Arguably, the most contentious debate in the field of eye movement control in reading has centered on whether words are lexically processed serially or in parallel during reading. Chinese is character-based and unspaced, meaning the issue of how lexical processing is operationalized across potentially ambiguous, multicharacter strings is not…

One major view as to the mechanism underlying metaphor interpretation is that it is based on relational-structure consistency (a.k.a. analogy) between target and vehicle. This entails a possibility of varying levels of stringency of analogical processing by individuals. This can be viewed as metaphor literacy. The study, involving 77 Indonesian…

Expressions of impossibility refer to events that can never or rarely happen, tasks that are difficult or impossible to perform, people or things that are of no use and things that are impossible to find. This study explores the similarities and differences between English and Arabic expressions of impossibility, and the difficulties that…

The present study investigated how Cantonese speakers learning English as a second language (L2) would comprehend English irony and whether their L2 proficiency and use would moderate their irony processing. Thirty Cantonese speakers with differing English proficiency (intermediate vs advanced) were asked to complete an irony comprehension task in…

Time metaphorical expressions are common in all languages and in general as well as specialized contexts. This study explores the similarities and differences between English and Arabic time metaphorical expressions containing , and the difficulties that student-translators have in translating them; the translation strategies they use and the…

This study explores the similarities and differences between English and Arabic numeral-based formulaic expressions, and difficulties that student-translators have with them. A corpus of English and Arabic numeral-based formulaic expressions containing zero, two, three, twenty, sixty, hundred, thousand…etc., and another corpus of specialized…

Using vocabulary learning strategies allows learners to gain vocabulary autonomously. This study presents data from a self-report survey of Korean university students comparing meaning discovery strategies they employ to comprehend unknown singleword items and unknown idioms. Survey data recorded strategies used by learners, and effectiveness of…

The present study aims at investigating idiom comprehension through multimodal teaching approach among Zanzibar University students. The participants of the study were 120 male and female students and selected randomly. All of the students speak Swahili as their first language. The participants enrolled in a 3-year English program at the…

This study investigated the relationship between a metaphor-based approach to teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and involvement of the brain's right hemisphere. Specifically, it examined learners' understanding of three levels of sureness associated with different expressions in English -- those that are "certain,"…

Studies on predicative metaphors like "The rumor flew through the office" have not received due attention until recently. Through a behavioural experiment, this study investigates the cognitive mechanisms as well as the effects of familiarity on Chinese EFL learners' comprehension of English predicative metaphors, adopting a two factors…

This study aims to: (i) describe the different meanings and contexts in which Arabic "dar" and "bayt" and English "house" and "home" expressions are used; (ii) compare "dar," "bayt," "house" and "home" expressions and give examples of expressions that are identical in…

Idioms play an indispensable role in communication. Knowledge of idioms is considered an indicator of proficiency. This study is aimed at investigating English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' knowledge of frequently used idioms and the effect of learner-related factors. The participants were 218 female EFL college students at the College of…

This paper presents findings from observations of literary translation workshops with secondary-school MFL pupils, revolving around a literary translation from L2 to L1 which does not require pre-existing language skills in the L2. Our research questions were: what skills do pupils mobilise when they work in groups on a literary translation? What…

This study of second language idiom acquisition investigates the interaction of two factors, the L1 effect and the effect of supportive context in the L2 input, when both are available to learners. An experiment consisting of a pretest, a computer-assisted instructional treatment session and a posttest employed three idiom types that differed in…

To date, research into conference interpreting has not produced a definition of the concrete subskills associated with an A, B and C language in interpreters' combinations of working languages. Existing frameworks for performance assessment in foreign languages are not designed to cover the very advanced range of language mastery associated with…