Conventionalized Multiword Expressions:Its All Greek to Me or a Piece of Cake forEnglish Second Language Learners

This research paper explores the difficulties that pose some serious problems to English second language learners in the realm of idiomatic language. It discusses the nature of idioms in terms of origion, types and properties.It also suggests a number of strategies and techniques that are used in assimilating idioms into learners’ language.Identical idioms are easier to learn than unidentical ones. Depending on the structure of the first language, idioms are problematic if they do not exist in that particular language. The incongruence between first and second language also creates a problem. On the other hand, the structure of the second language constitutes a problem rather than the amount of incongruence between the two languages. A final result is that positive transfer should be encouraged while avoiding negative interference.