge of
idioms. Nevertheless, student B added that it is not enough to learn deeper about idioms.
The data above shows that the students‟ perception toward idiomatic expressions
given are just enough to give basic understanding of idiomatic expressions, as what Student

B and Student C said, but they are not enough for students to learn and to make the students
awareness toward idioms. Most of them said that it was not enough to learn idioms
significantly. The reasons are because language is rich of idioms and what are brought to the

classroom is very limited, so that students feel that are not enough. Moreover, Student C said
that because of its importance, it would be better if material about idiom were taught from the
beginning year in English Department.
The materials related to idioms given.
The following discussion is about the students‟ opinion about the material of
idiomatic expressions. Student A said that it was exciting for her. Similarly, Student B, C,
and E said that idiomatic expressions are interesting, but sometimes they are diffecult or
confusing for them. Student D said that it was good, interesting, and exciting because he
wanted to be proficient in English, so that he needed to know more about idiomatic
expressions to make his speech more natural.
Liu (2008 p. 141) gave example that teachers can use reading passage or listening
passages (depends on the focus of language skills) that contain idioms as the material in
classroom activity, then ask the students to identify and discuss it. Considering it and what
English Department teachers gave, as showed in participants‟ answers for question about the
way teacher introduce idioms, the writer catches their opinions about the materials, it could
be said that students are interested and excited with the material of idioms. Although
sometimes the materials could be confusing, but they kept in minds that idioms are important.
The writer assumes that their answers are not about how the materials are, instead of what
they think about the idioms included in the materials they got. The statement of Student E,
who said that it is confusing for her but she is interested in it, demonstrated it.
Students’ Ways of Learning Idiomatic Expressions
1. By using medias such as TV shows, films, articles, radios, etc.

Even though idioms are not part of English Department‟s syllabus, students learn
idioms and they have their perspectives of the best ways of learning idioms. Following in his
book: Liu, Idiom Pedagogy: Macro Strategies (2007) who suggested that students can grab
idioms individually when they read newspaper, listen to the radio, wacth TV, etc, the writer
asked the participants whether they encountered idioms from films, cartoons, articles, radio
brodcasting, etc or not.
Student A said that sometimes she did but sometimes she did not. She could
undertand the idioms from the film that she had already ever learned. Even though she did
not really understand some new idioms, she knew they were idioms because when the words
were translated literally, the meaning would be weird. Student B said that she can understand
the well-known idioms, but she faced difficulty if she had to translate the meaning of new
idioms. In this case, she only knew that those words were idioms. Student C said that she
could not recognize idioms in film, cartoon, and radio if there was no meaning stated there.
She preferred to learn idioms from articles or reading passages with the meaning of those
idioms, or by using the picture that show the situation of that idiom. Student D said that he
could recognize idioms from films or mini series. He noticed that there were idioms,
moreover if those appeared repeteadly. Unfortunately, he then forgot them because he did not
use those idioms. Student E said that sometime she encountered new idiom in term of
knowing that it is an idiom, but about knowing the meaning, sometimes she cannot and
sometime she try to guess the meaning. And she added that those kinds of activities can help
students to learn idiomatic expression.
Comparing the answers with what Liu (2008) stated above, it can be said that students
could identify idioms individually when they read newspaper, listen to the radio, wacth TV,
etc, although sometimes they found it is difficult to understand the meaning of new idioms.

Since Liu (2008) said that foreign language idiom learning is a lifelong learning process, so

that students have to use the idioms they encountered, because they would forget or lose the
idiom if they do not use them. In the other words, the writer says that learning idioms using
media is a helpful way of learning idiomatic expressions for The English Department
students. But, if students find idioms without understand or cannot use the idioms, students

can ask about it or discuss it to their teachers.
2. By discussing idioms with friends.
After students found idioms, they can share it by discussing with their friends to talk
about what the expressions mean, how they are unique, and things related to idioms, so that
students do not only notice the idioms, but also understand the idioms (Liu, 2007). The writer
asked the five students about discussing idioms inside or outside the classroom. Student A
said that she discussed idioms not only when she and her friends met, but also through social
media such as Facebook or Twitter. Besides discussing the idioms, she also used them when
she chatted with her friend. Student B said that she discussed the idioms in classroom, outside
the classroom, and she discussed them with her sister. Mostly, she discussed the meaning of
idioms she found. She added that discussing idioms helped her to learn idiomatic expressions.
Student C said that she discussed idioms with her friends outside the classroom. Especially
they talked about the material before the following week meeting. Student D said that he
discussed idioms but not too often. He added that if he did not share with his friends about
idioms, he would not be able use them. Student E said that she only discussed about the
meaning of idioms, not about the background of why it is an idiom or something like that.
From those answers, the writer concluded that students did not often discuss about
idioms, just sometimes . As Liu (2008) proposed students to discuss with their friends about

the meaning and uniqueness, most students discussed were the meaning of the idioms . Some
of the students said that they did not only discuss idioms, but also tried to practice using
them. The writer found that the more students discuss and practice to use idiomatic

expressions, the more they learn the idiomatic expressions. For those reasons, the writer
concludes that discussing and practicing idioms are helpful ways of learning idioms for
The English Department students .

3. By knowing the cultures behind the idioms.
Idioms are usually used in numerous daily situations; consequently, the teachers have
to teach idioms to their students in communicative and meaningful ways, with regard to the
culture behind the idioms of the target language (Cakir, 2011).
When asked about this, student A said that students needed to know culture of the
idioms because when students learn a language they also learn about the culture, moreover
language itself is part of culture. Student B said that it is necessary because every language
has different idioms, so that students need to understand. Students C said that it is necessary
because before we say something we have to understand the meaning of those idioms well.
She also shared an experience in her class. She has a friend that told about “black people” in
her class where the teacher was American. The teacher laughed because the meaning of
“black people” that her friend referred was different from the meaning in America. Because
of that, she said that we have to understand the culture of an idiom before we say it. Student
D said that if students only want to learn about idioms, they just need to know the meaning of
the idioms, and the culture is not necessary. But if students are interested in it, it needs a
special class. Student E said that it is necessary because there are many English-speaking
countries. Those countries have different idioms, and idioms that exist in one country do not
always exist in other countries, too.
By comparing the theory delivered above with the data collected, it can be said that
mostly participants agree that knowing cultures behind the idioms help students to learn
how they use the idiomatic expressions in appropriate way. It is very necessary to make

students understand when and where to apply those idiomatic expressions. Because if

students do not know the cultures of the idioms they use, it is possible for them to use
idiomatic expressions in the different context from what the idioms actualy mean, such as
what happened to Student C‟s friend that Student C told. Nevertheless, this is a bit contrary to
Student D‟s answer, because he said that knowing the meaning only is enough to learn
idioms. Then the writer assumes that learning idioms is not only how we memorize the
idioms and the meanings, but also how to use idioms appropriately in the right
circumstances. Because of that, establishing students‟ mutual understanding of culture and

cultural value of the language is an important thing that teachers should put in their teaching
agenda (Cakir, 2011).
4. By understanding idioms in mother tongue.
In the content of this study, student A said that it does not help because she does not
really understand the idioms in Bahasa Indonesia, so that she said that it does not affect her
learning of idiomatic expressions in English. Student B said that it can be helpful in English
to Indonesian Translation class, but generally, it is not helpful because the idioms are
different, except the idioms are translated. Student C said that it is helpful, because if students
know the concept of idioms in Bahasa Indonesia, there are also some phrases in Bahasa
Indonesia that are similar to the ones in English. Student D said that it is not helpful, because
when he is learning English, he sets his mind in English way of thinking. And when he is
learning Bahasa Indonesia, he sets his minds in Indonesian way of thinking. Student E said
that it is not helpful because they are different and the meanings are different, so that it
cannot help students to learn idiomatic expressions.
Liu (2008) said if students understand idioms in their mother tongue, they can
examine, compare, and contrast them with idioms in the target language (English), so that
students become more conscious about the similarity and difference between idioms in moter
tongue and idioms in the target language. Compare it with the answer above, the writer finds

that it is different because most students think comparing idioms in the mother tongue with
idioms in the target language is not helpful to learn idioms . But, Student C said that it is

helpful because some idioms in Bahasa Indonesia are similar to idioms in English (target
language). In addition, Student B said that it is helpful only in Translation class. From those
answers, the writer concludes that some students still think about language, especially
idioms in the context of translation instead of as communication tools , because of that, the

problem they face in the meaning make them think that concept of idioms in L1 cannot help
them to learn idioms in L2 or target language. Also, it can be said that because students do
not understand well the idioms in their mother tongue, they cannot examine, compare, and
contrast them with idioms in the target language to help them learn idioms .

5. By conducting corpus researches.
For intermediate and advance students, conducting research by using corpus as the
authentic data, makes students repeatedly and read those idiom (Liu, 2008). However, Liu
(2008) also stated that conducting corpus searches is very challenging and complex, so that
the search assignment has to be as specific as possible. Moreover, it needs continuous
guidance from the teacher. Considering those things, the writer tried to ask students‟ view of
learning idiom by conducting corpus search. Before asking them, the writer showed the
participants how to search in corpus, to anticipate if there were some participants perhaps
who were not familiar with corpus.
And as the result, Student A said that it can help students to learn idiomatic
expressions, but it will be more helpful if there are the meaning too. If there is no meaning
stated, and students still do not know the meaning, it is not helpful. Student B said that it
seems interesting and may be helpful to learn. But, because there are too many sentences
there, it is tiring to see and confusing. She added that it would be helpful for students who are
diligent. Student C said that it is confusing, because there are many words there that make her

get confused. Student D said that it could help students to learn idioms because corpus is
compilation of words usage frequency. Student E said that actually it helps students to learn
idioms, but if the students do not understand whether the word is idiom or not, it will be
confusing for them.
From the data above, the writer finds that most participants are not quite familiar with
corpus, and the writer assumes that the participants are guessing in their answer this question.
By matching up those answers to the theory above, the writer grabs students‟ answers that
conducting corpus searching is helpful for students to learn idiom only if the students
know how to use the corpus and know what the idioms are. Whereas for the students who do
not know, it is confusing and do not help students to learn idioms . And as Liu (2008) also

said that it needs teachers‟ guidance to conduct a corpus research in learning idioms, because
this is a way of learning idioms from their context, not the meaning, with the intention that it
is a bit complex activity.
6. By remembering the meaning in figurative or literal meaning.
Teacher should make sure that the students understand all the words in idioms and the
literal meaning of the idioms because students generally need to understand the literal
meaning first to work out the meaning of a figurative idiom (Liu, 2008). Considering that, the
writer asked the students about their experience in remembering idioms, whether they prefer
to use the figurative meaning or by using the literal meaning first.
The results are, Student A, B, and C said that they prefer to remember the meaning of
figurative meaning rather than the literal first. Whether Student D and E said that they prefer
to use both of them. It depends on the idiom itself, if the words can be remembered by using
the literal meaning, they use it. But if it cannot, they just remember the figurative meaning.
From the data above, it is a bit different to what Liu (2008) said as the students
understand all the words in idioms and the literal meaning of the idioms because students

generally need to understand the literal meaning first to work out the meaning. The writer
discovers that some students prefer to remember the meaning by using figurative meaning
because sometimes it is difficult for them to remember the meaning in literal meaning first,

since the meaning are different. But, some students who use both of the way of remember
said that the literary meanings build the imagery of the idioms, and they help the students to
memorize the idioms. However, as what Student D and Student E said that not all idioms can
be interpreted as how their literal meanings are. Because of that, in some idioms they prefer

to remember the figurative meanings. As of the data above, the writer concludes that
memorizing idioms using literal meanings are sometimes helpful for some idioms , but

sometimes memorizing the figurative meanings are more helpful when the idioms using
words which are totally different from the meaning.
7. Students’ way of learning idiomatic expressions.
To answer the writer‟s research question, it is also important to know what
technique(s) students use when they learn idiomatic expressions. The writer asked them to
share their own way of learning. As the result, Student A, C, and E said that they prefer to
write down the idioms and memorize those idioms. Additionally, Student C also try to apply
the idioms in a song. Student B said that there is no special way of learning. She only reads
then memorizes the idioms. And she prefers to grouping the idioms by the words, such as
“down”, all idioms that use “down” are grouped and she memorizes them. Student D said that
he prefers to memorize the idiomatic expressions and apply or use it to communicate.
From the data above, the writer tries to compare it with what Liu (2008) stated that
student-centered activity is very efficient to develop students‟ understanding of idioms and
other figurative language elements. And the data show a bit different result, which are
students memorize the idiom they encountered by writing down the idioms they encountered
from their teachers, which is teacher centered. Also by reading the idioms provided

repeatedly, which are also teacher centered. But, in using songs and practicing it, students

use kinds of activity which are student centered, as what Liu (2008) gave above. However,
those activities are not their regular activity. They only do those when they found new
idioms and memorize them. Therefore, the writer concludes that most participants do not
have special way of learning to learn idioms, except the one who practice it.

Techniques That Teachers Should Do
Teachers should try to use varieties of activities to help students learn idioms
successfully (Liu, Idiom Pedagogies : Micro-Strategies and Techniques, 2008). By looking at
students‟ answers for several questions above, the writer thinks that the teaching of idiomatic
expressions in The English Department is very limited. It needs kind of improvement. And
here the writer questioned the participants about their expectations of their teacher to teach
idiomatic expressions. The writer gave some examples of techniques that the writer stated in
the literature review. The first one is by using idioms corner where students can have a
competition in writing down as many idiomatic expressions on the board (Liu, 2008). The
second one is by exploring idioms in cartoons, comic strips, TV, and other media (Liu, 2008;
Berns & Erickson, 2001). The third one is by reading and discussing idioms highlighted (Liu,
2008). The fourth one is by encouraging the students to guess the meaning of idioms from
context (Liu, 2008). Besides, the writer asked the students if they have their own
expectations.
As the result, Student A said that the faculty can open a new class that specifically
learning about idioms, just like at her friend‟s university. She added that the teachers have to
teach idioms in a fun way, where the students not only listen and read the book, but they have
to be included in the activity, especially speaking activities such as a role play. This
strengthen previous point that agree with Liu (2008) that student-centered activity is very

efficient to develop students‟ understanding of idioms and other figurative language
elements.
Student B said that the portion of idioms teaching at the English Departmen