The Selection And Discrimination Of English Confusable Idioms In English-Chinese Learner's Dictionaries

Idioms are important lexical items in English.The acquisition of idioms helps Chinese EFL learners to improve their English language proficiency and to achieve near-native fluency.The characteristics of idioms,such as fixed in lexis and structure,rich in metaphorical expressions,social or culture traits,which are difficult for EFL learners to acquire.Research in the field of L2 teaching has proved that because of the lack of sufficient input in the classroom setting and language contact,EFL learners tend to apply some strategies while processing idioms.They rely on the literal meanings conveyed by the forms of idioms and guess the meanings,treating those similar idioms as false friends.Some idioms have similarities in forms or meanings,thus EFL learners are likely to confuse them.Learners get some idioms mixed,so that they think one idiom is the other one.As an indispensable tool to assist English learning,English-Chinese learner's dictionaries can provide the information of confusable idioms to help learners discriminate the differences between them.The thesis first defines the English confusable idioms.In accordance with the similarities of forms or meanings,the thesis generally classifies confusable idioms into two types: typical confusable idioms and synonymous idioms.There are respective treatments for the two types of confusable idioms.Through the access to OALD8,it is found that there is short of information about confusable idioms.Based on the Noticing Theory,the Intentional Acquisition Theory and the Input Hypothesis Theory in SLA,it is helpful to add the information in English-Chinese learner's dictionaries,so as to facilitate the acquisition of confusable idioms.The addition of discrimination information also reflects the cognitive principle and user friendliness of learner's dictionaries.According to the Meaning-driven Multidimensional Definition Theory,the thesis further explores the presentation of confusable idioms in English-Chinese learner's dictionaries.The typical confusable idioms can be addedwith NOTES.The discrimination columns can be set up aiming to synonymous idioms.Cross reference can be used as supplementary information.Considering the limited space of printed dictionaries,study pages may be a proper way of presenting the discrimination information of confusable idioms.Confusable idioms in this thesis are selected from OALD8.Then,principles of discrimination are established.The key of typical confusable idioms with similar forms and different meanings is to put them together for comparison.Synonymous idioms need to be discriminated in detail.The thesis means to make learner's dictionaries meet the demands of EFL learners about confusable idioms.The inclusion of discrimination in English-Chinese learner's dictionaries can greatly raise the awareness of learners and teachers about confusable idioms.