Académique Documents
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Vassiliki Geka
May 2011
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks are also due to all the professors of the Department of English Studies
of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens that I had both the honour and
the pleasure to be a student of during my undergraduate and my postgraduate studies.
Their inspiration has been without doubt tremendous and unceasing.
Last but by no means least, I would like to thank all those people who were by
my side during the difficult and sometimes lonely process of the compilation of my
master thesis. It would not be an overstatement to say that if they were not there for
me, I would not have been able to complete it.
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
ABSTRACT1*
Drawing on the premise that idiomaticity is far from arbitrary, the present
thesis is primarily concerned with the conceptual motivation of idioms whose
semantics only seemingly appears to be randomly formed and haphazard. To this end,
the study engages in an analysis of the various approaches and definitions proposed
for idioms to conclude that a cognitive approach to idiomaticity provides a rather
inviting and intriguing option for the teaching of idiomatic expressions. In fact, this
approach is the only one, to the best of my knowledge, that lends itself not only to a
theoretical discussion of the notoriously cumbersome issue of idiomaticity but to
pedagogical application, including key issues in the field of EFL didactics such as
learning strategies, communicative competence and learning styles.
It transpires from the above that the present study may be of interest both to
scholars aspiring to develop or enhance further a cognitive, critical glance at
idiomaticity at a theoretical level, but also to those interested in exploiting the
conceptual network of idiomaticity in EFL contexts and specifically in materials‘
design. It might also be of interest to those wishing to explore idiomaticity and
* The abstract of this dissertation is also available in Greek at the last page of this dissertation.
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
figurative language from an educational and intercultural point of view, as idioms are
understood to be sensitive to cultural construals and enhance speakers‘ creativity.
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 2
Abstract ......................................................................................................................... 3
Tables and Figures ....................................................................................................... 7
Chapter 1 Introduction................................................................................................ 8
1.1.Aim of the study ................................................................................................... 8
1.2.Structure of the study ........................................................................................... 9
1.3.Defining idiomaticity ......................................................................................... 10
1.3.1. Idiomaticity: Towards a definition ............................................................. 10
1.3.2. The main characteristics attributed to idioms ............................................. 13
1.3.3. Glimpses on the history of idiomaticity ..................................................... 16
Chapter 2 A Brief Overview of a Cognitive Approach to Idioms ......................... 25
2.1.The origin of the cognitive enterprise ................................................................ 25
2.1.1. The main tenets of the cognitive enterprise ............................................... 25
2.1.2. The main branches of the Cognitive Linguistics model ............................. 26
2.2.The cognitive approach to metaphors and its significance to idioms................. 27
2.3.Cognitive model: Making a difference ............................................................... 30
Chapter 3 A Cognitive Linguistics Approach to Teaching Idioms in an EFL
Context ........................................................................................................................ 32
3.1. Cognitive linguistics going applied .................................................................. 32
3.1.1. Metaphoric competence and EFL methodology ........................................ 33
3.1.2. Learning strategies and EFL methodology................................................. 34
3.1.3. Cognitive and learning styles in EFL methodology ................................... 36
3.2. From theory to practice ..................................................................................... 39
3.3. A Cognitive Linguistics-inspired teaching methodology for idioms ................ 41
3.3.1.Which idioms to include in the materials? Selection criteria ...................... 41
3.3.2. What kind of activities and materials should be used? ............................... 42
3.3.3. Is the age of the learners a significant parameter? .................................... 43
3.3.4. What is the right level? ............................................................................... 44
3.4. The rationale behind the lesson plan ................................................................. 44
3.4.1. Description of the tasks .............................................................................. 45
Chapter 4 Discussion, Implications and Limitations of the Study, Conclusion .. 48
4.1. Importance of the study ..................................................................................... 48
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Idioms undoubtedly constitute one of the most elusive, interesting and yet
perplexing areas in intercultural exchanges. Apparently, their difficulty in the
repertoire of any language arises- inter alia- from the fact that they are to a great
extent fixed expressions exhibiting syntactic and semantic frozenness, lack of
permutability and, most importantly, meaning obscurity. That is why more often than
not they constitute a really important part of foreign language learning that
necessitates a lot of effort, diligence and hard work on the part of the learner.
However, by casting a closer look at what lies behind idiomatic phrases one is bound
to discover a whole ―universe‖ of concepts in operation. It is exactly this conceptual
universe organised in systematic networks that this dissertation will attempt to
investigate within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics and in particular by
adopting a cognitive approach to idioms with the aim of informing teaching practices
expected to facilitate idiom comprehension and retention.
In other words, the present study, despite the undeniable difficulties and problems
that idioms pose, will investigate how they can be presented to learners within a
framework that caters for their idiosyncratic nature without presenting them as totally
arbitrary syntactic or semantic anomalies to be learnt by heart. On the contrary, it will
indicate that most idioms reveal aspects of the human conceptual system and are also
motivated parts of a systematic network. To this end, this dissertation will present
samples of activities aiming at idiom teaching within a framework of a complete
lesson plan formed on the basis of the principles of the cognitive approach to idioms.
Focusing thus on the pedagogical implications of this approach to idiomaticity, this
dissertation is expected to shed more light on teaching idioms from a cognitive
perspective. A perspective that to the best of my knowledge (and as is elsewhere
stated2 as well) the EFL literature has failed to benefit from with very few exceptions
like that of Kövecses and Szabó (1996).
2
Cameron and Low (1999: 77) stated that "Despite the work done on metaphors and idioms in the last
two decades, little has reached Applied Linguistics."
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But before proceeding to the main contribution of this dissertation, namely that of
exploring idiomaticity through the perspective of the cognitive approach and its
pedagogical implications in EFL contexts and materials‘ design let me delineate
briefly the structure of the study. Then I will proceed to analysing and defining the
concept of idiomaticity as well as discussing the main principles of a cognitive
approach to idiom teaching.
The study is divided into four chapters. Chapter one is devoted to a discussion of
the different definitions provided for idioms and idiomaticity while also investigating
the main features attributed to idioms. Its last part engages in a brief historical
overview that provides the readers with ―glimpses on the history of idiomaticity‖
(Kavka and Zybert, 2004: 54).
It is this last section of chapter one that paves the transition to chapter two that
engages in an analysis of the main tenets, branches and goals of Cognitive Linguistics
in general and the cognitive linguistic approach to idioms in particular. Chapter two
explains the theoretical underpinnings of this approach and aims at dissolving the
myth of arbitrariness that has surrounded idioms for such a long period of time. The
concepts of motivation and cognitive systematicity are also explored, adumbrating the
significance of the conceptual networking for idiomaticity in EFL contexts.
Chapter three is where the methodology behind the practical applications of the
cognitive linguistic model to idioms is described in detail, preparing the reader for the
sample lesson plan and the tasks designed. Methodological issues pertinent to the age,
level of proficiency, or the nature of the materials and the tasks are analysed in detail
with the aim of informing the reader of the methodological parameters that have to be
taken into account in a real EFL context which endorses a CL-inspired idiom
instruction.
Finally, chapter four is devoted to a critical appraisal of the whole study and its
implications as well as restrictions. In this chapter, I provide a list of potential areas
for future research and I state quite clearly that there are a lot of desiderata that the CL
approach has yet to fulfill in relation to Applied Linguistics. I also state that future
research in relation to the cognitive approach to idioms should be gauged towards the
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direction of materials‘ design and test development, with a heavy emphasis on the
former.
1.3.Defining Idiomaticity
Idiomaticity has been a notoriously difficult notion from which many language
experts have steered clear at all costs. I will therefore start by dealing with this
notoriously difficult concept by referring to the multiple names and different
definitions that scholars have endowed it with.
Yet, despite the many labels assigned to the study of idioms, it would not be
an overstatement to say that comprehensive theories of idioms have been rather
scarce. This might be quite understandable, however, given the fact that
Structuralism- according to which idioms have an exocentric, marginal and most
importantly anomalous status in language- was the prevalent theory of language for
quite a long time.
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3
Hockett (1958: 172): [The idiom is…] ―any Y in any occurrence in which it is not a constituent of a
larger Y‖, where Y is ―any grammatical form whose meaning is not deducible from its structure‖ and
"...An idiom is a grammatical form-single morpheme or composite form, the meaning of which is not
deducible from its structure".
4
Weinreich (1972: 89) views "idiomaticity ...as a phenomenon which may be described as the use of
segmentally complex expressions whose semantic structure is not deducible jointly from their syntactic
structure and the semantic structure of their components.‖
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Other scholars like Strassler (1982) chose to adopt a pragmatic view towards
idiomatic expressions and defined idiom as a functional element of language, namely
as a pragmatic phenomenon, i.e. something that can be judged by the point of view of
the language user.
―An idiom is an institutionalised construction that is composed of two or more lexical items
and has the composite structure of a phrase or semi-clause, which may feature constructional
idiosyncrasy. An idiom primarily has an ideational discourse-function and features figuration; i.e. its
semantic structure is derivationally non-compositional. Moreover, it is considerably fixed and
collocationally restricted.‖ (ibid: 5)
Rounding off the issue of defining idioms, what I will now turn to is a
categorisation of the different features of idioms that have been attributed to them by
different scholars.
5
My emphasis.
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
fixedness/inflexibility (Fraser, 1970) on the other hand are used as generic terms
capturing lexicogrammatical restrictions influencing the variability (or lack of
variability) and the grammatical behaviour that the lexical constituents of idioms will
display. By and large, the potential flexibility of an idiom could be investigated by the
degree of syntactic modification that it can allow. Topicalisation, VP ellipsis and
prenominalisation experiments etc. might reveal a lot in relation to this feature6.
6
For example, the idiom ―pull somebody‘s leg‖ allows for some syntactic freedom. (Example 1: “He is
in the business of pulling legs”→Tense, lexicalization of the possessive, gerundial construction or
“What John did was pull his sister’s leg”→Pseudoclefts with Prenominalisation) (The examples have
been selectively chosen or adapted from Antonopoulou, 2009-2010).
7
For instance, in the idiom: ―trip the light fantastic‖, the lexical item ―trip‖ cannot be substituted by
―walk‖ or ―play‖ as in ―*walk/play the light fantastic‖ because this would result in incoherence.
8
Langlotz (2006) mentions for instance that the idiom ―blow the gaff‖ is constructionally idiosyncratic
because it includes the unique lexical item ―gaff‖.
9
―The essential feature of an idiom is that its full meaning, and more generally the meaning of any
sentence containing an idiomatic stretch, is not the compositional function of the meaning of the
idiom‘s elementary parts.‖ (Katz and Postal, 1963: 275)
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and ―kick the bucket‖ would probably be equally opaque to an uninformed language
user. Opacity and transparency refer respectively to whether a language user is able to
recover the rationale for the figuration involved in an idiom; something that may
depend on the user‘s powers of imagination as well. Based on the degree of
transparency that idioms may display they can be classified into encoding or decoding
idioms (Fillmore et al., 1988). The former are defined by Croft and Cruise (2004: 231)
as ―interpretable by the standard rules for interpreting sentences but their meaning is
conventional/arbitrary‖. The latter are said not to be decoded by the hearer in the
sense that the hearer cannot comprehend the meaning of the whole from the meaning
of the parts. The distinction between encoding and decoding idioms presents a certain
resemblance with the distinction between idiomatically combining expressions and
idiomatic phrases that Nunberg et al (1994) have put forth.
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Having referred to the different definitions of idioms and their main features
as put forth by various scholars, I will now focus on a categorisation of the main
approaches suggested for idioms. I wish to clarify, nonetheless, that this
categorisation is by no means exhaustive. It is simply indicative of the main
contributions (some of which were briefly mentioned before) made by certain scholars
and certain paradigms in the field of idiomaticity. Such a categorisation is expected to
assist us in understanding the shift that the cognitive approach has heralded and how
the entire approach can be juxtaposed to other theoretical frameworks.
The central debate around idioms may be said to "boil down to" whether
idioms can be attributed a motivated internal semantic structure that influences their
syntactic and lexical flexibility or whether they are completely arbitrary, irregular and
10
The examples have been selectively chosen or adapted from Antonopoulou (2009-2010).
11
This is also the original title of an article by Kavka and Zybert (2004).
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
Here follows a brief presentation and classification of the different theories belonging
to each of the two strands respectively:
1) The Orthodox View: Idioms as Semantic Units (This view is best exemplified by
early Transformational Generative13 accounts of the linguistic status of idioms 14 as
well as the psycholinguistic correlates of these approaches.)
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Katz (1973: 358) for instance does not hesitate to state the following: ―Idioms are
the ‗exceptions to the rule‘: they do not get their meaning from the meaning of their
syntactic parts. If an idiom is treated as if it were compositional, false predictions are
made about its semantic properties and relations.‖
15
Fraser (1970) named this restricted syntactic manipulation frozenness while Weinreich (1972) opted
for the term transformational deficiency.
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this hypothesis, idioms are first interpreted literally and if this literal interpretation
does not contradict the context wherein the idiomatic string is found, then the
comprehension process of the idiom is said to be completed successfully. In case,
however, the literal interpretation is found to be ―contextually defective‖, the
idiomatic meaning is activated and processed by retrieving it from the mentally
represented idiom-list through direct look-up. Nonetheless, as Ortony et al. (1978)
mention, psycholinguistic time experiments were quick in depriving this theory of its
accolades as they proved that potentially ambiguous idioms were generally processed
faster when used idiomatically, whilst literal ones seemed to decelerate the processing
speed. 16 In other words, psycholinguistic measurements of processing indicated that
the figurative conception of idioms precedes the literal one. By extension this suggests
that idioms are in fact directly retrieved from memory before any literal
comprehension is both attempted and completed. These findings helped Gibbs (1980,
1985, 1986) in buttressing his direct-access theory.
16
(Swiney and Cutler, 1979; Estill and Kemper, 1982; Glass, 1983; Gibbs and Gonzales, 1985,
Schweigert, 1992; Mcglone et al., 1994).
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
meaning. Yet, as soon as the key is recognized, the idiomatic meaning can be
activated. It is only rational therefore that what plays a decisive role is the position of
the key that will signal the switch from the literal to metaphorical meaning17. A final
point that should be mentioned in relation to this model is that it claims that the literal
meaning is only pushed to the ground so that the idiomatic meaning will become more
prevalent, but it is not suppressed. It is exactly this point that allows us to conclude
that in reality the configuration hypothesis occupies an intermediary position in-
between the literal-first and the figurative-first hypothesis (Langlotz, 2006).
17
For example, in the proverbial idiom ―When in Rome do as the Romans do”, as soon as someone
hears the word ―Rome‖, s/he will be able to evoke the idiom. This is so because the word ―Rome‖
functions as the key of this idiomatic configuration.
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The compositional view did not manage to escape criticism and its suggestions
have been disputed by a number of scholars (Schenk, 1995; Nicolas, 1995; Abeille,
1995 etc).
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After Nunberg‘s (1978) classification of idioms, Gibbs and Nayak (1989) put forward
their decomposition hypothesis. Following the compositional view of idioms, the
decomposition hypothesis argues that a significant number of idioms ―are
semantically decomposable or analyzable with the specific meanings of their parts
contributing independently to their overall figurative meanings‖ (Langlotz, 2006: 36).
Indeed, as certain experiments of comprehension speed suggest, language users try to
subject idioms to a compositional analysis while attempting to understand them and
they generally tend to take more time when dealing with non-decomposable idiomatic
expressions, whilst decomposable idioms seem to be processed more rapidly because
they function as linguistic units that can be produced and comprehended in terms of
semantic (de)composition.
The Compositional
View
Division between:
Semantically Psycholinguistic
Compositional Correlates of the
Idiomatic Compositional View
Expressions and
Semantically Non-
Compositional
Idiomatic The
Expressions Decomposition
Hypothesis
Before bringing this section to an end, let me clarify that although the
decomposition hypothesis seems to be quite close to the configuration hypothesis,
there is a marked difference between the two. The former focuses on the possibility
of a structured relationship between the overall idiomatic meaning and the literal
meaning of their constituents, while the latter underscores the great importance
assigned to the meaning of the constituents for idiom comprehension processes. The
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IDIOM
COMPOSITIONALITY
Finally, there is also a hybrid view of idiom processing which was endorsed by
proponents of simultaneous processing models (Gibbs, 1990; Schweigert, 1992). This
view suggests that the literal and the figurative interpretation of an idiom are
processed in tandem. Another more sophisticated version of this view, attempting to
combine the decomposition and the configuration hypothesis, was put forth by Titone
and Connine (1999) who argue that both the compositional and the non-compositional
views of idioms are problematic when seen in isolation. Hence, mixing them up and
producing a hybrid approach to idiom representation and processing that views idioms
as stored both in the form of unitary words and in the form of compositional word
sequences seemed ideal to them.
Having entertained these ―glimpses‖ in the history of idiomaticity, one might still be
wondering what else another theory of idioms could add, change, or improve. This is
exactly where the cognitive approach to idioms comes to the fore. All theories
delineated above have attempted to explain how idioms are processed or understood
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This is one of the major blind spots that a cognitive approach to idioms can
address by introducing concepts like motivation, which will distinguish it from other
approaches that overlook the fact that a great number of idioms is indeed conceptually
motivated. In the following section, I will thus focus on a) what a cognitive approach
to idioms actually is and b) how it stands out from the other models by allowing a
pedagogical orientation to idiom teaching.
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CHAPTER 2
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its name suggests) and the interdisciplinary dimension of this model. In other words,
the cognitive commitment represents the view that the principles of linguistic
structure should reflect what is known about human cognition from the other
cognitive and brain sciences, especially psychology, cognitive neuroscience, artificial
intelligence, and philosophy. Consequently, all the theoretical models within the
framework of Cognitive Linguistics avoid including structures or processes that
violate known properties of the human cognitive system.
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Cognitive
Linguistics
Figure 4: A schematic representation of the main tenets and branches of the cognitive linguistic model.
As it has been noted, the basic hypothesis entertained in this dissertation is that
a large number of idioms can be attributed a figurative semantic structure that is
motivated and analysable. That is to say that idioms cannot be described as simple,
arbitrary, word-like lexical units that can be accounted for in terms of an autonomous
lexical representation or a direct lexical retrieval. Rather, idioms appear to present
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This by extension means, that the starting point of idioms is the conceptual
network in language users‘ minds rather than the realm of language. The direct
repercussion of this position is that a significant number of idioms are motivated,
deeply entrenched in our minds, far from isolated, and as a matter of fact well
systematised in the networks of conceptual metaphors that generate them in the first
place. Lagnacker (1987: 25), will even state about idioms that: ―To regard an idiom as
opaque or as primarily a fixed phrase is [...] simplistic. It is more accurately seen as a
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
cognitively motivated. To mention but a few, they examine how the conceptual
metaphor ANGER IS FIRE (or its second version ANGER IS A HOT FLUID IN A
CONTAINER) gives rise to the following idiomatic expressions:
Bringing this section to a close, I will now focus on the achievements of the
Cognitive Linguistics enterprise that set it apart from other models of thought and that
are also of great interest to us in relation to the teaching of idioms.
The final section of this chapter will be devoted to reviewing the most
significant achievements of the cognitive model that in one way or another have also
had considerable influences on the treatment of idioms within the cognitive paradigm.
If one was to prepare a brief but comprehensive account of these, s/he should ideally
include the following:
An integrated view of language and thought (this is fairly evident by the fact
that Cognitive Linguistics probes into the interrelationship of language and
thought and seeks to provide cognitive evidence for what in the past has been
viewed as purely linguistic).
Integration of formalist and functionalist concerns (Cognitive Linguistics is
without doubt functionalist in spirit since it is interested in exploring the
social and communicative functions of situated language use. But it also
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
The last point of motivation will be shown to be significant for the teaching of
idioms to L2 learners as I shall explain promptly.
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The crucial question that arises from all the above is in what respect exactly
Cognitive Linguistics can be related to EFL didactics generally and to idioms‘
instruction specifically. Admittedly, the research conducted on the pedagogical
significance and implications of Cognitive Linguistics in EFL contexts is rather
limited. So, to answer the above question, I should probably start by referring to the
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concept of metaphoric competence that lies in the heart of the cognitive approach to
idioms and how that relates to the different cognitive styles and strategies that learners
might exhibit. For as most EFL literature has indicated, competencies, strategies and
learning or cognitive styles are of paramount importance for effective teaching and
learning in general. Therefore, my points of focus illustrating the profound
relationship between EFL methodological matters and Cognitive Linguistics will be
the following:
20
For a schematic representation of Bachman‘s model of communicative competence, please see
Appendix of this work on p.75.
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―any set of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage,
retrieval and use of information, … that is, what learners do to learn and do to regulate their learning‖
(Rubin, 1987: 19 as cited in Hedge, 2000: 77).
So, strategies have been divided by scholars into different kinds of taxonomies
but the taxonomy that will be of interest to this thesis is the one put forth by Oxford
and Ehrman (1990)22. According to them, strategies might or might not be conscious
steps or behaviours adopted by learners that are generally divided into two broad
21
My emphasis.
22
Please, see Appendix pages 76-77.
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categories; the direct and the indirect strategies. Direct strategies are those behaviours
involving direct use of language and they include three main subtypes of strategies,
namely a) the memory strategies (for storing information in memory and retrieving it),
b) the cognitive strategies (for manipulating language for both meaning reception and
meaning production purposes) and c) the compensation strategies for overcoming
limitations in learners‘ existing knowledge. Indirect strategies, in their turn, support
language learning although they do not directly involve use of the language per se;
they rather deal with organising the language learning process (Oxford and Ehrman,
1990). Indirect strategies include a) the metacognitive strategies (used for organising
and evaluating learning) 23 , b) the affective strategies (for managing emotions and
attitudes involved in the learning process) and c) the social strategies (that are related
to learning with others). My emphasis in this paper on tasks and materials based on a
cognitive linguistic approach to idioms has interestingly been found to relate to the
development of learners‘ strategic action and in particular to the development of the
cognitive and metacognitive strategies. These two include basic but also complex sub-
strategies for information processing like rehearsal, elaboration, organisation,
24
deductive reasoning and critical thinking (cognitive strategies) or planning,
monitoring and regulating that assist learners in the control and regulation of
cognition (metacognitive strategies) (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia and McKeachie, 1991).
Boers (2004) was among the first to refer to the enhancement of strategies as
a result of learners‘ exposure to the cognitive approach to idioms. Without a doubt,
such a correlation between the cognitive approach to idioms and the development of
strategic action brings to the surface another under-researched area of interconnection
between the Cognitive Linguistics and central notions of EFL literature. By
introducing learners to the cognitive approach to idioms, we are providing them with
one more useful cognitive strategy for organising the idiomatic expressions presented
to them by a) tracing them back to the metaphors that motivated them and b) by
grouping idioms under certain conceptual metaphors. Grouping idioms (Skoufaki,
23
Metacognition and metacognitive strategies in general are claimed to be the key to self-regulated, as
autonomous learning according to research, seems to be based on the strategic action, metacognition
and learner motivation present in learners (e.g. Bin, 2008; Boekaerts, 1999; Moschner, 2007; Winne
and Perry, 2000).
24
As Schmeck, Geisler-Brenstein and Cercy (1991) have remarked ―cognitive strategies include both
practice and what can be called ‗deep processing‘ which involves a constant analysis, synthesis, and a
continuous development and adjustment of schemata.‖
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
2008) and trying to make informed guesses about their meaning undoubtedly requires
cognitive effort and learners‘ problem-solving skills (Boers, 2004). Thus, greater
cognitive processing is requested on the part of the learner and by extension activation
of direct and indirect strategies as defined and classified by Oxford and Ehrman
(1990)25. Activating strategies might also facilitate the easier retrieval of idioms and
maximise the mnemonic benefits of deep processing. What is also worth commenting
on is that as mentioned, strategic action aims at instilling in learners the values and
principles of autonomous, self-directed learning that they will resort to on their own
without the educator‘s prodding26. Consequently, if learners are familiarised with the
cognitive mechanism of metaphor that motivates certain idioms, then they might be
able to resort to this deep processing (which actually depends on cognitive strategy as
I explained) again when presented with new idioms.
Lastly, this may also increase their motivation in their EFL studies in general
as it will decrease significantly the heavy memorisation demands that learners have
been accustomed to by the traditional model to idioms‘ teaching. As we shall see,
however, in the last section devoted to the desiderata of a unified research perspective
between CL and EFL research, this kind of reasoning needs to be buttressed and
supported by empirical evidence which has not been provided yet.
25
Please, see Appendix p.76-77 for an analysis of the taxonomy proposed by Ehrman and Oxford
(1990).
26
―Students are self-regulated to the degree that they are metacognitively, motivationally and
behaviourally active participants in their own learning process‖ (Zimmerman, 2001: 5).
27
"There are three distinct traditions of style-based work in psychology: a) the cognition-centred
approach, b) the personality-centred approach, and c) the activity-centred approach." (Grigerenko and
Sterberg, 1995: 207). For the purposes of our discussion, I will focus on the cognition-centred approach
that focuses upon cognitive and perceptual functioning.
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who introduced the term ―cognitive style‖ in an attempt to describe the different,
consistent stylistic preferences that individuals exhibit when organising stimuli and
constructing meaning. Cognitive styles are in simple words related to mental
behaviours that individuals apply habitually when they engage in solving problems or
dealing with demanding tasks. By and large, they reflect the stable and persistent
personality dimension of individuals that influences greatly their attitudes, values and
mode of social interaction (Uto, 1994). Naturally, however, not everyone fits neatly in
one or another of these styles to the exclusion of the other, parallel styles. On the
contrary, learners seem to partake to a lesser or greater extent of a number of different
styles but they tend to manifest rather consistent cognitive styles across different tasks
and over long periods of time (Guilford, 1967; Pask, 1988).
28
Please, see Appendix pages 78-79 for more information on learning styles.
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
What I would like to stress by bringing this brief reference to learning styles to
a close is that perhaps investigating Kolb's (1984) experiential learning model and his
analysis of learning styles in his seminal book Learning Styles Inventory (1976) might
also be interesting for exploring the correlations between the cognitive linguistic
approach to idioms and learning styles. Kolb's learning styles' theory suggests that
there is a four-stage learning cycle composed of four distinct learning styles in which
"immediate or concrete experiences" provide "a basis for observation or reflection"
(Kolb, 1984). These observations are then assimilated and distilled into "abstract
concepts" producing new implications which can be actively tested, resulting perhaps
in new experiences. Kolb's learning styles are named Diverging, Assimilating,
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Figure 5: Kolb's experiential learning cycle and the main tenets of his theory.
Source: http://www.leopard-learning.com/kolb.html (Accessed 10/05/2011)
To the best of my knowledge, there has been no study exploring the potential
relationships between this model and the cognitive approach to idioms, despite the
fact that they seem to have a lot in common (e.g. the concrete experiential domain as
opposed to the abstract one etc.). Furthermore, it would be interesting to investigate
whether the converging learning style that Kolb mentions in his theory as being
related to abstract conceptualisation is more dominant in learners that do well in the
cognitive approach to idioms. Interesting and plausible as this potential might sound,
further research is called for before any safe conclusion can be reached.
In an attempt to connect theory with practice, this dissertation will now shift to
analysing the pedagogical implications of a cognitive linguistic approach to idioms
that has not been particularly salient in the EFL literature. Thus, in this thesis I will try
to deal with this aspect of the cognitive linguistic approach by providing practical
29
For more schematic representations of Kolb's theory on learning styles, please see Appendix page 79.
39
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Exploiting the main advantage of the CL approach, i.e. bringing to light the
hidden relationships that are woven among conceptual metaphors and idioms, I will
proceed to designing a lesson plan addressed to upper-intermediate adult learners of
English. The lesson plan will aim at teaching idioms related to the feeling of anger
grounded in the general conceptual metaphor ANGER IS HEAT, that is further
subdivided into two specific versions: a)ANGER IS A HOT FLUID IN A CONTAINER and
b) ANGER IS FIRE.
Yet, before proceeding to the construction of the lesson plan, there are a
number of parameters that have to be analysed in relation to the methodology
followed. More specifically, in the following section, I will attempt to provide
answers to the following questions:
Two further questions that one has to pose before engaging in designing materials that
promote a CL approach to idioms' teaching are the following:
The above questions should be part of a teacher's reflection as they can determine
in certain respects the success of the instructional method adopted. Without neglecting
the fact, that the starting point for effective teaching and materials' design should be
our learners and their needs, the parameters delineated above may play a significant
role. It is high time then we directed our attention to providing answers to these
40
A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
methodological questions paving thus the way for the sample lesson and tasks
illustrating Cognitive Linguistics going applied.
In the lesson plan that follows, for instance, I have decided to present
idiomatic expressions motivated by the conceptual metaphor ANGER IS HEAT as
instantiated in its two more specific versions: a)ANGER IS A HOT FLUID IN A
CONTAINER and b) ANGER IS FIRE. The reasons for selecting these idioms over others
are mostly related to the productivity of these idiomatic expressions given the fact that
they describe an emotion. As the relevant literature has concluded, emotions
constitute the par excellence abstract domain of experience which consequently is in
need of structuring from a more concrete domain of experience (Kövecses, 2002: 21).
This would probably lead to greater frequency of idiomatic expressions belonging to
this systematic network over others, although no corpora frequency measurements
have been carried out. At this point, I would also like to stress that idioms related to
anger are significantly imagistic, this is a quality that facilitates cognitive processing
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and has been referred to in the relevant literature as semantic transparency (Boers and
Littlemore, 2000). It is perhaps this special characteristic of idioms related to anger
that has provided them also with a certain prominence in the vast majority of the
papers revolving around the treatment of idiomaticity through a cognitive linguistic
approach (cf. Kövecses and Szabό, 1996; Berendi, Csábi and Kövecses, 2008; Boers,
2000a; Dobrovol‘skij and Piirainen, 2005; Gibbs et al, 1997 etc). This was yet another
reason that directed my selection of idiomatic expressions while designing the
materials that follow. A final reason for selecting these specific idiomatic expressions
is that they are also based on our conventional knowledge of the world and our bodily
experience, e.g. the rise of our bodily temperature and the concomitant blush in our
facial skin.
As all modern trends in ELT pedagogy postulate, the primary goal of a teacher
is to act as a facilitator and to provide his/her students with materials and activities
that are purposeful, meaningful and real-life or life-like. Having as his/her point of
departure the needs of the learners, a teacher should first try to investigate what the
attitudes vis-à-vis the teaching and learning of idioms are. Liontas (2002) for instance,
shows that learners‘ attitudes towards idioms should be awarded a top priority
position and should be investigated thoroughly30. This is extremely important as the
activities and the materials to be presented to students should reflect their learning
expectations out of an EFL programme. Another characteristic of successful materials
30
For a detailed description of Liontas' findings in relation to learners‘ attitudes towards idioms, please
see the Appendix of this work, on p.80.
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and tasks is that they should make the teaching aims behind them clear enough
through situations, contexts and examples rather than through complex metalanguage
or drill-like exercises. Moreover, as I already exemplified in the previous section,
materials should also seek to promote the development of productive learning and
cognitive strategies while catering for different learning and cognitive styles.
Ideally, materials and tasks should promote learner autonomy as well while at
the same time encourage co-operation with other learners. With relation to our point
of focus this would result in learners taking the opportunity to work on their own in
order to enhance their understanding of idiomaticity and figurative language by
employing the conceptual mechanisms of metaphor upon encountering new idioms.
As Andreou and Galantomos (2008) state in their article in relation to the age
of learners involved in CL-inspired lessons aiming at teaching idioms, adults seem to
be better candidates than teenagers or very young learners. This is so because the
Cognitive Linguistics framework requires a certain familiarisation with abstract
reasoning and pragmatic skills on the part of learners which are more easily
encountered in adult learners than younger ones and adults are purported to have
developed their abstract reasoning and analytic ability 31more than younger learners.
Therefore, since abstract reasoning and analytic ability have been found to correlate
31
According to Sternberg (1985) there is a triarchic theory of human intelligence that distinguishes
among three types of intellectual abilities: analytic, creative, and practical. Analytic abilities are those
needed to analyse, evaluate, explain, and compare or contrast. Therefore, analytic thinking involves
applying problem-solving processes to abstract problems.
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with more effective idiom comprehension and retention through a CL-based approach
to idioms (cf. Boers and Littlemore, 2000), the target group of the sample lesson plan
provided is adult learners.
Boers (2004: 221), as Andreou and Galantomos (2008) cite, suggests that
learners ranging from an intermediate to an upper-intermediate or advanced level are
perhaps the best candidates for CL-inspired activities aiming at enhancing their
understanding of idiomaticity. This is so because beginners are likely to face problems
due to lack of the lexical knowledge required for the processing of the given
instructions or the idiomatic expressions in the first place. As Boers states quite aptly,
to interpret the idiomatic expression “she was fuming” by employing the cognitive
approach, one first needs to know what “fuming” actually means. Chances are,
therefore, that an elementary language learner would be seriously inhibited by lack of
language resources in applying this cognitive linguistic approach to idioms, unlike
upper-intermediate or advanced learners. This assumption seems to be corroborated
further by other scholars like Deignan, Grabys and Solska (1997: 358) who noted that
―students below mid-intermediate level might not be equipped with the necessary
metalanguage for discussion‖ if they are to be exposed to the cognitive linguistic
method of idiomatic instruction.
Based on these findings, the sample lesson plan provided in Appendix 2 (p.82)
targets adult learners of an upper-intermediate level in English that have already
developed a certain competence in abstract reasoning and are likely to feel relatively
at ease with the lexis involved in the idioms presented.
Designing lesson plans and tasks ought to stem from a meticulously thought
process by any educator since it is through the learning materials that teachers and
educational institutions in general implement their short-term objectives and long-
term goals. Therefore, the sample lesson plan presented in this thesis serves as an
illustration of how teachers could actually apply the principles of the cognitive
linguistic approach to idiomaticity in order to achieve their teaching objectives.
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More specifically, during the presentation stage, the teacher will draw
learners‘ attention to specific idioms through contextualised use and imagery or visual
stimuli that have been proved to be extremely useful in the presentation,
comprehension and retention of idioms (Szczepaniak and Lew, 2011; Ellis, 1994;
Sökmen, 1997; Lindstromberg and Boers, 2005). Then, during the practice stage, the
teacher‘s control over the materials and the tasks eases and learners start working on
the idioms presented initially under somewhat controlled tasks and then in freer ones.
In this section, I will only briefly and in broad terms refer to the tasks that
make up the whole lesson plan, as each task is followed by detailed teacher‘s notes
that explain the rationale behind each step, as well as how each task feeds into the
other.
32
Hereafter referred to as TBL. For more information please see: Bygate, Skehan and Swain, 2001;
Ellis, 2000; Willis, 1996a, 1996b and Appendix 1 (figure VIII) of this work p.81.
33
The PDP Framework: This lesson framework helps teachers plan and deliver effective listening,
video and reading lessons. The framework helps ensure that students are motivated, engaged and
active before, while and after (pre, during and post – PDP) listening to, watching, reading a text, or
speaking. Activities in the PDP framework are sequenced and scaffolded in such a manner that
learners are provided with the support they need to fully understand a given text. The stages of the
framework are a) the pre stage, b) the while-stage/during stage and c) the post stage.
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
likely to increase both the learners‘ motivation and understanding. The last task of the
presentation stage is based on textual stimulus whose whole coherence depends on
the use of the cognitive network of idioms related to anger. The text and the questions
that accompany it will be used in order to elicit the learners‘ answers in relation to the
idioms presented in the text. Learners will be asked to notice the idioms related to
anger and think about similar idiomatic expressions in their mother tongue. The
ultimate goal of this task is to introduce learners to the systematicity of idioms and
their motivation on the basis of conceptual metaphors.
The practice stage is based on the anger idioms presented in the text (or other
related idioms) and their underlying metaphors. Elaborate metalanguage that would
hinder learners‘ understanding is obviously avoided. The tasks assigned to students at
this stage call either for the grouping of idioms 34 on the basis of the conceptual
metaphors that motivate them or for their categorisation in terms of their formal
characteristics. The production stage consists of two tasks, the second of which is
assigned as homework to learners. Both of these tasks are characterised by the
teacher‘s minimum control and the students‘ maximum freedom in output. The first
task of this stage is an activity focusing on speaking, whereby students have to report
briefly to their classmates their own ―anger stories and experiences‖ by drawing on
their overall language resources as well as the newly-presented idiomatic expressions.
The final homework task develops further the writing skills of learners as it invites
them in a creative, motivating and most importantly authentic writing task that will
require the activation of the sum of their language resources as well as their
knowledge about idiomaticity. Learners will be asked to prepare a ―comment‖ to be
posted on the facebook page of a ―group‖ called ―Anger Management‖ that would
narrate a personal experience that infuriated them.
34
Skoufaki (2008) and Schmitt (1997: 211-217) suggest that grouping and storing idioms in motivated
clusters in our minds can lead to better and more long-lasting retention as well as easier retrieval.
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interrelationship between learning and cognitive styles and the cognitive approach to
idioms, one may understand that visual stimuli are also expected to facilitate the
possible imager learners in our classroom35. A last thing to be noted is that all the
activities have been constructed on the basis of an authentic, real-life purpose and an
appropriate situational context in mind.
35
Please see pages 36-39 of this work.
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
CHAPTER 4
In this dissertation, I set out on the premise that idiomaticity is far from
arbitrary or unsystematic and firmly believing that a cognitive linguistic approach can
offer educators not only a viable but also an effective framework for teaching idioms.
Bearing in mind that a cognitive approach to idioms derives from the theoretical
framework of Cognitive Linguistics and that there has been empirical evidence
(Kövecses and Szabό, 1996; Kövecses, 2002; Boers 2000a, 2000b) suggesting that
this model has practical pedagogical implications, I aimed at implementing this
perspective by designing a specific lesson plan.
Trying to investigate whether the EFL literature has taken advantage of the
new possibilities that this framework offers for the teaching of figurative language in
general and for the teaching of idioms in particular, I was confronted with a shortage
of relevant articles by foreign language experts and practitioners in traditionally
prominent EFL publications. In fact, Kövecses‘ and Szabo‘s (1996) influential article
“Idioms: A View from Cognitive Semantics” in Applied Linguistics seems to be-to the
best of my knowledge- a brilliant exception to the rule since although written by
experts in the field of Cognitive Linguistics, it appeared in one of the most prominent
journals dealing with Applied Linguistics. There are, of course, other papers and
articles advocating the use of a cognitive linguistic approach to idioms coming mostly
from experts in the field (Boers, 2000b; Boers and Lindstromberg, 2008; Andreou and
Galantomos, 2008, Skoufaki, 2008 etc) but they feature in publications related to
Cognitive Linguistics only.
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that, as its name suggests, it provides learners with a grouping of idioms on the basis
of the conceptual metaphors that motivate them.
Against this backdrop, this dissertation has aimed to bring to the fore the
benefits of adopting such an approach for treating idiomaticity in an EFL context from
the perspective of a language teacher. To this end, it provided samples of activities
endorsing the principles of a cognitive approach to idioms but also communicative
principles of creating effective teaching materials (Rahimi, 2008; Dornyei, 2001; Ellis
1991, 2003). Applying effectively a theoretical model to teaching requires a careful
merging of two seemingly different perspectives that of the theoretician of language
and that of the teaching practitioner. Apparently, the contribution of this thesis is that
instead of theorising about the potential applications of the CL approach to idioms, it
comes up with a readily available lesson plan to be implemented in an actual EFL
context.
Having engaged meticulously in the relevant literature, I soon realised that the
activity-samples offered did not seem to be realistic, authentic, purposeful or
interesting for application. Not to mention that none of these suggestions for activities
or even actual activity-samples were embedded within the framework of a complete
lesson plan. For instance, despite Boers‘ and Lindstromberg‘s (2008) "good
intentions" in favour of the CL approach to idioms, the activities they suggest are
rather artificial and unlikely to attract potential learners‘ attention. None of the
activities they propose is contextualised or with a clear objective and a purpose for
communication. Also, the series of activities they have prepared do not really manage
to form a coherent sequence of tasks, as one task does not feed into the other and the
potential learning audience is not provided with any textual or visual stimulus, or in
any case just a context - framework into which this new knowledge could be
embedded. In addition, their selection criteria regarding the choice of the idioms
included are rather vague and learners are not presented with reasons accounting for
the choice of idioms used in the activities. Lastly, another shortcoming of their
suggestion for pedagogical application is that all the activities they designed fail to
take into account the need for the learners to work with idioms and produce their own
output. It should be noted, of course, that this lack of continuity in the activities is also
the result of not being framed into a lesson plan, but nonetheless, the activities per se
are hardly engaging or meaningful. Assuming that these activities were designed by
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Having established that steering clear from idiomaticity is not the solution to
treating idioms in language, I have argued that the figurative language involved in
idioms should occupy a prominent position in EFL teaching materials. Gibbs (1994:
454) has stated that ―figuration is not an escape from reality but constitutes the way
we ordinarily understand ourselves and the world in which we live‖. So, if idiomatic
figurativeness is a natural and pervasive phenomenon in language and everyday
interaction, then it should be a part of EFL curricula and the materials used therein.
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"...students 'speak' with the formal structures of the target language, but they 'think' in terms of their
native conceptual system: i.e., students typically use target language words and structures as 'carriers'
of their own native language concepts...when these coincide...then the student texts coincide
serendipitously with culturally appropriate discourse texts; when they do not, students' texts manifest
an asymmetry between language form and conceptual content" (ibid: 5).
37
In his discussion, he uses the following example. If someone uses the phrase "I would like to discuss
my ides through this paper", rather than "in this paper", then this would not really be a linguistic error
as it arises from the application of a PAPER IS A CONDUIT metaphorical formula in the learner's
mother tongue, in lieu of A PAPER IS A CONTAINER formula used in English (Danesi, 1995). Such
examples triggered Danesi's interesting discussion of Contrastive Analysis and Interlanguage (or
concept transfer as he named it) associated with error correction to be found in the same paper.
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that would render all concepts as metaphorical should be avoided and he also admits
that there is still a lot of work to be done in order to show how grammatical and
semantic categories reflect conceptual structures or domains38. Bearing this caveat in
mind, as well as the difficulty in sequencing and ordering concepts, Danesi concludes
that a conceptual syllabus should be integrated with grammatical and communicative
syllabi, since the last two reflect the former. In brief, what Danesi suggests is a
rethinking of Second Language Teaching (SLT) by integrating language, cognitive
processes and culture in a coherent way in SLT syllabi with the aim of developing
learners' conceptual fluency. As it can be understood, such a syllabus would cover not
only idioms or metaphors but it would present how the language system can be shown
to reflect each culture's conceptual system in various ways. The cognitive styles of
learners and the need to develop further their cognitive strategies would also be taken
care of effectively under the umbrella of a conceptual syllabus39.
38
In his paper, he discusses how the prepositions "since" and "for" are related to the conceptual system
as reflexes of the conceptual metaphors TIME IS A POINT and TIME IS A QUANTITY (Danesi,
1995: 9, 16).
39
Please, see pages 34-39 of this work.
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
The very first limitation that I would like to acknowledge is that despite the
contribution of this thesis, namely the complete pedagogical proposal I am putting
forth through the lesson plan designed, I have not been able to implement this lesson
plan in an actual EFL class of adult learners. If that were the case, I would have been
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A cognitive linguistic treatment of idiomaticity in an EFL context Vassiliki Geka
In such an experiment, the researcher should also carry out a pre-test to both
classes so as to check whether and to what extent learners are familiar with the anger
idioms, as this can distort the significance of the findings. In this way, s/he would
maximise the validity of the experiment's results. Finally, carrying out a post-test with
the same students after a certain period of time would also allow a researcher to draw
some useful conclusions as regards the debatable issue of more long-lasting memory
retention.
Finally, a last dimension that I have not been able to investigate and to the best
of my knowledge has only partially been explored in relation to idiom instruction in
general (Liontas, 2002) is the attitudes of learners towards the cognitive approach of
idiom instruction. In this case, both qualitative and quantitative methods should be
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used, mainly through questionnaires and interviews. What learners think and their
desires and needs should always be the starting point and the driving force for any
lesson, syllabus, or curriculum.
4.4. Conclusion
Endowing learners with the useful insights of the cognitive approach to idioms
will hitherto enable them to perceive idioms as conceptually motivated and categorise
them accordingly. An innovative paradigm of linguistic thought such as CL will
certainly take time to ripen in educators‘ minds and will also require time, effort and
hard work to expand in the area of materials‘ design and testing. Nevertheless, a CL-
inspired pedagogy and idiom instruction can provide us with new insights in the way
learners acquire idioms and in the way different languages construe reality.
The present thesis has precisely provided an argument for the applicability of
cognitive linguistic insights to foreign language instruction and the teaching of idioms
in particular. So, I would like to bring this thesis to a close by referring to the
debatable issue of the teachability of idioms that was humourously presented by Boers
(2010) in one of his presentations40 as follows:
―Reaction from the mainstream: ―You must be mad! Idioms are just the icing on the cake.‖
Mainstream: ―They‘re simply not common enough. That‘s the long and short of it.‖
40
Boers, F. (2010) ―Pathways for engagement: Some ideas from ‗Cognitive Linguistics.‘‖ Paper
presented at conferences at Copenhagen Business School, Approaches to the Lexicon.
(Availableat:https://cypress.cbs.dlk?index.php/lexicon/lexicon/paper/view/840/508. Last modified:
28/07/2010) (Accessed: 22/04/2011)
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Mainstream: ―Okay then if you‘re teaching advanced learners. But to aid comprehension, not
production.‖
CL: ―Hmm…‖
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Pintrich, P.R., Smith, D.A.F., Garcia, T., and McKeachie, W.J. (1991) A Manual for
the Use of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Ann Arbor:
National Centre for Research to Improve Postsecondary Teaching and Learning, The
University of Michigan.
Ponterotto, D. (1994) ―Metaphors we can learn by: How insights from cognitive
linguistic research can improve the teaching/learning of figurative language‖. English
Language Teaching Forum 32(3).
Rahimi, M. (2008) ―What do we want teaching materials for in the EFL Teacher
Training Programs?‖. Asian EFL Journal: Professional Teaching Articles. 31
(Available online at http:www.asian-efljournal.com/pta_Oct_08.pdf Last accessed:
21/04/2011)
Riding, R.J., and Cheema, I. (1991) ―Cognitive styles: An overview and integration‖.
Educational Psychology 11: 193-215.
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Schmeck, R. R. (1988) Learning Strategies and Learning Styles. New York: Plenum
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Schmeck, R. R., Geisler-Brenstein, E., and Cercy, S. P., (1991) "The revised
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expressions‖. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour 18: 523-534.
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Uto, M. (1994) ―On some questions in connection with cognitive styles‖. Bulgarian
Journal of Psychology 4: 3-19.
Wasow, T., Sag, I. and Nunberg, G. (1983) ―Idioms: An interim report‖. In S. Hattori
and K. Inoue (eds.) Proceedings of the XIIIth International Congress of Linguistics
Tokyo: Comite International Permanent des Linguistes. 102-115.
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Witkin, H.A., Dyk, R.B., Faterson, H.F., Goodenough, D.R., and Karp, S.A. (1962)
Psychological Differentiation. New York: Wiley.
Witkin, H.A., and Goodenough, D.R. (1977) ―Field dependence and interpersonal
behavior‖. Psychological Bulletin 84: 661-689.
Witkin, H.A., and Goodenough, D.R. (1981) Cognitive Styles: Essence and Origins.
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Wright, J. (2002) Idioms Organiser: Organised by Metaphor, Topic and Key Word.
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APPENDICES
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APPENDIX 1
TABLES AND FIGURES
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1. Performs best on analytical language 1. Performs best on tasks calling for intuitive
lasks (e.g. understanding and using "feel" for language (e.g. expression; richness
correct syntactical structures; of lexical connotation; discourse; rhythm and
semantically ordered comprehension of intonation)
words; phonetic articulation) 2. Prefers material which has a human,
2. Favours material tending toward the social content; or which has fantasy or
abstract and impersonal; factual or analytical; humour; personal; musical, artistic
useful; ideas 3. Has affinity for methods in which
3. Has affinity for methods which are: various features are managed simultaneously;
focused; systematic; sequential; cumulative realistically; in significant context
4. Likely to set own learning goals and 4. Less likely to direct own learning; may
direct own learning; (but may well choose or function well in quasi-autonomy (e.g.
prefer to use---for own purpose---an "guided discovery"); (but may well express
authoritative text or passive lecture situation. preference for a formal, teacher dominated
5. "Left hemisphere strengths" learning arrangement, as a compensation for
own perceived deficiency in ability to
structure.
5. "Right hemisphere strengths"
Figure IV: Contrasts on the two poles of the Field Independent (Analytic) and Field Dependent
(Concrete/Holistic) Dimension (Source: Material adapted from Willing, 1988)
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Figure V: Kolb's experiential learning cycle and the interrelations of learning styles
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm (Accessed 10/05/2011)
Figure VI: Kolb‘s learning styles presented as quadrants of the learning cycle.
Source: http://effective.leadershipdevelopment.edu.au/series/experiential-learning-models/ (Accessed
10/05/2011)
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Figure VII : Learners‘ notions and attitudes towards idiomaticity (Source: Liontas, 2002)
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APPENDIX 2
A CL-INSPIRED LESSON PLAN
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41
According to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), (Council of
Europe, 2001).
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used in class in case of a technical problem, key to the tasks of the lesson plan (for the
teacher).
Presentation Stage
Warm up Task 1
Input: Visual stimuli accompanied by situational scripts related to anger – activation of mental
schemata
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learner(s) that might have trouble identifying the feeling of anger in this warm up
activity. As regards language output, learners will probably come up with some
idiomatic expressions (e.g. ―smoke would be coming out of my ears‖) - particularly
the more imagistic ones or those with direct correspondences in L142. However, even
if, students do not come up with many or any idiomatic expressions, such a warm-up
activity will prepare them cognitively for what is to follow as it will activate their
mental schemata in relation to anger. If they only use literal language to describe the
emotion of anger, students will become even more acutely aware of the figurative,
idiomatic expressions available for expressing anger through the following tasks. The
teacher should also ask one or two pairs to report to the whole class their discussion
about their potential reaction(s) as this could really liven up the classroom or lead to
an interesting class discussion.
Input: The situational scripts of task 1 embedded into a questionnaire related to anger –
activation of mental schemata- familiarisation with the gradable nature of the intensity of the
feeling of anger.
Warm up Task 2
Interaction: TSs
Class Organisation: Individual Work
Language Awareness: The gradable nature of the vocabulary related to anger.
Teaching Objectives: 1. To help learners understand the gradable nature of the
feeling of anger and to relate this notion of gradability to the idiomatic expressions
related to anger that will follow.
Allocated Time: 2-3 minutes
Material: Worksheet B (Appendix p.96)
Description of task - instructions: Now, based on your answers to the previous task,
answer the following questionnaire by stating how angry you would be exactly in
each of the situations depicted above. Please, circle your answers accordingly in the
scale that follows.
Teacher’s Notes: After completing warm-up task 1, the teacher should ask each
student to take a couple of minutes to complete the anger questionnaire (Worksheet B,
42
Assuming that this lesson addresses adult Greek learners, such an idiom would be readily available to
them because of its direct correspondence to an L1 idiom.
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Appendix p. 96). The rationale behind this questionnaire is to help learners understand
that there are degrees of anger that can be expressed- as they will see promptly-
through different idiomatic expressions showing the gradability of the intensity of the
feeling 43 . At this stage again, the focus is not on idioms per se although students
might have activated in their minds their familiar idiomatic expressions. The aim of
the task is rather to prepare students mentally for the cognitive demands of the tasks
that follow and make them more acutely aware of the gradability of the feeling of
anger. Finally, learners might also start thinking about the difference(s) between the
literal and figurative language used for expressing anger through the visuals used at
the extremes of the continua in the scale of the questionnaire.
Input: Textual stimulus for anger idioms –elicitation questions that will
progressively lead learners to focus on the systematicity of the idioms
included in the text.
Warm-up Task 3
Interaction: TSs, SSSs
Class Organisation: Individual Work (reading), Class Work (answering questions,
initiating class-discussion)
Language Awareness: The imagistic characterisation of idioms related to anger.
Language Skills: Reading (sub-skills emphasised: skimming and scanning)
Teaching Objectives: 1. To expose learners to the imagistic and metaphorical nature
of anger idioms by introducing the relevant terminology to be employed through
visual representation (see Appendix p.100).
2. To introduce the relevant vocabulary used in idiomatic expressions of anger.
3. To raise learners‘ awareness about cross-linguistic and cross-cultural differences or
similarities in anger idioms.
Allocated Time: 12 minutes
Material: Worksheet C and Worksheet D (Appendix pages: 97-100)
Description of task - instructions: You have noticed that lately, your best friend
tends to over-react to trivial things and to become too angry with no real reason. So,
43
Depicting the end of continua with visual imagery ranging from the purely literal adjective ―angry‖
to the visual that describes the idiom ―smoke was coming out of one‘s ears‖ is also expected to show
the escalation of the intensity of the feeling of anger.
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you decided to find an article about anger management strategies in order to learn
more about anger and find ways to help your friend. Read the article that you found
and try to answer the following questions.
Questions: 1) What is the main feeling that the text analyses? 2) Can you identify
any expressions from the text that refer to it? 3) Would you characterise any of
the expressions that you found as literal, metaphorical, idiomatic, or imagistic? 4)
Are there any similar expressions or images related to this feeling in your mother
tongue?
Teacher’s Notes: The teacher should give Ss a few minutes to read the text so
that they can become more familiar with the topic of anger and let them identify,
as many expressions as they can, related to it. The teacher should monitor the
class while the Ss are scanning and skimming through the text. When they finish
reading, the teacher should start by asking the very first question concerning the
topic of the text, expecting Ss to come up with ―anger and management strategies
for anger‖ as their answer. Then, s/he should ask a learner to start reporting the
expressions that s/he found so that other learners can also start contributing the
expressions they identified44. Ss will probably come up with literal expressions
but also idiomatic ones e.g. ―fuming‖ or ―get hot under the collar‖ etc. At this
stage, imagistic idioms might be more likely since learners might be able to work
their meaning out more easily than other, more obscure idiomatic expressions like
―vent one‘s spleen‖ or ―brimming with anger‖ etc 45 . After the stage of
identification, the teacher should ask the most important elicitation question of
this stage. In other words, s/he should ask learners whether the expressions they
identified could be characterised as literal, metaphorical, idiomatic, or imagistic.
His/her question should be accompanied of what these terms really mean so that
s/he reassures that there is no problem with the terminology and that learners
understand the difference among the terms. To this end, he could accompany
his/her question with an example from the text46 so that learners will feel more
secure with their answers. It is precisely this question and in particular the
44
If Ss fail to identify all the expressions related to anger, the teacher should help them by drawing
their attention to them.
45
If Ss have difficulty with the vocabulary of the text or with the vocabulary involved in the idioms
related to anger, the teacher should explain the vocabulary as the most important objective of this task
is to introduce learners to the cognitive mechanism of metaphor that motivates idioms rather than check
learners‘ knowledge of vocabulary.
46
E.g. ―they anger very easily and, once they‘re angry…‖ as opposed to ―don‘t blow your lid‖.
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Practice Stage
Input: Focus on the form of idioms related to anger – idioms show a certain
degree of inflexibility and fixedness - they are not amenable to formal
changes and Ss have to work on mastering their form – a tabulation of the
anger idioms‘ formal characteristics.
Practice Task 1
Interaction: TSs
Class Organisation: Individual Work
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Practice Task 2
Interaction: TSs, SsSs
Class Organisation: Pair Work
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Production Stage
Input: Visual stimuli – newly-presented idioms in context that the Ss will have
to create.
Production Task 1
Interaction: TSs, Ss Ss
Class Organisation: Group work (4 groups of 3)
Language Awareness: Idioms and vocabulary related to anger
Language Skills: Speaking
Teaching Objectives: 1. To enable learners to report on anger experiences by using
idioms.
Allocated Time: 10 minutes
Material: Worksheet H (Appendix p. 104)
Description of task - instructions: Look at the pictures that follow and the short
descriptions below them. Each picture describes an experience that could make you
angry (or has made you angry in the past). Choose one picture depicting such an
experience and narrate to your partner the incident that the photo depicts and how
angry you would be/were by using at least three idioms related to anger.
Teacher’s Notes: The teacher should divide Ss into four groups of three and should
ask each student in the groups to choose one of the pictures (accompanied by a brief
description) to narrate a similar experience they have had or an imaginary one similar
to that depicted by the photo they have chosen. Each student in the group should
choose a different picture, so that the group discussion is not based on an identical
prompt.47 The instances described in the pictures were chosen according to the needs
of adult learners that is why they refer to incidents that could have actually taken
place in their family, professional and social life etc. The teacher should stress that the
report of their experiences should contain at least three of the newly-presented
idiomatic expressions, appropriately contextualised in Ss‘ experiences that should be
shared among the members of their group. The teacher should also explain that Ss
should briefly report (four to five utterances per student) their reactions/experiences.
Moreover, the teacher should mention that Ss are allowed to make a few notes prior to
reporting to the other members of the group but they are not allowed to write down
47
I am offering twelve different prompts so that in case all Ss choose different pictures, the overall
output will be quite varied and diverse. Additionally, in this way I would maximise the possibility of
Ss‘ using different idioms.
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their exact utterances. While Ss are engaged in this task, the teacher should monitor
the group reports and offer his/her help if needed (e.g. Ss looking for a word or for
effective ways to phrase their thoughts).
Input: The overall input of the lesson accompanied by the Ss‘ background
knowledge about posting comments on facebook and narrating/reporting on
their experiences.
Task 2 (Homework)
Interaction: TSs
Class Organisation: Individual work
Language Awareness: Idioms and vocabulary related to anger, textual grammar,
narrative techniques
Language Skills: Writing
Teaching Objectives: 1. To engage learners in a writing task that will require them to
report their experiences by applying creatively their newly-acquired knowledge
related to idiomaticity.
2. To help learners relay their newly-presented knowledge to real-world tasks.
Allocated Time: 2 minutes (for the explanation of the task in class by the teacher)
Material: Worksheet I (Appendix p. 106)
Description of task - instructions: While surfing on facebook, you stumbled upon a
new group that you decided to join, called Anger Management. After reading a couple
of interesting stories on the group‘s ―wall‖, you decided to contribute your own
―anger story‖ about a recent experience you had. Write your story (100-150 words) in
the form of a facebook comment to be posted on the group‘s wall and shared among
your other facebook friends.
Teacher’s Notes: The teacher should take about two minutes to explain to Ss their
homework task. S/he should explain that their homework task is quite similar to what
most adults aged 25-35 years48 old, and probably themselves, do in their personal,
everyday life when they want to relax and share their feelings with their friends.
Instead of writing an e-mail to a friend – which seems quite artificial and outdated as
a task - learners will be engaged in a meaningful, authentic and communicative task
48
This is the target audience of the lesson plan.
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based on a very familiar situational context for them that involves posting comments
on facebook. In this case, the comment is going to be a personal ―anger story‖ that
they had and that they would like to share with the other members of the ―Anger
Management‖ group and their facebook friends (please, see Appendix p.106). The
teacher, however, should stress that just like in the case of e-mails, Ss should avoid
using netiquette symbols49 and they should stick to producing language output that
suits the stylistic conventions associated with the genre of the text they should
produce. S/he could simply say that netiquette symbols are not understood by
everyone. The teacher should also remind Ss that the register in this case is informal,
the target audience is their friends and the other members of the group they have
joined. S/he should also stress that their final product should be a facebook comment
reporting on an anger (mis)management story that they have experienced. The teacher
could also suggest to Ss to actually post their comments on the wall of this specific
group50 or alternatively just visit it so that they can see some examples of the other
group members‘ contributions. At this stage, the teacher cannot impose any
restrictions on the language output of Ss, because Ss are supposed to come up with
their own answers, drawing on all their language resources and not just the newly-
presented idiomatic knowledge. Nonetheless, the nature of the task is such that anger
idioms are to be expected while Ss are reporting their experiences.
49
Netiquette is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks and netiquette
symbols should be understood as abbreviations in the form of symbols (e.g. ―@‖ standing for the word
―at‖, number ―4‖ standing for the preposition ―for‖ etc. or the combination of computer keys to produce
emoticons - facial expression pictorially represented by punctuation and letters, usually to express a
writer‘s mood- e.g. :-) Smiley Face – Happy / :-( Frown – Sad / |:-} Calm / >:-( Angry Frown – Upset /
;-) Wink etc.
50
This groups is an authentic one, open to the public, available at:
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=3893461543
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APPENDIX 3
MATERIALS FOR THE LESSON PLAN
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APPENDIX 3a
WORKSHEET A
WARM-UP TASK 1
TASK 1: Imagine that you find yourselves in the following situations (A-E) depicted
in the pictures below. What will your main feeling be and how intense do you think it
would be in each case? Talk with your neighbour and compare the intensity of your
feeling.
Situation A
You are driving down the
highway with your brand
A new car and suddenly
another car cuts you off
and causes you a minor
accident with another
car! What do you do?
How do you feel?
Situation B
You have to submit an
important report to your
B boss in 30 minutes and
your computer has just
crashed!All your archives
are in danger! What do
you do? How do you feel?
Situation C
You have just found out
that your husband is
C cheating on you with your
best friend! What do you
do? How do you feel?
Situation D
You lent your only car to
your best friend and he
D returned it back to you
full of scrapes. What do
you do? How do you feel?
Situation E
The stock market has just
crashed and you lost
E about 1.000.000$ from
your investments. What
do you do? How do you
feel?
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APPENDIX 3b
WORKSHEET B
WARM-UP TASK 2
Now, based on your answers to the previous task, answer the following questionnaire
by stating how angry you would be exactly in each of the situations depicted above.
Please, circle your answers accordingly in the scale that follows.
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APPENDIX 3c
WORKSHEET C
PRESENTATION TASK 1: TEXT
TEXT
Do you spend the rest of the afternoon fuming, thinking about how people really
ought to watch where they‘re going—or do you let it go? Do you race to catch up to the
reckless driver and try to cut him off or shake your fist at him—or do you lay back in
your seat and think, ―I‘m thankful I didn’t get into an accident!‖? Do you pound your
fists on your desk and contemplate throwing your computer across the room—or do you
take a few deep breaths and try to find someone to help you figure out the problem?
These might seem like silly examples, but how you choose to respond to your anger has
a big effect on every aspect of your life—and how you feel while you‘re living it.
The goal here isn‘t to never get hot under the collar. The key to anger
management is understanding when you‘re angry and how to express that anger in a
healthy way. Lashing out, blowing your top, holding it all in, stewing in your own juice,
or acting out in passive-aggressive ways that allow you to seek revenge with a veneer of
niceness are all unhealthy ways of dealing with your anger. You can have too much or
too little anger, and both cause problems.
Some people have too much anger. Or, more accurately, they anger very easily
and, once they‘re angry, they have a limited number of resources for expressing that
anger or letting it go. Almost anyone would feel a surge of overwhelming anger if their
house got broken into. On the other hand, not many people would throw their computer
across the room because their e-mail wouldn‘t work or give a close friend the silent
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Research has shown that some people are born with a lower frustration tolerance.
From a very early age they‘re easily irritated and very touchy. Others are raised in an
environment that is chaotic, abusive, or lacking in emotional communication. They were
never taught how to deal with their anger appropriately. Whatever the reason, some
people really are just more likely to anger over any and every annoyance, inconvenience,
injustice, etc. than others. People who have trouble controlling their anger aren‘t always
prone to angry outbursts, either. Anger can also come out as moodiness, sulking, talking
behind other‘s backs, and shutting down.
If someone cuts them off, they focus on the fact that the other driver did that to
them instead of seeing that there are multiple sides to every story. It could be that the
other driver didn‘t see them or that they simply made a mistake, but someone with anger
control issues won‘t even let those possibilities cross their mind; they often think,
―They‘re doing it to me, not near me.‖ This focusing on the negatives and even
imagining slights when there are none gets the person angry at every turn. A person with
anger control issues also has a tendency to have really rigid rules about what is and is not
acceptable to them. We all need to have values and boundaries, but we also need to cut
others some slack. No one is perfect, and no one is going to live up to our expectations
all the time. If you find your blood boiling with people for making one or two mistakes
or not following your rules to the letter, you might have anger control problems. But
remember blowing a gasket is not the solution.
There are a number of healthy ways to express and deal with your anger. If you
have trouble with too much anger, it‘s important to focus on your thoughts. Here are
some simple ways you can start putting your anger in perspective:
Look at the other side. When you‘re really mad, looking at the situation
from the other person‘s point of view may be the last thing you want to
do, but offering some understanding can help you get a different
perspective and maybe not get so mad or at least do a slow burn.
Would it stand up in court? Ask yourself if there is any evidence to
prove that the situation really is the way you think it is. Can you prove
that the driver who cut you off did it on purpose? Do you know beyond a
shadow of a doubt that your friend didn‘t return your phone call because
they don‘t respect your friendship? If not, then don‘t lose your cool over
it!
Do I really want to do that? When you feel yourself getting angry and
about to flash with anger, ask yourself if that‘s what you really want to
do. Think about the outcome. If your way of dealing with anger is to
numb out watching too much TV, ask yourself if you‘ll feel any better. If
you want to vent your spleen, think about what that might do to the
relationship. Is there an answer? Your anger isn‘t always unjustified.
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These are some simple answers, and they‘re going to look a little different in every
situation. The real key is to look for the positive factors that balance out the negative and
learn to let go of the little stuff.
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APPENDIX 3d
WORKSHEET D
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APPENDIX 3e
WORKSHEET E
PRACTICE TASK 1
Match the beginnings of the idioms in Column A with their second parts in Column B.
What can you notice? (There might be more than one option per item in some cases).
COLUMN A COLUMN B
2. brim b. spleen
4. do a d. juice
5. blow a e. top
7. be hot h. fuse
l. cool
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APPENDIX 3f
WORKSHEET F
PRACTICE TASK 1
TABULATION OF THE FORMAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ANGER
IDIOMS
2) Idioms with a prepositional phrase Examples: brim with anger, flash with
(i.e. verb + preposition like ―in‖, anger, be hot under the collar
―with‖, etc + noun)
51
The teacher might wish to proceed to an even deeper analysis of formal characteristics by initiating a
discussion about transitive/intransitive constructions or external causation (e.g. in the case of ―make
one‘ blood boil‖. However, this tabulation of formal characteristics is supposed to suffice as this lesson
emphasises FORM + MEANING + USE of idioms without overstressing one of these three aspects.
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APPENDIX 3g
WORKSHEET G
PRACTICE TASK 2
Work with your partner and try to group the idioms in the box below under the
metaphors that motivate them. Please write your answers inside or under the
circles that correspond to each metaphor.
Blow one’s lid, somebody is boiling with anger, somebody is simmering with range, be hot
under the collar, be steamed up, flash with anger, somebody is fuming, smoke coming out
of one’s ears, lose one’s cool, be fiery-tempered, be seething with anger, somebody’s anger
is smo(u)ldering, to fan the flames, to add fuel to the flames.
ANGER IS HEAT
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APPENDIX 3h
WORKSHEET H
PRODUCTION TASK 1
Look at the pictures that follow and the short descriptions below them. Each picture
describes an experience that could make you angry (or has made you angry in the
past). Choose one picture depicting such an experience and narrate to your partner the
incident that the photo depicts and how angry you would be/were by using at least
three idioms related to anger.
1. Your favourite football 2. You were waiting for an 3. You have just paid a
team has just lost the Cup! important call and your phone fortune for the most expensive
just ran out of battery! dish of a luxurious restaurant
but the food was a disaster!
4. Your wife has just burnt 5. You’ve just returned home 6. Your professor has failed
your favourite shirt. only to find that your house your final paper although you
has been broken into. are absolutely sure that there
was no problem with it!
7. Your computer has just 8. You just found out that 9. Waiting in the queue to pay
crashed and you’ve lost all of your boyfriend has cheated on your bill that expires today
your archives. you. while the cash register closes
in 30 minutes.
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10. You have just received 11. You’ve just been given the 12. Your little daughter has
your monthly credit card school reports of your son and just broken your expensive
statement and you just saw they seem anything but Murano vase; your only
that you have a debit of satisfactory! souvenir from Italy!
500.000$ for purchases that
your ex-wife has made!
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APPENDIX 3i
WORKSHEET I
While surfing on facebook, you stumbled upon a new group that you decided to join,
called Anger Management. After reading a couple of interesting stories on the group‘s
―wall‖, you decided to contribute your own ―anger story‖ about a recent experience
you had. Write your story (100-150 words) in the form of a facebook comment to be
posted on the group‘s wall and shared among your other facebook friends.
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APPENDIX 4
KEY TO THE TASKS OF THE LESSON
PLAN
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Presentation Stage
Warm-up Task 1
Warm-up Task 2
Warm-up Task 3
Accept Ss‘ answers as long as they are meaningful and coherent and as long as they
match the content of the text. Here follows a version of the text whereby all the
idiomatic expressions related to anger have been highlighted for your convenience.
TEXT
Do you spend the rest of the afternoon fuming, thinking about how people really
ought to watch where they‘re going—or do you let it go? Do you race to catch up to the
reckless driver and try to cut him off or shake your fist at him—or do you lay back in
your seat and think, ―I‘m thankful I didn’t get into an accident!‖? Do you pound your
fists on your desk and contemplate throwing your computer across the room—or do you
take a few deep breaths and try to find someone to help you figure out the problem?
These might seem like silly examples, but how you choose to respond to your anger has
a big effect on every aspect of your life—and how you feel while you‘re living it.
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that needed changing, and their anger over the mistreatment of others helped them take
the first steps toward liberation. But when we find ourselves brimming with anger on a
regular basis, it can have seriously negative effects—on our health, our relationships, and
our quality of life.
The goal here isn‘t to never get hot under the collar. The key to anger
management is understanding when you‘re angry and how to express that anger in a
healthy way. Lashing out, blowing your top, holding it all in, stewing in your own juice,
or acting out in passive-aggressive ways that allow you to seek revenge with a veneer of
niceness are all unhealthy ways of dealing with your anger. You can have too much or
too little anger, and both cause problems.
Some people have too much anger. Or, more accurately, they anger very easily
and, once they‘re angry, they have a limited number of resources for expressing that
anger or letting it go. Almost anyone would feel a surge of overwhelming anger if their
house got broken into. On the other hand, not many people would throw their computer
across the room because their e-mail wouldn‘t work or give a close friend the silent
treatment for a week because of canceled plans. If you‘re consistently pessimistic,
critical, frustrated, lashing out, cursing, or shutting others out in an attempt to avoid
anger, odds are you‘re one of those who angers easily.
Research has shown that some people are born with a lower frustration tolerance.
From a very early age they‘re easily irritated and very touchy. Blowing a gasket was
always typical of them. Others are raised in an environment that is chaotic, abusive, or
lacking in emotional communication. They were never taught how to deal with their
anger appropriately. Whatever the reason, some people really are just more likely to
anger over any and every annoyance, inconvenience, injustice, etc. than others. People
who have trouble controlling their anger aren‘t always prone to angry outbursts, either.
Anger can also come out as moodiness, sulking, talking behind other‘s backs, and
shutting down.
If someone cuts them off, they focus on the fact that the other driver did that to
them instead of seeing that there are multiple sides to every story. It could be that the
other driver didn‘t see them or that they simply made a mistake, but someone with anger
control issues won‘t even let those possibilities cross their mind; they often think,
―They‘re doing it to me, not near me.‖ This focusing on the negatives and even
imagining slights when there are none gets the person angry at every turn. A person with
anger control issues also has a tendency to have really rigid rules about what is and is not
acceptable to them. We all need to have values and boundaries, but we also need to cut
others some slack. No one is perfect, and no one is going to live up to our expectations
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all the time. If you find your blood boiling with people for making one or two mistakes
or not following your rules to the letter, you might have anger control problems. But
remember blowing a gasket is not the solution.
There are a number of healthy ways to express and deal with your anger. If you
have trouble with too much anger, it‘s important to focus on your thoughts. Here are
some simple ways you can start putting your anger in perspective:
Look at the other side. When you‘re really mad, looking at the situation
from the other person‘s point of view may be the last thing you want to
do, but offering some understanding can help you get a different
perspective and maybe not get so mad or at least do a slow burn.
Would it stand up in court? Ask yourself if there is any evidence to
prove that the situation really is the way you think it is. Can you prove
that the driver who cut you off did it on purpose? Do you know beyond a
shadow of a doubt that your friend didn‘t return your phone call because
they don‘t respect your friendship? If not, then don‘t lose your cool over
it!
Do I really want to do that? When you feel yourself getting angry and
about to flash with anger, ask yourself if that‘s what you really want to
do. Think about the outcome. If your way of dealing with anger is to
numb out watching too much TV, ask yourself if you‘ll feel any better. If
you want to vent your spleen, think about what that might do to the
relationship. Is there an answer? Your anger isn‘t always unjustified.
Sometimes there really is a problem. The key is to seek a solution instead
of a momentary quick-fix. Lashing out or masking your feelings may feel
good in the moment, but they don‘t solve the problem. Instead, look for a
reasonable solution.
These are some simple answers, and they‘re going to look a little different in every
situation. The real key is to look for the positive factors that balance out the negative and
learn to let go of the little stuff.
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Practice Stage
Practice Task 1
COLUMN A COLUMN B
2. brim c b. spleen
4. do a i d. juice
5. blow a a, h e. top
7. be hot k h. fuse
l. cool
Practice Task 2
ANGER IS HEAT
ANGER IS FIRE
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Production Stage
Production Task 1
Accept Ss‘ answers as long as they are meaningful and coherent and as long as they
include at least three of the newly-presented anger idioms.
Production Task 1
Accept Ss‘ texts as long as they are meaningful and coherent and as long as they
match the conventions associated with the text-type they were required to produce.
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APPENDIX 5
ABSTRACT IN GREEK
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* Περίληψη
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