Pixel International Conferences

Idioms, indeed, constitute a notoriously difficult area of foreign language learning and teaching because, by definition, idioms are conventionalized expressions whose overall meaning cannot be determined from the meaning of their constituent parts, and they are conceived as the natural decoders of cultural aspects in real life settings and a major component of native-like communication. Thus, the issue of teaching idioms in EFL classroom needs a special pedagogical method to foster the learners’ communicative skills. The current research paper attempts to scrutinize the impact of the cooperative learning of idioms upon EFL learners’ fluency. Therefore, it follows a one group pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design, with a sample group of fifteen (15) first-year students at the Department of English at M’ sila University. Their fluency was evaluated before and after the intervention sessions within which the participants were requested to implement peer-to-peer tutoring for a whole semester. The research findings indicated that learning idioms cooperatively fosters the learner’s fluency through enabling him to understand the thoughts, emotions and views of the English native speakers. It facilitates the vocabulary retention; and provides the learner with a significant chance to acquire information about the underlying parameters of English. Moreover, it raises his awareness of figurative language to have better communication strategies. Thus, the consideration of culture in designing and developing course materials is highly recommended to reach higher level of oral proficiency in English language.

Keywords: idioms, fluency, EFL learner, peer-to-peer tutoring.

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