LINGUIST List 22.767 Tue Feb 15 2011 Diss: Applied Ling: Katsarou: 'The Use of Lexical Inferencing ...' Editor for this issue: Mfon Udoinyang <mfonlinguistlist.org> To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm. Directory         1.     Eirene Katsarou , The Use of Lexical Inferencing Strategies in the Identification and Comprehension of L2 Phrasal Idioms During Reading by Greek Learners of English Message 1: The Use of Lexical Inferencing Strategies in the Identification and Comprehension of L2 Phrasal Idioms During Reading by Greek Learners of English Date: 15-Feb-2011 From: Eirene Katsarou <ekatsaiotenet.gr> Subject: The Use of Lexical Inferencing Strategies in the Identification and Comprehension of L2 Phrasal Idioms During Reading by Greek Learners of English E-mail this message to a friend Institution: University of Essex Program: MPhil/PhD in Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2010 Author: Eirene Katsarou Dissertation Title: The Use of Lexical Inferencing Strategies in the Identification and Comprehension of L2 Phrasal Idioms During Reading by Greek Learners of English Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics Subject Language(s): English (eng)                             Greek (ell) Dissertation Director: Philip Scholfield Dissertation Abstract: This study investigates the extent of identification and comprehension success, and the types of lexical guessing strategies used by Greek EFL high school students encountering phrasal idioms while reading English as a foreign language. The study also examines the relationship of the above with five idiom type features, i.e. (i) contextual guessability, (ii) frequency of words in the idiom, (iii) interlingual similarity, (iv) transparency and (v) existence of an idiom in Greek and four learner factors: (i) L2 language proficiency, (ii) gender, (iii) motivation and (iv) field-independence/-dependence. Data was collected from 60 Greek EFL senior high school students in first and second grades using five instruments: an Idiom Identification and Comprehension Elicitation Instrument, Nation's (2001) Vocabulary Levels Test, the Greek Version of the Groups Embedded Figures Test, the Oxford Placement Test and an Individual Background Survey. Qualitative semi-structured oral interviews of 10 subjects chosen randomly, were also conducted to supplement and verify the quantitative data. The results indicate that overall scores for L2 idiom identification, comprehension and confidence were remarkably low. Successful L2 idiom identification was found to correlate strongly but negatively both with frequency of occurrence of the component words of the idioms and with interlingual similarity while L2 idiom comprehension as well as Greek EFL learners' self-reported confidence were both found to correlate significantly positively with interlingual similarity only. No significant correlations were obtained between any of the four learner-related variables and the three main variables of L2 idiom identification, comprehension and L2 learners' confidence in the task of guessing the meaning of unknown target idioms in text context. With respect to the frequency of use and effectiveness of use of lexical guessing strategies in the task of L2 idiom comprehension, results showed overall low scores indicating that L2 learners did not tend to use lexical guessing strategies very often and in cases insufficient clues in the text context did not help them guess accurately the meaning of unknown L2 idiom phrases. Frequent use of 'use of idiom equivalence' in L1 Greek and 'use of the meaning of words in the idioms' were found to most strongly correlate with successful L2 idiom comprehension. Furthermore, effective use of almost all strategies except for 'use of background knowledge' was found to correlate significantly with accuracy of L2 idiom comprehension. Finally, no significant correlations were found between (i) accurately identified and accurately inferred L2 unknown idioms, or (ii) confidence and L2 idiom comprehension. Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 15-Feb-2011       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.