Developing EFL Students’ Ability in Comprehending Idiomatic Expressions Through Text Reading

Abstract

The aim behind the current research is to investigate students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards students’ ability in comprehending idiomatic expressions through text reading. Correspondingly, it is hypothesized that the use of reading text would improve students’ ability in understanding idioms. To test the validity of the hypothesis, a quantitative-descriptive method was adopted through the administration of two questionnaires which addressed and distributed to 108 first year Master students, and to 13 teachers at the department of Letters and English Language, University of 8 Mai 1945-Guelma. In addition to an idioms’ comprehension test to check the effectiveness of text reading in developing EFL students’ ability in comprehending idiomatic expressions. The obtained results reveal that both participants show a positive attitude and strongly agree on the usefulness of text reading in developing EFL learners ability to comprehend idiomatic expressions. Based on these findings, it is recommended that teachers should actively engage students in idiomatic learning activities designed for reading skill tasks.