Iraqi EFL Learners' Recognition of House-Related Idioms: An Investigation of the Learners’ Performance and Relevant Cultural Cognition Idiosyncrasies

Abstract

Iraqi EFL learners' recognition of meanings of house-related idioms has been Investigated. The paper assumes that cultural idiosyncrasies related to the conceptual knowledge underlying the idiomatic expression may become obstacles to learners’ recognition of the correct interpretation, while having conceptual knowledge similar to that of the target will do the opposite. A multiple-choice test was adopted, and the learners were asked to choose an idiom's accurate meaning out of four-meaning options provided for each of the ten sentences of the test.   The analysis highlights the role of conventional knowledge in patterning learners' thinking. It also foregrounds some learners’ tendency to literalism by mapping from one physical domain to another one, which can be an analogy of the preliminary step of the universal mechanism of humans' mental conceptualization that widens and matures through interaction to cover abstract domains of human existence. It is also found that it is the immediate dynamic cultural knowledge rather than knowledge due to cultural membership, which governs individuals' thinking and guides their choices.