scholarly journals Teaching English Idioms to Chinese EFL Learners: A Cognitive Linguistic Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Yi Guo

Learning idioms has always been difficult for L2 learners of English. Drawing on a cognitive linguistic perspective of idiom learning, this paper reports on an empirical study that investigated the effects of incorporating the knowledge of conceptual metaphor and metonymy in L2 classroom instruction of English idioms. The study confirmed the efficacy of applying the conceptual metaphor- and metonymy-based ways of teaching to Chinese college-level EFL learners. It further revealed the different degrees of teaching effect towards different types of metaphoric idioms. While no significant progress was made in learning orientationally and ontologically metaphoric idioms, students benefited more from the conceptual metaphor-based method in learning structurally metaphoric idioms. These findings serve to enrich L2 idiom pedagogy and provide EFL learners with strategies other than “rote memorization” in the process of idiom learning.

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Brdar ◽  
Rita Brdar-Szabó

Abstract The interaction between metonymy and grammar is commonly understood, in keeping with the classical cognitive linguistic doctrine about cognitive operations motivating linguistic structures, as unilateral – conceptual metaphor and metonymy shaping the grammatical system. However, we argue in this article that one of the possible corollaries of the Equipollence Hypothesis (Mairal & Ruiz de Mendoza, 2009; Ruiz de Mendoza & Luzondo Oyón, 2012) covers a truly bilateral interaction between grammatical structures and cognitive processes. The Equipollence Hypothesis is shown to allow for grammatical phenomena facilitating or constraining, i.e. blocking, the application of conceptual metonymies and their expressions across domains of linguistic inquiry. Specifically, we show in four case studies that grammatical constructions may actually pre-empt lexical (and grammatical) metonymy.


Author(s):  
Nadežda R. Silaški ◽  
Biljana B. Radić Bojanić

Within the theoretical framework of Conceptual Metaphor and Metonymy Theory in this paper we aim to establish the ways the container image schemais used in the conceptualisation of head/glava in English and Serbian to see whether theseconceptualisations are shared in the two languages or, alternatively, whether they manifestany cross-conceptual and cross-linguistic differences. The corpus of our analysis has beencompiled from various monolingual and bilingual English and Serbian dictionaries as wellas dictionaries of idioms and idiomatic expressions in both languages. The main hypothesisof the paper is the following: since the mind is embodied and human concepts are cruciallyshaped by our bodies and brains, we expect to find little difference in the conceptualisationof head/glava as a container between English and Serbian. However, since the mind isalso enculturated, i.e. culturally constructed and is filtered through specific languages, wehypothesise that the differences will mainly manifest not at the conceptual level, but in thelinguistic instantiations in the two languages.


Author(s):  
Gassim H. Dohal

When you have a chance to teach English in Saudi Arabia at different levels – beginners, intermediate, and advanced levels, you will discover a lot of challenges that face a teacher of a foreign language. Those barriers vary from one situation into another, from one level into another, and from one place into another. Some barriers are connected with the culture in question, others – with the contents of the syllabus, passing through the method your students are taught with while taking other subjects. These aforementioned barriers are few among many others. They are focused on here because of their importance in obstructing learning and teaching a foreign language like English. Moreover, at a college level, English may be chosen as an optional, elective, pass-guaranteed, and grade-gained subject. In this sense, this issue might become a good topic for researchers who are interested in teaching and learning a foreign language. Some students told me in more than one department and on many occasions that they chose English because they do not like much work and in this subject they are sure of passing the test. What a teacher expects from such students is just nothing; they have no mere idea of learning at all. They need to fill in a number of courses they have to register in their transcripts with no effort on their part. I will address some of the challenges teachers of English at Saudi Arabian schools should be cautious of while practicing their career. The aim of this article is to attract the attention of teachers of foreign languages to these obstacles that definitely exist and hinder all efforts of teaching and learning a foreign language. At the end of this article, some suggestions are provided depending on my experience in teaching English at different levels and to different types of students.


Foods ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Berri ◽  
Brigitte Picard ◽  
Bénédicte Lebret ◽  
Donato Andueza ◽  
Florence Lefèvre ◽  
...  

This review is aimed at providing an overview of recent advances made in the field of meat quality prediction, particularly in Europe. The different methods used in research labs or by the production sectors for the development of equations and tools based on different types of biological (genomic or phenotypic) or physical (spectroscopy) markers are discussed. Through the various examples, it appears that although biological markers have been identified, quality parameters go through a complex determinism process. This makes the development of generic molecular tests even more difficult. However, in recent years, progress in the development of predictive tools has benefited from technological breakthroughs in genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. Concerning spectroscopy, the most significant progress was achieved using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to predict the composition and nutritional value of meats. However, predicting the functional properties of meats using this method—mainly, the sensorial quality—is more difficult. Finally, the example of the MSA (Meat Standards Australia) phenotypic model, which predicts the eating quality of beef based on a combination of upstream and downstream data, is described. Its benefit for the beef industry has been extensively demonstrated in Australia, and its generic performance has already been proven in several countries.


2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Youmei Gao ◽  
Yun Zhang

AbstractAn empirical study of Chinese EFL learners has been carried out in the authentic Chinese EFL classroom on the campus of Tianjin Foreign Studies University, with an aim to verify how and why the cognitive linguistic approach can facilitate L2 or FL learners in the process of learning English as a second or a foreign language. The statistical analysis of the data showed that the EC outperformed the CC both on lexical and grammatical proficiency and on their metaphorical and pragmatic or sociolinguist competence after the classroom treatment. The study has concluded that using CMs and IMs as the motivator and organizer in the process of learning English as a foreign language, the cognitive approach benefits L2 or FL learners with respect to comprehension and retention of memory.


Jezikoslovlje ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-338
Author(s):  
Branimir Belaj

In this article I examine some metonymic aspects of the semantics of Croatian connectives introducing adverbial clauses of cause, condition, purpose, and concession. The analysis leans on the theory of conceptual metaphor and metonymy and, to a lesser extent, on cognitive grammar. It is also informed by grammaticalization scholarship within typological functionalism. I explore metonymic mappings between the categories of time and cause, manner and cause, cause and condition, purpose, cause and concession, condition and concession, time and condition, and metonymic mappings operating at the level of speech acts. The goal is to contribute to the growing, though still arguably small, body of cognitive linguistic research into the relevance of metonymy for the semantics of complex sentences, specifically the role it plays in subordination, and to expand this analysis to subordinate constructions in Croatian. Some attention is given to grammaticalization studies, where metaphor and metonymy are seen as two types of pragmatic inferencing facilitating interactions between the mentioned semantic categories in complex sentences.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-61
Author(s):  
Aseel Zibin ◽  
Abdel Rahman Mitib Altakhaineh ◽  
Elham T. Hussein

AbstractThis study aims to examine the comprehension of L2 metonymies by Arabic-speaking EFL learners and to investigate the extent to which the participants’ L1 conceptual and linguistic knowledge of metonymies can affect the processing of L2 metonymies. A comprehension task was administered to elicit data, and the results showed that the participants encountered various degrees of difficulty comprehending different types of metonymies. Though metonymy has been regarded as a universal cognitive device, numerous factors can collaborate to hinder its comprehension process. The researchers argued that the non-conventionality of conceptual metonymies, the non-compositional nature of metonymy processing, the lack of direct exposure to metonymy as a cognitive referential device in L2, and the differences between L1 and L2 possibly contributed to the participants’ faulty answers on the administered test. The study concluded with a set of pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research studies.


Author(s):  
David J. Smith

The electron microscope has evolved to the level where it is now straightforward to record highresolution images from thin samples (t∼10 to 20nm) that are directly interpretable in terms of atomic arrangements. Whilst recorded images necessarily represent two-dimensional projections of the structure, many defects such as dislocations and interfaces may be linear or planar in nature and thus might be expected to be amenable to detailed characterization. In this review, we briefly consider the recent significant progress that has been made in quantitative defect analysis using the high-resolution electron microscope and then discuss some drawbacks to the technique as well as potential scope for further improvements. Surveys of defect modelling for some small-unit-cell materials and interfaces have recently been published, and reference should be made to other papers in this symposium for further examples.The technique of structure imaging originated in the early '70s with observations of large-unit-cell block oxides.


2013 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 731-735
Author(s):  
A.W. Stadler ◽  
Z. Zawiślak ◽  
W. Stęplewski ◽  
A. Dziedzic

Abstract. Noise studies of planar thin-film Ni-P resistors made in/on Printed Circuit Boards, both covered with two different types of cladding or uncladded have been described. The resistors have been made of the resistive-conductive-material (Ohmega-Ply©) of 100 Ώ/sq. Noise of the selected pairs of samples has been measured in the DC resistance bridge with a transformer as the first stage in a signal path. 1/f noise caused by resistance fluctuations has been found to be the main noise component. Parameters describing noise properties of the resistors have been calculated and then compared with the parameters of other previously studied thin- and thick-film resistive materials.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheung-Chi Chow ◽  
Tai-Yuen Hon ◽  
Wing-Keung Wong ◽  
Kai Yin Woo

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