Idioms are a very important part of the English language: you are told that if you want to go far (succeed) you should pull your socks up (make a serious effort to improve your behaviour, the quality of your work, etc.) and use your grey matter (brain).1 Learning and translating idioms have always been very difficult for foreign language learners. The present paper explores some of the reasons why English idiomatic expressions are difficult to learn and translate. It is not the aim of this paper to attempt a comprehensive survey of the vast amount of material that has appeared on idioms in Adams and Kuder (1984), Alexander (1984), Dixon (1983), Kirkpatrick (2001), Langlotz (2006), McCarthy and O'Dell (2002), and Wray (2002), among others. The paper concentrates on idioms as a learning-translation problem; it makes no claim to be comprehensive or academically rigorous. Leech (1989) defines an idiom as follows: “An idiom is a group of two or more words which we have to treat as a unit in learning a language. We cannot arrive at the meaning of the idiom just by adding together the meanings of the words inside it. E.g.John and Mary usedto be hardup (='They had very little money'.)”(P.186) To be more exact, an idiom is a sequence of words which is semantically and syntactically restricted, so that they function as a single unit. From a semantic point of view, the meanings of the individual words cannot be summed to produce the meanings of the idiomatic expression as a whole. Thus, fly off the handle, which means lose one's temper, cannot be understood in terms of the meanings of fly, off, or handle. The idiom phrase hot air, which means empty or boastful talk, is neither hot nor air; with hot air we are dealing with a set phrase where the meaning cannot be suggested on the basis of the two constituent words. The idiomatic meaning of spill the beans in So who spilt the beans (=told the secret) about her affair with David? has nothing to do with beans or with spilling in its literal sense. The foreign-language learner is left trying to figure out where and how the beans were spilt. From a syntactic viewpoint, the constituent parts of an idiom often do not permit the usual variability they display in other contexts. The point to be emphasized here is this: most idioms do not lend themselves easily to manipulation by speakers and writers; they are invariable and must be learned as wholes, but concord ofnumber, person and gender in the idiom phrase is still necessary, i.e. the verbs must be put into the correct form, and pronouns must agree with their antecedents: I don't give a hoot for her opinion! 2 • She doesn't give a hoot for my opinion! etc.)║He won, but only by the skin of his teeth2• She won, but only by the skin of her teeth• Iwon, but only by the skin ofmy teeth,I had to run for the train, and caught it by the skin of myteeth, etc.║He kept pullingmy arm, throwing me off my balance 2 • She kept pulling his arm, throwing him off his balance • We kept pullingher arm, throwingher offher balance, etc.2 The present paper is divided into five parts, as follows: Part I: An Overview; PART II: Learner’s Difficulties with Idioms; PART III: Some Pedagogical recommendations and Suggestions about Idioms; Part IV: Activities to Practice Idiomatic Expressions; Part V: Summary and Conclusion.
Early detection of brain tumors is critical for enhancing treatment options and extending patient survival. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning gives more detailed information, such as greater contrast and clarity than any other scanning method. Manually dividing brain tumors from many MRI images collected in clinical practice for cancer diagnosis is a tough and time-consuming task. Tumors and MRI scans of the brain can be discovered using algorithms and machine learning technologies, making the process easier for doctors because MRI images can appear healthy when the person may have a tumor or be malignant. Recently, deep learning techniques based on deep convolutional neural networks have been used to analyze med
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In architectural learning, it is difficult to stimulate cultural awareness through the traditional education approaches, which results in historic places being neglected as knowledge sources. This research explores the premise that sketch-based visual storytelling may act as a generative approach to connect cognition, emotion, and behavior in historical contexts. The study adopts a qualitative methodology to explore a learning experience comprising two phases: the first is a formal educational setting, and the second is a historical and cultural context, aiming to investigate the role of sketch-based storytelling in enhancing cultural awareness. MAXQDA was employed to code the students’ storyboards on three levels of cultural awareness, m
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Many academics have concentrated on applying machine learning to retrieve information from databases to enable researchers to perform better. A difficult issue in prediction models is the selection of practical strategies that yield satisfactory forecast accuracy. Traditional software testing techniques have been extended to testing machine learning systems; however, they are insufficient for the latter because of the diversity of problems that machine learning systems create. Hence, the proposed methodologies were used to predict flight prices. A variety of artificial intelligence algorithms are used to attain the required, such as Bayesian modeling techniques such as Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD), Adaptive boosting (ADA), Deci
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Many academics have concentrated on applying machine learning to retrieve information from databases to enable researchers to perform better. A difficult issue in prediction models is the selection of practical strategies that yield satisfactory forecast accuracy. Traditional software testing techniques have been extended to testing machine learning systems; however, they are insufficient for the latter because of the diversity of problems that machine learning systems create. Hence, the proposed methodologies were used to predict flight prices. A variety of artificial intelligence algorithms are used to attain the required, such as Bayesian modeling techniques such as Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD), Adaptive boosting (ADA), Decision Tre
... Show MoreWriting in English is one of the essential factors for successful EFL learning .Iraqi students at the preparatory schools encounter problems when using their background knowledge in handling subskills of writing(Burhan,2013:164).Therefore, this study aims to investigate the 4thyear preparatory school students’ problems in English composition writing, and find solutions to these pro
... Show MoreThrough the above-mentioned evidence and opinions on this literary term of art which was not an emergency event or a term recently invented . But its roots stands since ancient times, especially in the unit of independent poetic system , or united poetic unit in the poem, where unit including the densest words and a broader meaning or significance which has been referred to in the midst of this research and the final result that we have reached is that the term condensation can be classified in the equation ofa new literarylistas follows:
Case Pressure Emotionalliteracy andflowingof article + Rich Economy of language in terms ofsymboland image = Heavy wordin a broad sense.
As well as enable the poet to his language and his intellig
The primary goal of the study is to practise some systematic strategies for foreign language instruction despite the fact that no single approach to language classroom instruction is inherently superior to others; instead the choice of an approach should be determined by the teacher, students, the subject matter, and the situation. The paper adopts certain strategies which may assist EFL teachers to excel in their work and continue their professional development. Hence, it is intended for language teachers who understand the value of good teaching and like to produce academically successful students. The study could also help college student teachers to acquire new strategies in order not only to succeed but also to excel in their learni
... Show Moreنحاول في هذا البحث الوقوف عند طائفة من المسائل الخلافية النحوية بين النحويين البصريين والكوفيين ، حيث نقوم بعرضها وتحليلها وبيان ادلتهم ومناقشتها مناقشة موضوعية من دون ميل الىمذهب دون الاخر لان غرضنا البحث عن الحقيقة .ولاغرض لنا سواها محتجين بما نحكم بالشاهد وبما يتفق وطبيعة اللغة
.واﻟﻤﺴﺎﺋﻞ اﻟﺨﻼﻓﯿﺔ ﻛﺜﯿﺮة ﺻﻨﻔﺖ ﻓﯿﮭﺎ اﻟﻜﺘﺐ ﻛﺎﻹﻧﺼﺎف ﻓﻲ ﻣﺴﺎﺋﻞ اﻟﺨﻼف ﻟﻸﻧﺒﺎري وﻗﺪ ارﺗﺄﯾﻨ
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