DEVELOPING ONLINE PRACTICE TESTS TO CHECK THE ACQUISITION OF IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS WITH ANIMALS
DEVELOPING ONLINE PRACTICE TESTS TO CHECK THE ACQUISITION OF IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS WITH ANIMALS

Summary/Abstract: Idiomatic expressions, a large number of which refer to animals, are widely used in English since they tend to add color to the language and make everyday speech more interesting and exciting for native speakers. However, these expressions pose difficulties for learners of English as their meaning is not deductible from the meanings of the words comprising it. Furthermore, the meaning may not have any relation to the animals that they feature or there may not be a correspondence of similar expressions in the learners’ mother tongues. Therefore, strategies to facilitate learning are needed and some of them, which can help students remember idioms more easily, are described in this article. Emphasis is placed on online practice tests, which check the acquisition of idiomatic expressions and facilitate their long-term retention. Practice tests are designed by the teacher and done by students on their personal computers or mobile phones at their own convenience. Also, some criteria specifically developed to enhance test construction are listed together with typical test questions based on them. Examples of different tasks are presented to illustrate the process of test creation. Finally, an appendix of some of the most commonly used idiomatic expressions with animals is included.

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