The teaching of english idioms in Kenyan secondary schools: Difficulties and effective strategies

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dc.contributor.authorGathigia, Moses Gatambuki
dc.contributor.authorNjoroge, Martin Chege
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-19T13:10:24Z
dc.date.available2016-02-02T13:10:28Z
dc.date.available2024-03-19T13:10:24Z
dc.date.issued2016-01-07
dc.descriptionPublicationen_US
dc.description.abstractThe acquisition of idiomatic expressions is one of the primary challenges to learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) in multilingual contexts such as Kenya; yet, the learners are expected to use these expressions in their writing. The study on which this paper is based sought to assess the teaching of English idiomatic expressions in Kenyan secondary schools with a view to establishing the challenges teachers face in teaching the expressions and, thereafter, proposing effective strategies that can be applied for effective teaching of English idioms to ESL speakers. Ten teachers of English from both rural and urban secondary schools in Kenya were interviewed to find out the actual practices in their classrooms, the difficulties they face, and the effective strategies they employ for successful teaching of English idioms. The data collected were qualitatively analyzed. First, the study notes that it is possible to infer semantic relations between the literal sense of individual parts of an idiom and its meaning when interpreting compositional idioms. Second, there is incongruity between form and meaning when dealing with non compositional idioms since their semantic interpretation cannot be retrieved by means of their constituent parts. The study concludes that an understanding of the etymology of idioms can improve the comprehension and retention of idioms. The study recommends that idioms should be taught effectively in schools because the acquisition of idioms by learners will be an important indicator of their mastery of the English language.
dc.description.sponsorshipPAC Universityen_US
dc.identifier.issn2203-4714
dc.identifier.urihttps://repo.pacuniversity.ac.ke/handle/123456789/485.2
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherAustralian International Academic Centreen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseriesA.L.L.S. Vol. 7;No. 2;
dc.subjectIdiomatic expressionsen_US
dc.subjectsemantic relationsen_US
dc.subjectcompositional idiomsen_US
dc.subjectnon compositional idiomsen_US
dc.titleThe teaching of english idioms in Kenyan secondary schools: Difficulties and effective strategiesen_US
dc.typeArticle
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