the impact of idiomatic expressions on developing university students' communicative competence : a case study of nile valley university 2015 - 2016
The study dealt with the area of idiomatic expressions as being important linguistic units for learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). These expressions are really a problematic aspect for the students majoring in English that they do not understand them and produce them properly. The main focus of this study is to examine the role of the idiomatic expressions on developing students' communicative competence. This study was conducted at Nile Valley University for the university year 2015- 2016. This study is based on the main assumption that, knowledge of idiomatic expressions is important for Sudanese tertiary level students to promote language fluency. The researcher used the analytical descriptive method. A questionnaire, pre-test, and posttest devices were used as data-gathering tools. The questionnaire was conducted with university lecturers from Nile Valley University and other universities in Sudan who teach English Language. A pre-test and a post-test were conducted for the students majoring in English from the department of English, Faculty of Education, Nile Valley University The data were analyzed by using (SPSS) Statistical Package for Social Science by Chi-square Test programmes and Alpha coefficient to show the degree of statistical significance and the results of the search hypotheses. The main results revolve around the following: the knowledge of the idiomatic expressions is important to promote communicative competence. There was a significant difference between the students' performance in the pre-test and their performance in the post-test. There was an improvement of the students' performance in the post-test after studying the syllabus that included idiomatic expressions that were designed for them. The study reached the result that culture is considered as a 'backbone' with regard to enjoyable and effective factors of English language fluency. The findings show that knowledge of idiomatic expressions is important in promoting language fluency also there is a broad concern on the necessity of the inclusion of idiomatic expressions in university syllabuses (80% of the lecturers). The results also show that effective teaching of idiomatic expressions will result in improving the students' communicative skill. Another result shows that idiomatic expressions are not only marginalized in the syllabuses of universities but also they are not taught effectively. With regard to the remedial suggestive techniques that might improve the learners' knowledge of the idiomatic expressions that lead to improving their English language fluency, this study recommends that the differences in culturally bound knowledge ought to be given a care in the English language materials especially in teaching idiomatic expressions. It is hoped that from this study, idiomatic expressions should be focused on and included within the syllabuses of universities in Sudan, besides adopting effective methods and effective techniques in teaching such linguistic elements. (Author's abstract)