--- title: "Assessing Comprehension of English Idioms: A Case of" description: "The study asks how well English-major undergraduates on Unguja (Zanzibar) understand English idioms. 16 references." authors: ["Amos Tabley Ngoge"] year: 2023 venue: "Journal of Linguistics, Literary and Communication Studies 2" source: "https://utafitionline.com/index.php/jltcs/article/view/354" doi: "10.58721/jllcs.v2i2.354" licence: "CC BY-NC-SA (journal licence per DOAJ; Journal of Linguistics, Literary and Communication Studies)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/ngoge-2023-assessing-comprehension-english-idioms-case/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/ngoge-2023-assessing-comprehension-english-idioms-case/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2023](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2023/page/17/) / Assessing Comprehension of English Idioms: A Case of University Students in Unguja # Assessing Comprehension of English Idioms: A Case of University Students in Unguja **Authors:** Amos Tabley Ngoge · **Year:** 2023 · **Venue:** Journal of Linguistics, Literary and Communication Studies 2 · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA (journal licence per DOAJ; Journal of Linguistics, Literary and Communication Studies)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) **Links:** [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.58721/jllcs.v2i2.354) · [PDF](https://utafitionline.com/index.php/jltcs/article/download/354/149) · [DOI 10.58721/jllcs.v2i2.354](https://doi.org/10.58721/jllcs.v2i2.354) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W4388806439) **Citations:** 0 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) ## Summary The study asks how well English-major undergraduates on Unguja (Zanzibar) understand English idioms. Idiomatic competence is often treated as a marker of fluency, yet Zanzibari learners had hardly been studied. The author used a mixed-method, descriptive, cross-sectional design and sampled 180 linguistics students, aged 17–30, across three institutions: Zanzibar University, Sumait University, and the State University of Zanzibar. Participants completed cloze tests with four-option multiple-choice items and also filled in questionnaires. Idioms appeared either inside a supporting passage ("context-enabled", CEI) or with no surrounding text ("in isolation", IA). The items came from The Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms and a Tanzanian Form Three English coursebook. The framework is the Lexical Representation Hypothesis: literal and figurative readings are activated together, and context then selects one. Overall results fell below average. Context consistently raised scores, and the gap appeared across universities and years of study. The author argues that idioms should be taught explicitly in the curriculum. ## Key points - Sample: 180 students, drawn by simple random sampling from a population of 4,330 degree students at three universities. Data were collected one university at a time, starting with Sumait. - Instruments: three cloze-test sets with 40 idioms in total. - Set 1: different idioms with a supporting passage. - Set 2: different idioms without a passage. - Set 3: the same idioms shown both with and without context. - A separate 30-item pre-standardized test was also given, with 15 idioms in context and 15 in isolation. - Overall means by condition (Table 8): CEI 44.5% vs IA 37.5%. - State University of Zanzibar: 48.8% vs 39.9%. - Zanzibar University: 39.6% vs 28.7%. - Sumait University: 45.1% vs 43.8%. - Year-of-study trend at the State University of Zanzibar: - CEI rose from 43.4% to 44.7% to 46.2%. - IA rose from 37.6% to 38.3% to 44.3%. - Other reported figures: - Combined idiom comprehension: 27.5%. - Mean familiarity: 40.75%. - The Tanzania Commission for Universities treats scores under 40% as below average. - In Sumait's pre-test, the overall correct rate was 26.3%, and items such as "have a red herring" reached only about 10% correct. ## Interesting ideas - The third test set shows the same idioms with and without a passage, so the effect of context is measured on identical items rather than across different ones. - Under the Lexical Representation Hypothesis, an idiom is stored as one long lexical entry next to ordinary words, both readings are activated, and context picks the winner. - The results are tabulated per item, with correct and incorrect counts for every idiom, so the hardest expressions stand out instead of disappearing into one average. - Test items are drawn from two sources: a standard idiom dictionary and an actual school coursebook. This mixes general coverage with the material learners are really taught. ## For Mova How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests: - **I1** (answer): Build idiom QA probes in matched pairs (bare sentence vs. sentence inside a short story) and report the per-item gain from context as a direct measure of what the world-of-text layer contributes. - **I2** (frames): Let multiword idiom entries propose a figurative frame alongside the compositional literal frame, then have prag keep or drop each reading with an explainable reason based on context. - **I3** (learn): Report evaluation per idiom or per construction rather than only in aggregate, so that repair rules and teacher queries can target the specific items Mova consistently misreads. - **I4** (answer): Assemble school-course test sets the same way, pairing a reference lexicon with curriculum texts, so that scores reflect both broad idiom coverage and the expressions students will actually meet. *Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.* ## Institutions Also on the byline: [University of Hargeisa](https://ror.org/023tegq12). 📚 Shelves (4): [🎭 Arts and Humanities](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · 17,450 works · [🗣️ Language and Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) · 17,296 works · [💭 Psychology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/psychology/) · 1,649 works · [💭 Developmental and Educational Psychology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/psychology/developmental-and-educational-psychology/) · 523 works 🧭 Topics (2): [English](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/english/) · 2,379 works · [🧷 Idioms & multiword expressions](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/multiword-expressions/) · 222 works ## Cite Cite as: Amos Tabley Ngoge. 2023. Assessing Comprehension of English Idioms: A Case of University Students in Unguja. Journal of Linguistics, Literary and Communication Studies 2. The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @article{ngoge2023assessing, title = {{Assessing Comprehension of English Idioms: A Case of University Students in Unguja}}, author = {Amos Tabley Ngoge}, journal = {Journal of Linguistics, Literary and Communication Studies 2}, year = {2023}, doi = {10.58721/jllcs.v2i2.354}, url = {https://doi.org/10.58721/jllcs.v2i2.354} } ``` - [← previous Amharic Folkloric Oral Traditions: Collections for Insiders and for Outsiders](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/unseth-2023-amharic-folkloric-oral-traditions-collections/) - [next → Automatic Transformation of Enhanced Dependencies in Chinese](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/yu-2023-automatic-transformation-enhanced/) - [↑ back to papers of 2023](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2023/page/17/) ## References 16 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Cooper, T., C. (1998). 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