ISSN 1798-4769

Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 935-941, July 2014
© 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.
doi:10.4304/jltr.5.4.935-941

An Empirical Study on Chinese EFL Learners’

Processing of English Animal Idioms
Xiaoli Gan
School of Foreign Languages, Sichuan University of Arts and Science, Dazhou, Sichuan, China

Abstract—The present article reports on the effect of various animal idiom types and that of both proficiency
levels on animal idiom comprehension. Based on the different match of equivalence/similarity and difference
between surface linguistic forms and their underlying cultural connotations, a contrastive model for English
and Chinese animal idioms is built, each distinguishing four possible combinations. Results of participants'
performance on an English animal idioms comprehension test revealed that (a) The effects of English animal
idiom types on idiom interpretation are significant. (b) The effects of English proficiency level on the
comprehension of English animal idioms are significant, too. (c) During the processing of English animal
idioms, L2 proficiency level and animal idiom types interact with each other and the interaction reached the
level of significance.

Index Terms—idioms, cultural connotations, transparency, cultural transfer

I. INTRODUCTION
Idioms are beautiful gems of a language. It has been estimated that about 7,000 idioms are used by native speakers
per week (Cooper, 1999). Thus, to master idioms is one of the most important aspects of using more authentic English.
To judge a learner's mastery of English may depend partially on how well this learner can initially comprehend and
eventually produce the idioms encountered in everyday language (Cooper, 1999). At the same time “‘grasping
idioms’can be a great asset to learners in acquiring a new language" (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p.36).
They are "notoriously difficult" for "its rigid structure and quite unpredictable meaning" (Liu, 2003, p.45). Despite
the difficulties involved in acquiring L2 idioms, every L2 learner must be prepared for speaking and meeting this
challenge because idioms occur so frequently in both spoken and written language. Many of them pack a lot of
information, especially cultural information. Animal images are much more popular in idioms which are full of cultural
connotations, that’s to say, many idioms bear proper animal images and have strong cultural flavors. Making use of
idioms is a method of expressing oneself more quickly and concisely than in any other way.
A. Animal Idiom Words and Cultural Connotations
Making use of idioms is a method of expressing oneself more quickly and concisely than in any other way. Many
idioms are truth tested in practice and have been regarded very important and pack a lot of information, especially
cultural information. Animal images are much more popular in idioms which are full of cultural connotations.
Culturally-loaded vocabulary plays an important role in a language. Different social backgrounds, history, and
national culture have a great effect on cultural connotations. As to animal idioms, culture exerts an important influence
on these expressions, such as geographical culture, historical culture, customary culture, religious culture, literary works,
myth, legends, and fables. With comparison, the same animal words may bear the same and different cultural meanings.
And different animal words may convey the similar or even same meaning. Chinese and English idioms carved with
cultural characteristics account for a great part in English learning. Cultural similarities and differences may have a
positive or negative effect on English idiom comprehension.
All in all, animal idiom words, abundant with associated meanings and cultural connotations, have become the focus
of many scholars. It is of great significance to make researches on animal idioms which shine with cultural flavor and
cultural connotations from L2 acquisition perspective.
B. Idiom Transparency
Idioms range along a continuum of compositionality or analyzability. In line of this view, Nunberg, Sag & Wasow
(1994) identified 3 groups subsets of idioms: decomposable idioms (the constituents contribute to the idiom's figurative
meaning i.e. break the ice; pop the question); abnormally decomposable (a subgroup of decomposable idioms, whose
individual components have some metaphorical relation to their idiomatic referents (spill the beans, carry a torch, bury
the hatchet); nondecomposable idioms are those in which the literal meaning offers no clue for the construction on the
figurative meaning, e.g. kick the bucket, chew the fat .
However, some researchers (Yorio, 2003; Fernando & Flavell, 1981; Gibbs, 1986; Cacciari & Glucksberg, 1991)


This paper is sponsored by Western Project of China Scholarship Council. File No: 20120815030.

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later noted an important distinction between opaque (e.g., keep one's shirt on) and transparent (e.g., go by the book)
idioms. With opaque idioms, the figurative meaning of this idiom has little to do with the literal meaning; with
transparent idioms, the figurative meaning is closely related to the literal meaning. For example, the expression “go by
the book” is highly transparent because its literal meaning — to follow directions in a cookbook exactly is closely
linked to its nonliteral meaning — to follow rules and regulations exactly. In contrast, the expression “keep one's shirt
on” is highly opaque because its literal meaning — to continue wearing one's shirt is not related to its nonliteral
meaning — to remain calm and not overreact. Generally speaking, most of the idioms are not transparent or lack
transparency. The stronger the idiomaticity is, the weaker the transparency is, and vice versa.
In section 2.2 a good many of idiomaticities have been described. If analyzing by these idiomaticities, we can find
that not all idioms possess all of these characteristics. Actually, some idioms have some of these characteristics, while
some have others; some idioms bear more idiomaticities, nevertheless some have less; some idiom structure is steady,
but some structure is flexible. All in all, different idioms have different idiomaticities. From the perspective of idiom
comprehension, transparency should be taken into consideration. It mainly lies in the fact that idioms, which have been
accepted widely and gradually, are formed through a long history by specific group, community or trade. During this
period, idioms breathe into specific cultural connotations and become conventional.
If idiom can be divided into various degrees, these degrees can be used as criteria to measure the difficulty of idioms.
The transparency of an idiom, however, is relative but not absolute, that’s to say, maybe for a L2 learner an idiom is
hard nut to crack, but it is not definitely a hot potato for another learner. The reason is that the processing of an idiom is
affected by such factors as intuition, L2 proficiency level, world knowledge including specific cultural connotations,
and so on.
C. Proficiency Level and Iiom Comprehension
There is considerable evidence to support a link between learners' proficiency level and idiom comprehension. The
literature is replete with studies suggesting that higher-proficiency learners use more strategies than lower-proficiency
learners—usually indicating that the better learners use more strategies and can perform better in L2 idiom
comprehension (Ehrman, 1990). Green & Oxford (1995), in a study of 374 college students at three different course
levels at the University of Puerto Rico, found that learners varied considerably in both the overall frequencies with
which they transfer from their L1 to L2 idiom comprehension and the particular types of strategies they used. Students
who were better in their language performance generally reported better scores and frequent use of a greater number of
strategy categories in employing their L1 knowledge. Dreyer & Oxford (1996), in a study of 305 first-year
Afrikaans-speaking students at the Potchefstroom Unifersity in South Africa, found that correlations between students'
idiom comprehension and EFL proficiency were positive and highly significant.
The link between L2 proficiency level and different idiom types which are classified according to the combination of
linguistic forms and underlying cultural connotations, however, is not very clear. The aim of the present study is to
investigate the processing of English animal idioms that are divided in four types by Chinese EFL learners, that’s to say,
to determine the effect of English animal idiom types and English proficiency level on the idiom comprehension by
Chinese EFL learners.
D. Cultural Transfer
“Transfer" is originally an important notion in "Learning Psychology". It is regarded as the result of what is called
proactive inhibition. This is concerned with the way in which the learning of task A prevents or inhibits the learning of
task B. According to James (1980), if we change task A and task B in the above definition into L1 and L2, it is language
transfer. Put it another way, language transfer is the learning psychology in Second Language Acquisition.
What is the dynamic relationship between second culture knowledge and second language acquisition? Humboldt
(Yao Xiaoping, 1995) proposed that each language is composed of a distinctive philosophy of world and values,
implying that language is culture-specific. Meanwhile Sapir & Whorf (1956) also regarded that to learn a foreign
language, first of all, it is necessary to change the cultural perspective.
As early as 1957, Lado has already noted that in order to acquire a foreign language, we should compare cultures
between different nations. However, it is a pity that for a relatively long time, it has not been taken up. Recently, with
more comprehensive views towards transfer, more and more linguists began to concentrate their focus on cultural
transfer. The representatives in this field are pragmatic study in Britain, JIC study in Former Soviet Union and
Intercultural communication study in the United States.
The aim of the present paper is to investigate the effects of animal idiom types and Chinese EFL learners’ proficiency
levels on idiom processing. Hence the following research questions will be addressed in the present study:
Based on the research aims of this study, the specific research questions addressed in the study are:
1. What is the effect of English animal idiom types on the comprehension of English animal idioms by Chinese EFL
learners of different proficiency levels?
2. What is the effect of proficiency levels on the comprehension of English animal idioms?
3. Dose language transfer take place when Chinese EFL learners process and comprehend English animal idioms?

II. METHODOLOGY

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A. Participants
A total of 60 undergraduates and postgraduates majored in English were chosen from Foreign Languages Department
of Sichuan University of Science and Arts and College of Foreign Language in Chongqing university. According to the
aim of this study, they are divided into two groups according to their English vocabulary test which is closely related
with their English proficiency levels: the intermediate-level and the high-level. The intermediate group comprises 30
third-year undergraduate majoring in English, who have an average 8 years of English learning experience and, at the
present, all have passed the TEM 4 (Test of English for English Majors Band 4). The advanced group consists of 30
second-year postgraduates majoring in English who have an average of about 12-15 years of English study. The 30
postgraduates selected as high level learners have all passed TEM 8 (Test of English for English Majors Band 8).
B. Material Preparation
The study material was English animal idioms chosen from the Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English, a Dictionary
of English Idioms with Chinese Translation, A Chinese-English Idiom Dictionary, American English Idioms, English
and Chinese Idioms, English Allusions, A Dictionary of American Idioms. Only 20 English animal idioms were chosen
as target words.
The choice of the 20 English animal idioms as target idioms was based on the following reasons. Firstly, the 20
animal idioms used in the study were with typical animal images and rich cultural connotations in both Chinese and
English. Secondly, a former test showed that most students were unfamiliar to these idioms. Thirdly, some of the surface
linguistic forms in the 20 animal idioms were unfamiliar or unknown to the subjects. Thus, the chosen 20 English
animal idioms were likely to represent a favorable condition for the investigation of idiom processing.
Since one purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of idiom types on subjects' processing of English animal
idioms, the target idioms should contain four types according to the match of linguistic forms and cultural connotations.
That’s to say, based on the equivalence/similarity and difference between surface linguistic forms and their underlying
cultural connotations, a contrastive model for English and Chinese animal idioms should be built, which distinguishing
four possible combinations, namely: Part/TypesⅠ (the type that is same as Chinese expressions in terms of linguistic
forms and cultural connotation); Part/TypeⅡ (the English animal idioms that are same as Chinese expressions in
cultural connotations but different in linguistic forms); Part/TypeⅢ (the type that is different in cultural connotation but
is the same as Chinese expression in linguistic forms); Part/TypeⅣ( the English animal idioms that are totally different
in linguistic and cultural connotations from that of Chinese expressions).
C. Scoring
In the phase of idiom processing, the participants' interpretation of the 20 English animal idioms was operationalized
by the scores they achieved in the test: 1 point or 0, depending on how close their comprehension was to the meaning of
the target idioms. Zero was given for an answer of "I don't know" or an absolute wrong translation. Meanwhile, answers
indicated a marginal sense or a vague sense of the given animal idiom meaning were scored zero, too. For example, set
the wolf to keep the sheep (引狼入室) would be given zero if it was translated as 让狼去守羊. 1 point was given to the
correct meanings or responses. For example drink like a fish—牛饮. Besides, one point also means a good sense of the
animal idiom meaning including the implied cultural connotations, for example, help a dog over a stile— to be ready to
help the others (乐于助人).
The total score of the English animal idioms comprehension test was 20, and the subscore for each animal idiom type
was 5. The scoring criterion was based on some authoritative dictionaries, such as Dictionary of Current Idiomatic
English, a Dictionary of English Idioms with Chinese Translation, A Chinese-English Idiom Dictionary, etc. The
grading work was cooperated with consensus after repeated discussions with several college English teachers.

III. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

According to the research design, two-way ANOVA using a 2(Level: high vs. intermediate) ×4 (Anima idiom type:
TypeⅠ, TypeⅡ, TypeⅢ and TypeⅣ) mixed design repeated measures were conducted.
Table 1 informed us a general description. In PartⅠ, PartⅡ, PartⅢ and PartⅣ the Mean scores of intermediate-level
EFL learners were 3.47, 2.30, .8, and .70 respectively, while that of the high-level learners were 4.00, 2.73, 1.00, and .83.
From table 4.7 we got 4 2-tailed Sig, which were .004 (p=.004 < .05) in PartⅠ, .023 ((p=.023 < .05)in PartⅡ, .155
(p=.155 > .05)in PartⅢ and .229 (p=.229 > .05) in PartⅣ.

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TABLE 1
GROUP STATISTICS
Idiom types Level N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
PARTⅠ 1 30 3.47 .57 .10
2 30 4.00 .79 .14
PARTⅡ 1 30 2.30 .65 .12
2 30 2.73 .78 .14
PARTⅢ 1 30 .80 .61 .11
2 30 1.00 .45 8.30E-02
PARTⅣ 1 30 .70 .47 8.51E-02
2 30 .83 .38 6.92E-02
Note: PartⅠ: English animal idioms with the same linguistic forms and cultural connotation as that of Chinese animal idioms
PartⅡ: English animal idioms with the same cultural connotation but different linguistic forms as that of Chinese animal idioms
PartⅢ: English animal idioms with different cultural connotations but same linguistic forms to that of Chinese idioms
PartⅣ: English animal idioms with different cultural connotations and linguistic forms to that of Chinese idioms
Level 1= high-level group; Level 2= intermediate-level group

The results of two-way ANONA were reported in Table 2 and Table 3. Table 2 shows a general description of four
types of English animal idioms’ processing by two English proficiency groups. As shown in Table 3, the Mean score of
intermediate-level was 3.47 in PartⅠ, 2.30 in PartⅡ, 0.80 in PartⅢ and 0.70 in PartⅣ, while the Mean of high-level
was 4.00 in PartⅠ, 2.73 in PartⅡ, 1.00 in PartⅢ and 0.83 in PartⅣ. For the four types of animal idioms, the Mean of
all these participations in PartⅠ, PartⅡ, PartⅢ, Part Ⅳ were 3.73, 2.52, 0.90, and 0.77 respectively.
Table 3 gives us a more detailed view of the effects of both idiom types and English proficiency levels on animal
idiom comprehension. In other words, except for the effect of language proficiency, idiom types which were
distinguished according to the different match of their surface linguistic form and the implied cultural connotations
affect animal idiom comprehension, too. Meanwhile, the English proficiency × animal idiom type approached
significance (F=6.267; p=.020＜.05), that’s to say, the effect of idiom type on idiom processing is related to English
proficiency level in animal idiom processing.
TABLE 2
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF FOUR TYPES OF ENGLISH ANIMAL IDIOMS’ PROCESSING BY TWO ENGLISH PROFICIENCY-LEVEL GROUPS
Items PartⅠ PartⅡ PartⅢ PartⅣ Total
Number of subjects 30 30 30 30 30
Intermediate Sum of score 104 69 24 21 218
-level Mean 3.47 2.30 0.80 0.70 1.82
Std. Deviation 0.33 0.42 0.37 0.22 1.65
Number of subjects 30 30 30 30 120
Sum of score 120 82 30 25 257
High-level
Mean 4.00 2.73 1.00 0.83 2.14
Std. Deviation 0.62 0.62 0.21 0.14 2.11
Sum of score 224 151 54 46
Total Mean 3.73 2.52 0.90 0.77
Std. Deviation 0.54 0.56 0.29 0.18
Note: PartⅠ= English animal idioms with the same linguistic form and cultural connotation as that of Chinese animal idioms
PartⅡ=English animal idioms with different linguistic form but same cultural connotations as that of Chinese idioms.
PartⅢ=English animal idioms with same linguistic form but different cultural connotations from that of Chinese idioms.
PartⅣ=English animal idioms that are completely different from that of Chinese counterpart in both linguistic form and cultural connotations

TABLE 3
TWO-WAY ANOVA TEST: IMPACT OF ANIMAL IDIOM TYPES AND ENGLISH PROFICIENCY LEVELS ON IDIOM PROCESSING
Source df SS MS F Sig.
Within-Subjects
English animal idiom types 3 354.78 118.26 323.202 .000***
English proficiency 3 6.88 2.29 6.267 .000***
×English animal
idiom types
Between-Subjects
English proficiency 1 6.34 6.34 17.320 .000***
Error 232 84.90 0.37
Note: **p<.01. *** p<.0001.

As the repeated measures two-way ANOVA yielded the notable effects generated by the two main factors, an
independent-samples t-tests was performed to provide detailed information on between-group differences.
Table 4 reports that English proficiency affected the four types of English animal idiom interpretation differently.
From Table 4.3 we have known that among the four idiom types, typeⅠ was the simplest one for the subjects, typeⅡ
was easier, and typeⅢ and typeⅣ were the most difficult parts for them. EFL learners with higher proficiency level in
this study did not significantly perform better in all the four types of animal idioms than those with lower proficiency.
They only scored higher significantly in PartⅠ and PartⅡ (English animal idioms which are different from or similar
to Chinese animal idioms in linguistic forms while their cultural connotations are the same). In comprehension of

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PartⅢ and PartⅣ, however, the idiom comprehension didn’t reached significance, that’s to say, the scores of the two
groups, no matter its English proficiency level was high or intermediate, didn’t different significantly.
TABLE 4
ILLUSTRATION OF ENGLISH PROFICIENCY LEVEL & ANIMAL IDIOM TYPE INTERACTION I NDEPENDENT SAMPLES T-TEST
Levene's Test for
Equality of
Variances t-test for Equality of Means
Std. 95% Confidence
Mean Error Interval of the
Sig. Differ Differ Difference
F Sig. t df 2-tailed ence ence Lower Upper
PARTⅠ Equal
variances
assumed .475 .493 -3.002 58 .004 -.53 .18 -.89 -.18
Equal -3.002 52.895 .004 -.53 .18 -.89 -.18
variances not
assumed
PARTⅡ Equal
variances
assumed .953 .333 -2.327 58 .023 -.43 .19 -.81 -6.06E-02
Equal -2.327 56.090 .024 -.43 .19 -.81 -6.03E-02
variances not
assumed
PARTⅢ Equal
variances
assumed 7.851 .007 -1.439 58 .155 -.20 .14 -.48 7.82E-02
Equal -1.439 53.623 .156 -.20 .14 -.48 7.86E-02
variances not
assumed
PARTⅣ Equal
variances
assumed 6.153 .016 -1.21 58 .229 -.13 .11 -.35 8.62E-02
Equal -1.21 55.687 .229 -.13 .11 -.35 8.64E-02
variances not
assumed

IV. DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS

A. Impact of Idiom Types on Animal Idiom Processing
The first goal of the present study is to explore the effects of English animal idiom types on idiom processing by
Chinese EFL learners. English animal idioms in this research were distinguished into four types according to the
different matches of their surface linguistic forms and underlying cultural connotations. PartⅠ is the type with
linguistic form and cultural connotation being the same as that of Chinese animal expressions. PartⅡ are animal idioms
with different linguistic forms but same cultural connotations as that of Chinese idioms. Contrarily, PartⅢ are the ones
with same linguistic forms but different cultural connotations from that of Chinese idioms. PartⅣ, however, are
completely different from their Chinese counterparts in both surface linguistic forms and underlying cultural
connotations. The effect of animal idiom types on idiom interpretation was significant (p=.000 < .05) according to the
test of two-way ANOVA.
To give explanation to this finding, first of all, it’s necessary to review the nature of L2 idiom comprehension. In
other words, what if a L2 learner encounters an idiom he/she does not know? When facing a L2 idiom unknown,
foreign language learners tend to seek help from the meaning of constituent parts for the overall meaning. Idioms,
however, are "notoriously difficult" for "its rigid structure and quite unpredictable meaning" (Liu, 2003, p.671). For
example, to pull one's leg has nothing to do with "pull" and "leg" but means to fool somebody. From the surface or
literal meaning of this idiom we can hardly tell its meaning as an L2 learner. That’s to say, some idioms are semantically
opaque, namely, the figurative meaning of an idiom, in most cases, not easy to be derived from the literal interpretation,
because idioms, although it is a common phenomenon of all the languages known to mankind, it is deeply rooted in life
of different races in different countries, thus most of the idioms are cultural and informal. For example, both English
and Chinese idioms are large in quantity, long in history, rich in cultural information and deeply rooted in life. If we
compare their underlying cultural information, some are completely or partially equivalent while some others have
nothing in common at all. Therefore, to figure out the meaning of a L2 idiom, we need to depend on its underlying
cultural connotations as well as its literal meaning. If the cultural connotations and linguistic forms are the same, then it
is of great transparent to the L2 learners, and vice versa.
The processing of L2 idiom can also be explained by the phenomenon of language transfer which was first based on
the behaviorist view that the main impediment to learning was interference from prior knowledge (Elks, 1994).
Language researchers divided transfer into positive transfer and negative transfer. When first and second languages have

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certain patters that are identical, positive transfer occurs, which facilitates the language learning. However, if the
patterns between first and second languages are different, negative transfer is likely resulting in interference. Second
language acquisition research shows that L1 transfer is one of the important factors that influence second language
acquisition (SLA), and this influence can occur in the course of learning all the subsystems of the second language such
as phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax and discourse, and experimental results did unanimously show such an
effect of Ll on understanding L2 idioms, that is, transfer from Ll to the target language can speed up the learning
process at least when the two languages share many features. Meanwhile, cultural connotations tend to transfer from L1
to L2, too.
B. Impact of L2 Proficiency Level on Animal Idiom Processing
In the processing of English animal idiom comprehension, cultural transfer occurred. For an EFL learner, he or she
has formed a complete system of his or her native language and cultural connotations. When processing an unfamiliar
L2 idiom, they firstly turn to their native language and then to their L1 cultural knowledge, and it was embodied in this
study. In the interpretation of PartⅠ (English animal idioms with the same linguistic forms and cultural connotation as
that of Chinese expressions) and PartⅡ(English animal idioms with the same linguistic forms but different cultural
connotation from that of Chinese expressions), the language and cultural knowledge of EFL learners was activated
through their native language system, so the participants performed best in PartⅠ, and then in PartⅡ. While in PartⅢ
(English animal idioms with different cultural connotations but same linguistic forms as that of Chinese expressions)
and PartⅣ (English animal idioms with different cultural connotations and linguistic forms from that of Chinese
expressions), the participants could only guess the overall meaning from the surface linguistic forms because of the
different cultural connotations of English animal idiom or, in PartⅣ, even completely guess on no ground, so the
Chinese EFL learners didn’t performed well in the comprehension of two parts compared with PartⅠ and PartⅡ.
In the process of L2 animal idiom comprehension, therefore, the high-level L2 learners didn’t definitely outperform
the intermediate-level ones in some types of animal idioms which are lack of transparency mainly because of their
different cultural connotations from that of their L1. This finding in the study can be explained in terms of the cultural
transfer as well as language transfer. We can conclude that cultural connotation's transfer does exist. Learners either use
their L1 knowledge to deem the English connotation of the words or literally translate the Chinese words into English.
Meanwhile, we can conclude that the cultural connotation's transfer is at least influenced by three factors. They are the
perceived markedness of L1 by L2 learners, L2 learners' language proficiency, and the L2 learners' intercultural
awareness. Therefore, in the learning of L2 words, the important thing is to handle these three factors correctly. When
emphasizing the distance between the Chinese and English, the similarities should not be ignored either; when
developing the learners' language proficiency, learners' intercultural awareness should also be strengthened.
All in all, L2 idiom comprehension needs not only L2 knowledge such as vocabulary, grammar, but also L2 cultural
knowledge, and all these can be transferred from L1 to L2.

V. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

The results of the study reinforce the fact that both L2 idiom type and L2 proficiency level affect the acquisition of
L2 idioms. Advanced English learners can’t outperform the intermediate-level learners in all types of L2 idiom
translation because L2 idioms, as a special phenomenon in L2 vocabulary, involve pure foreign language knowledge as
well as the knowledge of L2 culture.
Language meaning is closely related to culture, as it is the primary means by which a culture transmits its values,
beliefs, concepts, customs and social norms and habits. So we may say that a language, to some extent, is the symbolic
representation of a particular culture. Culture, on the other hand, imposes considerable influence on language and the
use of language as well. So languages in the world vary from culture to culture not only in the symbols they use, the
diversities of structure at various levels, and the grammatical rules they have formed, but also in how they are
appropriately used in communication. Since the knowledge, values and beliefs that constitute a people's culture are
habitually encoded and transmitted in the language of people, it is of great importance for L2 learners not only to learn
the linguistic knowledge of the target language, but also to pay much attention to the development of his cultural
awareness, cultural sensitivity and cultural competence in their study of the target language.
Therefore, learning an L2 means more than merely mastering the pronunciation, words and grammar. It also means
learning to see the world as native speakers of that language see it, learning the ways in which their language reflects
the ideas, customs, and behavior of their society, learning to understand their "language of the mind". Learning a
language, in fact, is inseparable from learning its culture.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the process of my preparation for this study, I received invaluable help from many people. I am especially grateful
to my supervisor, Nancy Lee. She was a truly guide whose instructions helped me learn how to evaluate a research and
how to carry out researches on my own. Thanks to her precious suggestions, I was able to keep constantly on the right
track of the research. Her industriousness and preciseness in research have been giving me tremendous encouragement

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during the completion of this thesis and other researches. Without her insightful guidance, the paper could never have
reached the present form.
I also want to give my thanks to my friends Robert Gerber and Michael Medley, who helped all the way with the
design, revision and carryout of the experiment. Without their support, the completion of the present study would never
have been possible.
My greatest debt of gratitude is to my families for their love, support and encouragement they have been giving all
these years.

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Xiaoli Gan was born in Sichuan, China in 1977. She is a lecturer in the School of Foreign Languages, Sichuan University of Arts
and Science, Sichaun, China. Currently she is studying as a visiting scholar in Eastern Mennonite University, VA, U.S. Her research
interests include Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Teaching.

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