PROBLEMS WITH RECOGNIZING EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN ENGLISH AND CROATIAN IDIOMS AMONG CROATIAN EFL LEARNERS

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify the problems learners of English who are native speakers of Croatian face when trying to recognize the equivalence between English and Croatian idioms. The subjects were ninety English language majors at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Mostar. Based on the subjects’ translations of English idioms into Croatian and Croatian idioms into English, the study explores the issues of transfer and the role of context in learning English idioms. The implications of the research for teaching English idioms to native speakers of Croatian are also discussed.

Keywords

• idiom
• equivalence
• interference
• positive transfer
• context