Developing students’ English proficiency
via idiom translation strategies
Dr. John Liontas & Zhengjie Li
University of South Florida
Chinese Students in the US
Middle Class Families in China
(Huang, 2015)
(Project Atlas, 2016)
Abstract
■ Though research supports idiom translation in enhancing
students’ English proficiency, achieving this goal remains
a formidable challenge. This paper, employing a mixed
method, presents several translation strategies/materials
proven to promote idiom learning among ELLs whose L1 is
Chinese. Utilizing a qualitative study we may not be able to
find the best way to acquire English idioms for ELLs;
however, this approach provides clear insights into the
idiom learning experience of the ELLs at an American high
school and may inform other Chinese students who
choose to study in American high schools.
Overview
- Idiom, as defined by Liontas (2009), is “a form of expression, grammatical construction,
phrase, etc., peculiar to a language; a peculiarity of phraseology approved by the usage of the
language, and often having a significance other than its grammatical or logical one” (p. 2).
- Scarcity of materials and a dearth of effective teaching strategies for learning idioms
- Many Chinese students studying in the US today report that they do not have a ‘voice’ and
that they feel marginalized in the schools (Garcia & Wei, 2014)
-ELLs may find it beneficial to learn the background of such idioms to become active
participants in diverse academic and social environments.
- While idiom learning may help ELLs develop even further their bi-cultural awareness and
linguistic/idiomatic competence, doing so successfully, however, remains as a major
challenge for Chinese students and secondary teachers alike.
- I aim to investigate the ELLs' struggles in understanding English idioms and also their
perceptions of using translation strategies to learn English idioms through individual
interviews.
Assumption
Learning English idioms via effective translation strategies can
help the Chinese students at ASA adapt to the academic
and social environment so they can regain their “voices”
that will lead them to better academic performance and
cognitive development
Context
■ Three 9th grader Chinese students have their 1st year at ASA
■ ASA has approximately 50 Chinese students
■ Participants attend ESL classes while taking the
mainstream classes with American students
■ The ESOL instructor teaches the participants English idioms
via translation strategies
■ I will interview the three participants who are still enrolling
in the ESOL class
Participants
■ Three 9th grader Chinese students at ASA
■ Participants achieved 50+ in the TOEFL test
■ Participants are receiving intensive English
training and struggling with several subjects
such as science, history, and literature
Rationale
■ Idioms can be considered as quintessence and treasury of a
language (Wang & Wang, 2013).
■ Being aware of the cultural differences when translating the
idioms between Chinese and English, translation methods
can be listed as literal translation, free translation, abridged
translation, and borrowing translation (Wang & Wang,
2013).
■ Nugroho (2005) believes that "translation is an effort of
finding equivalent meaning of a text into the second
language".
■ Learning idioms will allow the ELLs to understand the
double-voiced discourse when engaging in a conversation
with native English speakers (Bakhtin, 1981).
Literature informing the inquiry
■ Conceptual-Semantic Image Distance – “denotes how close or how distant a targetlanguage idiom is from its equivalent native-language idiom both conceptually (i.e.,
in terms of the picture it evokes) and semantically (i.e., in terms of the literal
meanings of its words).” ;(Liontas, 2002)
■ Lexical Level Idioms (LL): target-language idioms that exhibit a one-to one lexical and
pictorial match with corresponding native-language idioms;
■ Post-Lexical Level Idioms (PLL): target language idioms that do not match nativelanguage idioms either lexically or pictorially;
■ Semi-Lexical Level Idioms (SLL): Somewhere in the middle of this continuum are
target-language idioms which, although they exemplify to a large extent the one-toone lexical and pictorial correspondence of LL idioms, may or may not use all the
same individual words as native-language idioms and may differ by only a few or
even just one word (Liontas, 2002).
Conceptual-Semantic Image Distance
Literature informing the inquiry (Con’d)
■ Literal translation: “Not only can make the reader easy to
accept it, but also easy to understand ”
■ Free translation: “The advantage of free translation lies in
being succinct and distinct, benefit the style of writing, and
prevent some messy cases caused by literal translation
from happening”
■ Borrowing translation: “by faithfully expressing the meaning
of the original idioms, translators try to keep the vivid
image, the rhetorical effect and the ethnic characteristics of
the original idioms” (Wang &Wang, 2013)
Literal Translation-Lexical level Idiom
“On the one hand, literal translation can retain the original
cultural characteristics; on the other hand, it also can fully
spread the primitive culture” (Wang & Wang, 2013):
1. 血浓于水：blood is thicker than water
2. 趁热打铁： strike while the iron is hot
3. 火上浇油：to add fuel to the fire
4. 知识就是力量： knowledge is power
Free Translation-Post Lexical Level Idiom
“As for some of the idioms, literal translation can not be used,
because the readers of other countries could neither understand
the idioms of the target language’s cultural background, nor find
the corresponding idioms of it” (Wang & Wang, 2013)
1. 一言既出, 驷马难追 (one word let slip and four horses will fail to
catch it): A word spoken is past recalling
2. 出身显贵：she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth
Borrowing Translation-Semi Lexical Level Idiom
“either the literal meaning or the image meaning of such
idioms conveys the same cultural information” (Wang &
Wang, 2013):
1. 熟能生巧: practice makes perfect
2. 画蛇添足：send coals to New Castle
3. 木已成舟：the milk is spilled
Literature informing the inquiry (Con’t)
Why Teach Idioms
■ “Because the study of idioms in the classroom can help
the SLA profession to build a systematic program for the
development of idiomatic competence in second
language learners” (Liontas, 2009).
■ “Because learners can go beyond the literal meaning of
idioms and see the pivotal role that context plays in the
understanding of idiomatic expressions (Liontas, 2009).
Questions
1. In what ways do ELLs think of the application of
English idioms in their academic and social life?
2. In what ways can translation strategies better help
ELLs acquire English idioms?
3. In what ways can ELLs utilize effective translation
strategies to comprehend different types of English
idioms?
Data Sources
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Purposeful sampling
Idioms survey
Classroom observations
Face-to-face interview
Wechat interview
Researcher journal-keeping
Questionnaire
Data Analysis
■ Use Content Analysis
■ Triangulate the data
■ Vivo coding & Holistic coding
Limitations
1. The levels of both Chinese and English proficiency may affect the ELLs'
utilization of translation strategies in the process of learning idioms.
2. Different learning styles and personalities may have a major impact in
developing idiomatic competence among the ELLs.
3. There are not many effective assessments to evaluate ELLs
performances of using English idioms in an authentic conversational
environment.
4. A lack of materials of translation strategies in English idiom learning
may prevent ELLs from advancing a high level of idiomatic
competence.
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