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Idiom is an important part of communication. However, sometimes idioms cause trouble because the native speakers of English do not selfrecognize that the expressions the idioms they are using are special and unfamiliar to the nonnative speakers. For this reason, it is extremely important for students to learn to hear, and understand the idioms in natural contexts, specially the business contexts. Market Leader series are a useful source of idioms for students. In order to raise the understanding of idioms and to build up the habit of using idioms, the research study the idioms in business uses in the Market Leader books (Intermediate and Upper Intermediate) written by David Cotton, David Falvey, Simon Ken and published by Pearson Longman in 2006. In the research, the types of idioms commonly used in the business contexts, and in which business contexts idioms are used the most are investigated. The research also looks at how the double major students at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education are learning idioms in the Market Leader course books by using a survey questionnaire. Carried out in the form of a case study of idioms in use and incorporated with a survey questionnaire, the research concludes that all the types of idioms are used in the business contexts and idioms are used at higher density in business conversations than in economics and business text formats (news and articles). Another important finding is that the double major students at the Faculty of English Teacher Education are quite aware of the importance of idioms in business uses and they are applying different techniques in learning idioms.
ABSTRACT Idiom is an important part of communication. However, sometimes idioms cause trouble because the native speakers of English do not self-recognize that the expressions - the idioms - they are using are special and unfamiliar to the nonnative speakers. For this reason, it is extremely important for students to learn to hear, and understand the idioms in natural contexts, specially the business contexts. Market Leader series are a useful source of idioms for students. In order to raise the understanding of idioms and to build up the habit of using idioms, the research study the idioms in business uses in the Market Leader books (Intermediate and Upper Intermediate) written by David Cotton, David Falvey, Simon Ken and published by Pearson Longman in 2006. In the research, the types of idioms commonly used in the business contexts, and in which business contexts idioms are used the most are investigated. The research also looks at how the double major students at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education are learning idioms in the Market Leader course books by using a survey questionnaire. Carried out in the form of a case study of idioms in use and incorporated with a survey questionnaire, the research concludes that all the types of idioms are used in the business contexts and idioms are used at higher density in business conversations than in economics and business text formats (news and articles). Another important finding is that the double major students at the Faculty of English Teacher Education are quite aware of the importance of idioms in business uses and they are applying different techniques in learning idioms. i TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………………….i ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………….ii LIST OF FIGURES & TABLES………………………………………………….iii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………… 1 1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study…………………………1 1.2. Objectives of the study……………………………………………………… 2 1.3. Significance of the study………………………………………………………3 1.4. Scope of the study………… …………………………………………………3 1.5. Organization of the study…………………………………………………… 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………… 5 2.1. Definitions of idioms………………………………………………………….5 2.2. Characteristics of idioms…………………………………………………… 5 2.2.1. Semantic characteristics…………………………………………………… 5 2.2.2. Structural characteristics…………………………………………………….6 2.3. Types of idioms……………………………………………………………… 7 2.4. Functions of idioms………………………………………………………… 8 2.4.1. Idioms function as pragmatic and referential……………………………….8 ii 2.4.2. Idioms facilitate communication……………………………………………9 2.4.3. Idioms convey speaker’s commitment and evaluation…………………….10 2.4.4. Idioms support communication organization and textual coherence………11 2.5. Idioms in use…………………………………………………………………14 2.5.1. The use of idioms in American English and British English………………14 2.5.2. Stylistic and cultural value of idiomatic expression……………………….15 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………… 16 3.1. Research method…………………………………………………………… 16 3.2. Research setting…………………………………………………………… 16 3.3. Data collection process………………………………………………………17 3.4. Data analysis…………………………………………………………………17 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………………………… 19 4.1. The types of idioms exploited in the Market Leader course books……….19 4.2. The contexts where the idioms are presented…………………………… 21 4.3. Actual situation of learning idioms of the senior double students at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education - ULIS – VNU……………… 26 4.3.1. General understanding about learners’ autonomy and business idioms learning………………………………………………………………………… 26 iii 4.3.2. Characteristics of the students as autonomous learners………………… 32 4.3.3. The facilitation of the teachers in fostering learners’ autonomy in business idioms learning………………………………………………………………… 33 4.3.4. Techniques utilized by students to self-study business idioms……………35 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS………………………….38 5.1. Major finding of the research…………………………………………… 38 5.2. Pedagogical implications………………………………………………….39 5.3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research…………….39 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………… 41 APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………43 APPENDIX A: THE BUSINESS IDIOMS USED IN THE MARKET LEADER BOOK (INTERMEDIATE) APPENDIX B: THE BUSINESS IDIOMS USED IN THE MARKET LEADER BOOK (UPPER INTERMEDIATE) APPENDIX C: STUDENTS’ SURVEY QUESTIONAIZE (ENGLISH VERSION) APPENDIX D: ROAD RAGERS IN THE SKY iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Name Page 1 Distribution of the three types of idioms in the studied course books 20 2 The number of types of contexts that the business idioms appear 23 3 The distribution of idioms in the contexts 24 4 Opinions of double major students in ULIS, VNU about teaching and learning idioms in the business contexts 27 5 The main goals the students set up when learning idioms in use in the business contexts 28 6 Students’ opinion about the job of the teacher in helping his/her students learn idioms 29 7 Students’ opinions about the idioms considered worth learning 30 8 Students’ opinions about the idioms in the Market Leader course books 30 9 Students’ main problem in learning idioms in the Market Leader course books 31 10 Activities teachers normally do in the class to help students learn idioms 34 11 Students’ opinions about rich idioms learning materials 35 12 Activities students do when learning idioms 36 13 The ways to help students remember idioms 37 v LIST OF TABLES Table Name Page 1 Characteristics of the students as autonomous learners 32 2 Facilitation of the teachers in fostering learners’ autonomy in business idioms learning 33 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This initial chapter outlines the research problem and rationale for the study together with its methodology, the scope and the significance of the paper. Particularly, it is in this chapter that three research questions are identified to serve as guidelines for the whole study. Finally, the chapter concludes with a sketch of the organization of the paper to orientate the readers throughout the paper. 1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study As a senior double major student of English and Economics, I find much pleasure when reading books written in English about economic and business issues. The Market Leader course books are in that nature interesting and useful; and the idioms exploited therein make them even more appealing and motivating to us. Although there are some papers of previous researchers studying the topic of idioms, they only give the general knowledge about idioms. To make the researches about idioms a little more practical to the students, especially the ULIS double major students, I want to focus on the idioms in use in the Market Leader course books (Intermediate and Upper Intermediate) written by David Cotton, David Falvey, Simon Ken and published by Pearson Longman in 2006. In my point of view, the idioms used in Market Leader books are interesting and useful. They can deliver exactly what the speakers want to say in the shortest way. However, for non-native learners, sometimes it is difficult to recognize and understand them. There is very often no way of guessing the meaning of an idiom simply by looking at the individual words it contains. For example, you may know 1 the words get and goat; however, you wonder what the meaning of the sentence You get my goat! is. In fact, it has little chance of guessing, out of context, that it means You irritate me! For this reason, I hope this study is a useful material that may be of assistance to the double major students and teachers. Moreover, idioms have practical meaning in business sector. As a double major student, I usually read newspapers and articles about economic and business issues and I realize that there are huge amount of idioms used in them. Knowledge of business idioms is a means that help me understand more and thus gain more. What are idioms? What are their characteristics? How can we use them and in what contexts we should you them? When should we use them? What are the features of the idioms in Market Leader books? What are the benefits of using idioms in special cases? These questions give me more grounds for my choice of this topic. 1.2. Objectives of the study The aim of this paper is to explore the idioms in the Market Leader course books (Intermediate and Upper Intermediate) written by David Cotton, David Falvey, Simon Ken and published by Pearson Longman in 2006. Specially, this paper focuses on answering the following questions: - What types of idioms are exploited in the Market Leader course books? - In what contexts are these idioms presented? - How are those idioms learned by the double major students at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education - University of Languages and International Studies - VNU? 2 1.3. Significance of the study With this study, the researcher expects to gain insights into the idioms used in the Market Leader books. It focuses on the classification of idioms and the contexts they appears. At the same time, the ways that the double major students are learning idioms are discussed. Once completed, the research would serve as reference for double major students. It will help them understand more about the meanings and the ways of using idioms in the business situations. 1.4. Scope of the study Within the framework of a graduation paper, and due to the limited time, I have no ambitions to cover all the matters but focus on analyzing idioms used in Market Leader books (Intermediate and Upper Intermediate) written by David Cotton, David Falvey, Simon Ken and published in 2006. These course books are used by the third-year double-major students in the University of Language and International Studies - VNU. 1.5. Organization of the study The study consists of five chapters as follows. Chapter I (Introduction) highlights statement of the problem and the rationale, objectives, significance, scope and organization of the study. Chapter II (Literature review) provides the theoretical framework of the study, including discussion of the key terms and issues. 3 Chapter III (Methodology) describes the way the research is conducted, including the research setting, participants, instruments of data collection as well as the procedure employed to carry out data analysis. Chapter IV (Findings and discussion) presents, analyses and discusses the results that the researcher found out from the collected data. This chapter also gives answer to the three research questions. Chapter V (Conclusion) summarizes the key points, states the limitations and suggests further studies. 4 [...]... idioms in the Market Leader course books 17 (Intermediate and Upper Intermediate) written by David Cotton, David Falvey, Simon Ken and published by Pearson Longman in 2006 Besides, a survey questionnaire is carried out in order to provide grounds for the findings of the case study 3.3 Data collection process The process of data collection involved the collection of idioms in the two Market Leader course... questionnaire surveys as a tool of collecting data about the actual situation of learning the idioms provided in the Market Leader course books at the Faculty Therefore, the steps of collecting data are: Step 1: Collecting the idioms and the contexts where the idioms are used in the Market Leader course books Step 2: Conducting the survey questionnaire Step 3: Analyzing the data 3.4 Data analysis The collected... verb, which is also considered pure idiom According to the collected data, pure idiom occupied the largest 20 percent of idioms used in the Market Leader books – 52% - of which phrasal verbs account for approximately 90% Another type of idiom used in the Market Leader books is semi idioms An example of this type is “Throw good money after bad”, which means “Waste money by spending more money on something... contexts in the studied course books The last type, literal idioms, only accounted for 15% of idioms in the Market Leader books It is quite understandable because basing on the collected data, literal idiom is only a small part of idioms “Easier said than done” is another literal idiom used in the Market Leader books It means “Something that you say when something seems like a good idea but it would be difficult... where the idioms are presented The researcher classified the business idioms in the Market Leader books into three contexts: newspaper and magazine articles, language focus activities, and business conversations (negotiation, brainstorming, meeting, etc.) One of the most important materials for the reading part in the Market Leader books is the articles from the Financial Times and The Guardian The Financial... students had different opinions about the idioms in the Market Leader course books Nearly half of them shared the idea that they are interesting However, idioms, as mentioned above, are difficult to remember (33%) 20% of them believed that idioms in the books are useful (See Figure 8) Figure 8: Students’ opinions about the idioms in the Market Leader course books (Questions 10, part 1, Questionnaire)... data collection as well as the procedure employed to carry out data analysis to complete the ultimate purpose – answer the following research questions: i What types of idioms are exploited in the Market Leader course books? ii In what contexts are these idioms presented? iii How are idioms learned by the double major students at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education - University of Languages... reasons Firstly, case study research excels at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue which is already known through previous research The issue of the research hereof is idioms in use in the Market Leader course books Secondly, case study can extend experience and add strength to the studied issue through detailed contextual analysis (Yin, 1994:23) The analysis of the idioms in use in the business... do” The meaning is as transparent as the meaning of each word part of the idiom Figure 1: Distribution of the three types of idioms in the studied course books 21 According to data collected from the Market Leader books, pure idioms outweighed semi idioms to be the most dominant type of idioms, which accounts for 52 % of all the idioms in use in the studied course books This type is followed by semi idioms,... findings will be considered with reference to the current literature, so as to reinforce the existing arguments or to underline new findings on the research topic 4.1 The types of idioms exploited in the Market Leader course books In Fernando’s point of view (1996, p.35), there are three sub-classes of idioms: pure idioms, semi idioms and literal idioms Pure idiom is ‘a type of conventionalized, non-literal . 41 APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………43 APPENDIX A: THE BUSINESS IDIOMS USED IN THE MARKET LEADER BOOK (INTERMEDIATE) APPENDIX B: THE BUSINESS IDIOMS USED IN THE MARKET LEADER BOOK (UPPER INTERMEDIATE) APPENDIX C: STUDENTS’. learning 30 8 Students’ opinions about the idioms in the Market Leader course books 30 9 Students’ main problem in learning idioms in the Market Leader course books 31 10 Activities teachers normally. major students at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education are learning idioms in the Market Leader course books by using a survey questionnaire. Carried out in the form of a case study