A Case Study on the Acquisition of English Hyperbolic Expressions by EFL Undergraduate Students with Different Native Language Backgrounds

ABSTRACT: It has been proven that certain language exponents in a foreign language are more difficult than others. This is especially obvious when we deal with such language exponents as idiomatic expressions or formulaic language in which the meaning of the whole expression is not the entire meaning of each part making them. It would be interesting in this regard to define the role of the learners’ native language transfer in acquiring idiomatic or formulaic expressions. It would also be interesting to find out whether there exists any relationship between the learners’ levels of proficiency. Thus, the study purports to focus on both native language transfer and the relationship between the learners’ proficiency level and their acquisition of the target language's figures of speech. To achieve the purpose of the study, the research methodology chosen is based on quantitative and qualitative methods. The research design consists of a multiple choice test and a translation task based on McCarthy and Carter’s (2004) categorization of hyperbole and other expression taken from various sources. The study involvedparticipants of two different native languages. The data were collected from the departments of English in both the University of Mosul and the University of Duhok where the Arabic and Kurdish languages are spoken respectively by the EFL learners. It has been found out that learners understand metaphorical expressions which have identical or very similar Arabic and Kurdish correspondents more frequently. It has also been found out that the language transfer occurs when respondents are unsure of the metaphorical meaning. Thus, when respondents do not understand an expression, this occurs due to native language intervene along with other factors such as semantic transparency and linguistic structure of the items given, linguistic and pragmatic proficiency, and the context. Data analysis has also verified the hypothesis that the acquisition of idiomatic expressions is directly dependent on the learners’ level of foreign language proficiency. Keywords: hyperbole expressions, formulaic language, foreign language, Arabic and Kurdish, language transfer . …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………