TEACHING IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS TO LEARNERS OF EFL THROUGH A CORPUS BASED ON DISNEY MOVIES
TEACHING IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS TO LEARNERS OF EFL
THROUGH A CORPUS BASED ON DISNEY MOVIES
Irene López Rodriguez
Brown University, USA
Elena María García Moreno
Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Cartagena
Abstract: This paper attempts to provide a strategy for the teaching of idioms to learners of
EFL through a corpus based on Disney movies. Adopting a cognitive approach, idioms are seen as being motivated by conceptual metaphors which tend to be grounded in our embodied experiences and which very often involve mental imagery. This imagistic component, in turn, is brought to the fore by means of Disney movies which very often commingle the pictorial, linguistic and embodied elements associated to an idiom.
Key words: idioms, learners of EFL, conceptual metaphors, linguistic corpus, Disney movies.
Resumen: El presente artículo intenta ofrecer una estrategia para la enseñanza de expresiones idiomáticas a estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera. Adoptando un enfoque cognitivo, las expresiones idiomáticas están compuestas sobre todo por metáforas de naturaleza conceptual que emanan de las facultades psicomotrices y sensoriales del ser humano y que a menudo están ligadas a imágenes mentales. Este componente visual, a su vez, se pone de relieve por medio de las películas Disney, que con frecuencia mezclan los elementos pictóricos, lingüísticos y sensoriales asociados a las expresiones idiomáticas.
Palabras clave: expresiones idiomáticas, estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera, metáforas conceptuales, corpus lingüístico, películas Disney.
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the main problems which seem to bedevil EFL learners has to do with the acquisition of idioms and figures of speech. Students often complain about the difficulties involved in understanding idiomatic expressions such as to fall in love, to be over the moon or to be under the weather, when the image of a person falling, standing over the moon or being placed under meteorological
THROUGH A CORPUS BASED ON DISNEY MOVIES
Irene López Rodriguez
Brown University, USA
Elena María García Moreno
Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Cartagena
Abstract: This paper attempts to provide a strategy for the teaching of idioms to learners of
EFL through a corpus based on Disney movies. Adopting a cognitive approach, idioms are seen as being motivated by conceptual metaphors which tend to be grounded in our embodied experiences and which very often involve mental imagery. This imagistic component, in turn, is brought to the fore by means of Disney movies which very often commingle the pictorial, linguistic and embodied elements associated to an idiom.
Key words: idioms, learners of EFL, conceptual metaphors, linguistic corpus, Disney movies.
Resumen: El presente artículo intenta ofrecer una estrategia para la enseñanza de expresiones idiomáticas a estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera. Adoptando un enfoque cognitivo, las expresiones idiomáticas están compuestas sobre todo por metáforas de naturaleza conceptual que emanan de las facultades psicomotrices y sensoriales del ser humano y que a menudo están ligadas a imágenes mentales. Este componente visual, a su vez, se pone de relieve por medio de las películas Disney, que con frecuencia mezclan los elementos pictóricos, lingüísticos y sensoriales asociados a las expresiones idiomáticas.
Palabras clave: expresiones idiomáticas, estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera, metáforas conceptuales, corpus lingüístico, películas Disney.
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the main problems which seem to bedevil EFL learners has to do with the acquisition of idioms and figures of speech. Students often complain about the difficulties involved in understanding idiomatic expressions such as to fall in love, to be over the moon or to be under the weather, when the image of a person falling, standing over the moon or being placed under meteorological