INDONESIAN EFL LEARNERS’ ERRORS IN IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS: TEACHERS’ & STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES
Abstract
In an Indonesian setting, writing proper idiomatic expressions poses significant challenges for the majority of EFL students. Oftentimes, the idiomatic meanings deviate from the literal meanings and students are affected by their own first language and cultural contexts in usage. Therefore, this study explores the erroneous mistakes made by Indonesian EFL students and offers insights into teachers’ and students’ perspectives. This research will primarily examine the factors that influence university-level Academic Writing class students in incorrectly translating idiomatic expressions from the source language to the target language. The data for analysis was retrieved from students of Academic Writing classes from two different universities in West Java and Central Java to provide a comparative context in analyzing their mistakes. A comparative descriptive approach was applied, as this was deemed more appropriate for a study on semantic and translation strategies. The research results revealed that the study participants primarily experienced L1 interference, insufficient linguistic and grammatical knowledge, and a lack of lexical knowledge. Another obstacle was the students’ tendency to not heed cultural aspects in their writing and translating. Consequently, it is essential for EFL learners to be able to properly understand and translate idiomatic expressions in their writing to improve their target-language proficiency. Thus, instructors and students play crucial roles in successfully traversing this linguistic endeavor. Through proper instruction and active engagement, EFL learners can improve their linguistic mastery and cultural fluency, facilitating them to write more naturally in English.
Article visualizations:
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Ball, P. (LOI English). 2023. 100+ idiomatic expressions: The ultimate guide to learning idioms. https://skypeenglishclasses.com/idiomatic-expressions/#:~:text=Idiomatic%20expressions%20are%20groups%20of,(accidentally%20told%20a%20secret
Ferdy, H., Catia, C., Helmer, S., & Ton, D. (2022). Individual word activation and word frequency effects during the processing of opaque idiomatic expressions. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 75(6), 1004-1020.
Halim, S. & Bustamin, A. R. (2016). Analisis kesalahan dalam penerjemahan teks Bahasa Inggris-Bahasa Indonesia (studi kasus pada mahasiswa Teknik Sipil Program Studi D IV Jasa Konstruksi Semester IV Tahun 2015/2016 Politeknik Negeri Ujung Pandang. https://ejournal.iainpalopo.ac.id/index.php/ideas/article/download/46/35
Harappa. (2021). Narrative analysis: Methods and examples. https://harappa.education/harappa-diaries/narrative-analysis-in-qualititative-research/#:~:text=The%20Narrative%20Method-,What%20Is%20Narrative%20Research%3F,then%20review%20and%20analyze%20them.
International Cognitive Linguistics Associations (ICLA). (n. d.). About cognitive linguistics. https://www.cognitivelinguistics.org/en/about-cognitive-linguistics
Jackendoff, R. (1987). The status of thematic relations in linguistic theory. Linguistic Inquiry, 18(3) (Summer), 369-411. https://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/jackendoff/papers/status_thematic.pdf
Kilickaya, F. (2009). World Englishes, English as an international language, and Applied Linguistics. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1083080.pdf. 35-38.
Kirkpatrick. A. (2020). Englishes in the Expanding Circle: Focus on Asia. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 24(3), 551-568. https://www.academia.edu/66792115/Englishes_in_the_Expanding_Circle_Focus_on_Asia
Mesian, T., Ferdy, H., & Florian, H. (2021). Exploring individual differences in recognizing idiomatic expressions in context. Journal of Cognition, 4(1), 1-12. https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=f0c26e8a-3b71-46fd-af5f-65df72b4e2d7%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=155716397&db=a9h
Monfared, A. & Mohammad, K. (2018). English or Englishes? Outer and Expanding Circle teachers’ awareness of and attitudes towards their own variants of English in ESL/EFL teaching contexts. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 43(2), 56-75. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323482907_English_or_Englishes_Outer_and_Expanding_Circle_Teachers'_Awareness_of_and_Attitudes_towards_their_Own_Variants_of_English_in_ESLEFL_Teaching_Contexts
Rahmatunisa, W. (2014). Problems faced by EFL learners in writing argumentative essay. English Review: Journal of English Education, 3(1), 41-49.
https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE/article/view/113/75
Searle, J. R. (1999). Expression and meaning studies in the theory of speech acts. https://altexploit.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/john-r.-searle-expression-and-meaning-_-studies-in-the-theory-of-speech-acts-1979.pdf
Sharahil, F. A. A. B., Tan, D. A. I., & Naghmeh-Abbaspour, B. (2022). Translating idiomatic expressions in literary prose: The case of Harper Lee’s to Kill a Mockingbird. E-Bangi – Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 19(2), 238-251. https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=c31a7b68-fe3f-493c-9074-0b111492a33d%40redis
Shojaei, A. (2012). Translation of idioms and fixed expressions: Strategies and difficulties. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(6), 1220-1229. https://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/tpls/vol02/06/18.pdf
Sipayung, L. (2017). An analysis of using idioms in Michael Connely’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” movie. The Journal of English Literature and Linguistics, 4(1), 1-21. https://uhn.ac.id/files/akademik_files/1806220350_2018_The%20Episteme%20Journal%20of%20Linguistics%20and%20Literature%20Vol%204%20No%201_1%20lien%20sipayung.pdf
Sharifian, F. (2017). Cultural Linguistics. Ethnolinguistic, 28 (Lublin2017), 33-60. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/235269418.pdf
Tanipu, Z. (2010). Analisi kesalahan penerjemahan Bahasa Inggris ke Bahasa Indonesia: Studi kasus di Pusat Pelatihan Bahasa dan Penyiaran Studi Luar Negri Universitas Negri Gorontalo. Abstract of a Graduate Thesis. http://etd.repository.ugm.ac.id/penelitian/detail/47807
Wharton, T. (2002). Paul Grice, saying and meaning. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=90cf4302aefc0722045eef6a90991a7e0f1bcb34
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v10i10.5036
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2023 L. Listyani, Andrew T. Thren
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright © 2015-2023. European Journal of Education Studies (ISSN 2501 - 1111) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All authors who send their manuscripts to this journal and whose articles are published on this journal retain full copyright of their articles. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
