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Avoidance of idioms in a second language: The effect of L1‐L2 degree of similarity
Author(s) -
Laufer Batia
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
studia linguistica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.187
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1467-9582
pISSN - 0039-3193
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9582.00059
Subject(s) - similarity (geometry) , linguistics , psychology , hebrew , degree (music) , test (biology) , second language , artificial intelligence , computer science , philosophy , paleontology , physics , acoustics , image (mathematics) , biology
The study investigates whether avoidance of L2 (English) idioms is determined by the degree of similarity to their L1 (Hebrew) counterparts. Four degrees of similarity were established through a three‐dimensional framework for L1‐L2 comparison. 56 university English majors were tested on 20 idioms (5 per each type), elicited by a fill‐in translation test. The totals of idiomatic and non‐idiomatic responses were compared for each student, for each idiom type. Results showed that idioms as a category were not avoided, that L2 proficiency was a factor in idiom avoidance and that avoidance of specific idiom types was related to L1‐L2 degrees of similarity.