The Influence of Idiom Types and L2 Proficiency on Idiom Comprehension Among College Students Abstract On the basis of conceptual basis/cultural connotation and the linguistic form of idioms, this paper constructs the cross-conceptual and cross-cultural English and Chinese idiom comparison and classification frameworks. It is used as the theoretical basis to investigate on the intermediate and advanced English-major students’ comprehension of idioms involving metaphor and cultural connotation. The results have shown that idiom types could influence on students’ comprehension; while the influence of L2 proficiency level is not consistent and significant. The conclusions of this paper are as follows: the essence of idiom comprehension in second language is the process of conceptual or cultural transfer. Nevertheless, since the English classroom environment in China is not beneficial to the linguistic form of L2 and the construction of relationship between related conceptual system and cultural connotation, L2 learners could only rely on the conceptual system and cultural connotation transfer related to their native language to understand the L2 idioms, which leads to a lower successful rate of comprehension.  58545

Key Words: Idiom types; L2 proficiency; idiom comprehension; college students

 习语类型与二语水平对大学生理解二语习语的影响

提  要本文以习语的概念基础/文化内涵和语言表达方式两个因素为基础,由此分别建立跨概念和跨文化的英汉习语对比分类框架,并据此分别调查我国英语专业中级和高级学生对包含隐喻和文化内涵的习语的理解。结果显示:习语类型对理解结果产生显著影响,外语水平的影响则不一贯且不明显。本文的结论是:二语习语理解实质上是概念或文化迁移的过程,但由于我国英语课堂环境不利于二语语言形式与其相关的概念体系和文化内涵之间关系的建立,学习者通常只能靠与母语相关的概念体系和文化内涵的迁移来理解二语习语,导致理解成功率低下。

毕业论文关键词: 习语类型；二语水平；二语习语理解；大学生

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Aims and Significance of the Study 1

1.3 Organization of the Thesis 2

2. Literature review 2

2.1 Idiom 2

2.1.1 The Concept of idiom 2

2.1.2 L2 Idiom Types 3

2.2 L2 idiom comprehension 4

2.2.1 Traditional Views on L2 Idiom Comprehension 4

2.2.2 Current Views on L2 Idiom Comprehension 5

3. Research Methodology 5

3.1 Research Questions 5

3.2 Research Subjects 5

3.3 Participants 6

3.4 Materials 6

3.5 Procedure 8

4. Results and Analysis 9

4.1 The Results and Discussion of Research Question One 9

4.2 The Results and Discussion of Rresearch Question Two 11

5. Conclusion 14

5.1 Major Findings and Implications