Abstract:

Phraseology of a language has long been considered the area exhibiting so much of irregularity that scholars avoided researching it and considered this phenomenon of language as an exception to the rule. Since the mid-20th century the study of idioms has undergone evolution. Nowadays idioms have become the research object of various scientific disciplines and schools – cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and ethno-linguistics, corpus linguistics and discourse analysis, thus making the task of teaching the discipline increasingly complicated.

Within the curriculum of the study programme “English Philology” implemented at Daugavpils University, the study course on Phraseology is taught with the aim to make students eager to take the path of a researcher of phraseology, be it done from the viewpoint of contrastive linguistics, cognitive linguistics, ethnolinguistics, etc. The theoretical assumptions are explained and studied by referring to real-life use of idioms in discourse. Thus, the present paper focuses not only on the development of students’ idiomatic competence, but first and foremost on the challenges and possibilities one faces when trying to engage students (non-native speakers of English) in researching the use of idioms in discourse in English.

The present study mainly relies on theoretical approaches and findings on phraseology reflected in research publications by Anita Naciscione and Andreas Langlotz that are discussed in classes conducted in the framework of the study course on Phraseology. The paper discusses the application of various techniques employed in the analysis of idioms aimed at raising students’ awareness of scientific approach to the scope of phraseology of the English language proceeding from recognition of idiom use in discourse towards the interpretation of the intended meaning taking into account both the textual and situational contexts.

Keywords:

Idiom, phraseology, discourse, core use, instantial stylistic use, interpretation.