THÀNH NGỮ sử DỤNG TRONG SÁCH GIÁO TRÌNH MARKET LEADER

ABSTRACT
Idiom is an important part of communication. However, sometimes idioms cause
trouble because the native speakers of English do not self-recognize that the
expressions - the idioms - they are using are special and unfamiliar to the
nonnative speakers. For this reason, it is extremely important for students to learn
to hear, and understand the idioms in natural contexts, specially the business
contexts. Market Leader series are a useful source of idioms for students. In order
to raise the understanding of idioms and to build up the habit of using idioms, the
research study the idioms in business uses in the Market Leader books
(Intermediate and Upper Intermediate) written by David Cotton, David Falvey,
Simon Ken and published by Pearson Longman in 2006. In the research, the types
of idioms commonly used in the business contexts, and in which business contexts
idioms are used the most are investigated. The research also looks at how the
double major students at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education are
learning idioms in the Market Leader course books by using a survey
questionnaire. Carried out in the form of a case study of idioms in use and
incorporated with a survey questionnaire, the research concludes that all the types
of idioms are used in the business contexts and idioms are used at higher density
in business conversations than in economics and business text formats (news and
articles). Another important finding is that the double major students at the Faculty
of English Teacher Education are quite aware of the importance of idioms in
business uses and they are applying different techniques in learning idioms.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………………….i
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………….ii
LIST OF FIGURES & TABLES………………………………………………….iii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………… 1
1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study…………………………1
1.2. Objectives of the study……………………………………………………… 2
1.3. Significance of the study………………………………………………………3

1.4. Scope of the study………… …………………………………………………3
1.5. Organization of the study…………………………………………………… 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………… 5
2.1. Definitions of idioms………………………………………………………….5
2.2. Characteristics of idioms…………………………………………………… 5
2.2.1. Semantic characteristics…………………………………………………… 5
2.2.2. Structural characteristics…………………………………………………….6
2.3. Types of idioms……………………………………………………………… 7
2.4. Functions of idioms………………………………………………………… 8
2.4.1. Idioms function as pragmatic and referential……………………………….8
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2.4.2. Idioms facilitate communication……………………………………………9
2.4.3. Idioms convey speaker’s commitment and evaluation…………………….10
2.4.4. Idioms support communication organization and textual coherence………11
2.5. Idioms in use…………………………………………………………………14
2.5.1. The use of idioms in American English and British English………………14
2.5.2. Stylistic and cultural value of idiomatic expression……………………….15
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………… 16
3.1. Research method…………………………………………………………… 16
3.2. Research setting…………………………………………………………… 16
3.3. Data collection process………………………………………………………17
3.4. Data analysis…………………………………………………………………17
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………………………… 19
4.1. The types of idioms exploited in the Market Leader course books……….19
4.2. The contexts where the idioms are presented…………………………… 21
4.3. Actual situation of learning idioms of the senior double students at the
Faculty of English Language Teacher Education - ULIS – VNU……………… 26
4.3.1. General understanding about learners’ autonomy and business idioms
learning………………………………………………………………………… 26
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4.3.2. Characteristics of the students as autonomous learners………………… 32
4.3.3. The facilitation of the teachers in fostering learners’ autonomy in business
idioms learning………………………………………………………………… 33
4.3.4. Techniques utilized by students to self-study business idioms……………35
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS………………………….38
5.1. Major finding of the research…………………………………………… 38
5.2. Pedagogical implications………………………………………………….39
5.3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research…………….39
REFERENCES………………………………………………………………… 41
APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………43
APPENDIX A: THE BUSINESS IDIOMS USED IN THE MARKET LEADER
BOOK (INTERMEDIATE)
APPENDIX B: THE BUSINESS IDIOMS USED IN THE MARKET LEADER
BOOK (UPPER INTERMEDIATE)
APPENDIX C: STUDENTS’ SURVEY QUESTIONAIZE (ENGLISH VERSION)
APPENDIX D: ROAD RAGERS IN THE SKY
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Name Page
1 Distribution of the three types of idioms in
the studied course books
20
2 The number of types of contexts that the
business idioms appear
23
3 The distribution of idioms in the contexts 24
4 Opinions of double major students in ULIS,
VNU about teaching and learning idioms in
the business contexts
27

5
The main goals the students set up when
learning idioms in use in the business
contexts
28
6
Students’ opinion about the job of the
teacher in helping his/her students learn
idioms
29
7
Students’ opinions about the idioms
considered worth learning
30
8
Students’ opinions about the idioms in the
Market Leader course books
30
9
Students’ main problem in learning idioms
in the Market Leader course books
31
10
Activities teachers normally do in the class
to help students learn idioms
34
11
Students’ opinions about rich idioms
learning materials
35

12
Activities students do when learning idioms
36
13
The ways to help students remember idioms
37
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Name Page
1 Characteristics of the students as
autonomous learners
32
2 Facilitation of the teachers in fostering
learners’ autonomy in business idioms
learning
33
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This initial chapter outlines the research problem and rationale for the study
together with its methodology, the scope and the significance of the paper.
Particularly, it is in this chapter that three research questions are identified to
serve as guidelines for the whole study. Finally, the chapter concludes with a
sketch of the organization of the paper to orientate the readers throughout the
paper.
1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study
As a senior double major student of English and Economics, I find much pleasure
when reading books written in English about economic and business issues. The
Market Leader course books are in that nature interesting and useful; and the
idioms exploited therein make them even more appealing and motivating to us.
Although there are some papers of previous researchers studying the topic of

idioms, they only give the general knowledge about idioms. To make the
researches about idioms a little more practical to the students, especially the ULIS
double major students, I want to focus on the idioms in use in the Market Leader
course books (Intermediate and Upper Intermediate) written by David Cotton,
David Falvey, Simon Ken and published by Pearson Longman in 2006.
In my point of view, the idioms used in Market Leader books are interesting and
useful. They can deliver exactly what the speakers want to say in the shortest way.
However, for non-native learners, sometimes it is difficult to recognize and
understand them. There is very often no way of guessing the meaning of an idiom
simply by looking at the individual words it contains. For example, you may know
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the words get and goat; however, you wonder what the meaning of the sentence
You get my goat! is. In fact, it has little chance of guessing, out of context, that it
means You irritate me! For this reason, I hope this study is a useful material that
may be of assistance to the double major students and teachers.
Moreover, idioms have practical meaning in business sector. As a double major
student, I usually read newspapers and articles about economic and business issues
and I realize that there are huge amount of idioms used in them. Knowledge of
business idioms is a means that help me understand more and thus gain more.
What are idioms? What are their characteristics? How can we use them and in
what contexts we should you them? When should we use them? What are the
features of the idioms in Market Leader books? What are the benefits of using
idioms in special cases? These questions give me more grounds for my choice of
this topic.
1.2. Objectives of the study
The aim of this paper is to explore the idioms in the Market Leader course books
(Intermediate and Upper Intermediate) written by David Cotton, David Falvey,
Simon Ken and published by Pearson Longman in 2006.
Specially, this paper focuses on answering the following questions:
- What types of idioms are exploited in the Market Leader course books?

- In what contexts are these idioms presented?
- How are those idioms learned by the double major students at the Faculty of
English Language Teacher Education - University of Languages and International
Studies - VNU?
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1.3. Significance of the study
With this study, the researcher expects to gain insights into the idioms used in the
Market Leader books. It focuses on the classification of idioms and the contexts
they appears. At the same time, the ways that the double major students are
learning idioms are discussed.
Once completed, the research would serve as reference for double major students.
It will help them understand more about the meanings and the ways of using
idioms in the business situations.
1.4. Scope of the study
Within the framework of a graduation paper, and due to the limited time, I have no
ambitions to cover all the matters but focus on analyzing idioms used in Market
Leader books (Intermediate and Upper Intermediate) written by David Cotton,
David Falvey, Simon Ken and published in 2006. These course books are used by
the third-year double-major students in the University of Language and
International Studies - VNU.
1.5. Organization of the study
The study consists of five chapters as follows.
Chapter I (Introduction) highlights statement of the problem and the rationale,
objectives, significance, scope and organization of the study.
Chapter II (Literature review) provides the theoretical framework of the study,
including discussion of the key terms and issues.
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Chapter III (Methodology) describes the way the research is conducted, including
the research setting, participants, instruments of data collection as well as the
procedure employed to carry out data analysis.

Chapter IV (Findings and discussion) presents, analyses and discusses the results
that the researcher found out from the collected data. This chapter also gives
answer to the three research questions.
Chapter V (Conclusion) summarizes the key points, states the limitations and
suggests further studies.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter is presented in order to establish the theoretical framework for the
researcher’s investigation. Firstly, it deals with the conceptual aspects of idiom.
Secondly, it provides characteristics of idioms. Then types and functions of them
are listed. Furthermore, it mentions idioms in use in American English and British
English. Finally, it mentions the stylistic and cultural value of idioms.
2.1. Definitions of idioms
The most fundamental definition of idiom is from Oxford advanced learner’s
dictionary (1995): “Idiom is a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from
the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit.”
“An idiom is a sequence of words which has a different meaning as a group from
the meaning it would have if you understood each word separately. Idioms add
color to the language, helping us to emphasize meaning and to make our
observations, judgments, and explanations lively and interesting. They are also
very useful tools for communicating a great deal of meaning in just a few words.”
(Longman American Idioms Dictionary – 1999)
According to Jon Wright, an idiom is an expression with two features. The first is
that idiom fixed and recognized by native speakers. You cannot make up your
own. The second is that idiom uses language in a non-literal – metaphor – way.
2.2. Characteristics of idioms
2.2.1. Semantic characteristics
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Idioms are more metaphorical than literal. According to Kunin (1983:54), “the
meaning of an idiom is either partly or completely different from the meaning of

all components.”
In some cases, it is easy to guess the meaning of an idiom from the meaning of
their components. For example, the idiom “Easier said than done” means
“Something that you say when something seems like a good idea but it would be
difficult to do”.
In other cases, it is impossible to know because the meaning of the idiom is totally
different from the meaning of each word. For example, “To beat about the bush”
means “To avoid talking about a difficult or embarrassing subject because you are
worried about upsetting the person you are talking to”. Even if they are put in a
specific context, it is also difficult to understand if we do not have knowledge of
the field.
The nuances of idioms are complicated. They can have positive, negative and
neutral meanings (positive is largest number) so it is important to study the
meanings and their components.
2.2.2. Structural characteristics
“Idioms take many different forms and structures. They can be very short or rather
long.”
Most idioms are “completely regular and logical in their gramma and vocabulary.”
However, some idioms have special structure: “The way in which the words are
put together is often odd, illogical or even grammatically incorrect.” (English
Idioms and how to use them)
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An idiom is a group of at least two words with constant structure. That means we
can neither add nor omit any component. It is also impossible to change its word
orders, apart from accepted variants. Anschushia (1985:197,188) claims that one
important feature of idioms which make them different from free expressions is
that they have fixed structure. In particular, we cannot substitute their component.
For example, although “dog” and “puppy” are synonyms, it is impossible to
substitute “dog” in the idiom “a dog in the manger” by “puppy”. Moreover, we
cannot add any component to idioms. For example in the idiom “a man of the

world”, we cannot add “old” to it. Another impossible thing is change grammatical
form of them. One cannot use the plural form of “man” instead of its singular form
“man” in “man to man”. In addition, one cannot use the singular form of “marine”
instead of its plural form “marines” in “tell that to the marines”. It is also unable to
change the word orders of idioms (“open” and “shut” cannot change theirs
position in “open and shut”.)
2.3. Type of idioms
Fernando (1996, p.35) distinguishes three sub-classes of idioms. The first one is
pure idiom. Fernando defines pure idiom as ‘a type of conventionalized, non-
literal multiword expression’ (Fernando, 1996, p.36). Pure idiom is always non-
literal, however they may be either invariable or may have little variation. In
addition, idiom said to be opaque (Fernando, 1996, p.32). For example, pure idiom
“to spill the beans” has nothing to do with the beans.
The second are semi-idiom. Semi-idiom said to have one or more literal
constituents and one with non-literal sub sense. Therefore, this type of idiom is
considered partially opaque (Fernando, 1996, p.60). For example, “foot the bill”
which means ‘pay’ is semi-idiom.
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The last one is literal idiom. This sub-class of idiom is either invariable or allows
little variation. In addition, literal idiom is considered to be transparent as they can
be interpreted on the basis of their parts. For example, “of course”, in any case,
means for certain.
2.4. Functions of idioms
2.4.1. Idioms function as pragmatic and referential
Newmark (1988, p.104), who considers idiom as an “extended” metaphor, claims,
that it has two main functions: pragmatic and referential. The pragmatic function is
to appeal to the senses, to interest, to surprise, to delight. According to Newmark,
the first function is called cognitive, while the other is aesthetic. English idioms
are considered to be figurative and, as Jakaitien (1980) claims, expressiveness of
idioms is considered to be the most important function. The referential function is

‘to describe a mental process or state, a concept, a person, an object, a quality or
an action more comprehensively and concisely than is possible in literal or
physical language’ (Newmark, 1988, p.104).
Furthermore, idioms may perform other functions in different discourse as in texts
or interactions. It may convey thanks, apologies, agreements and greetings in
interpersonal communication. Moreover, it may include actions, situations, and
emotions in their meaning. In this case, Fernando (1996, pp.72-214), distinguishes
three more functions that are performed by idioms: ideational, interpersonal and
relational. Idioms that have ideational function denote content which includes
action (pull an invisible string), situation (to be under the thumb of one’s family),
people and things (made rather a fool of myself). The second function is
interpersonal that fulfills interactional function through apologies (I beg your
pardon), greetings (good evening), directives (to put it straight), etc. Finally,
idioms with relational function are used to ensure cohesion and coherence of
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discourse. These are idioms that integrate information (on the one hand, on the
other hand, in addition) and that sequence the information (in the first/second
place) (Fernando, 1996, p.74).
2.4.2. Idioms facilitate communication
Becker (In: Wray 1998) made an observation that successful communication is
often at odds with the production of novel utterances. Idiomatic and formulaic
language can provide a basis for an interweaving network for embedding novel
proposition, which results in the fact that a lengthy utterance is likely to contain
more prefabricated frames and routine structures. Thus, one of the purposes of the
use of formulaic and idiomatic structures is keeping the focus on formulation of
one’s novel ideas while maintaining fluency through holistic retrieval of
prefabricated complex structures from mental lexicon.
As the introductory lines imply, one of the principal goals of using formulaic and
idiomatic language is to facilitate communication in the sense that idiomatic and
formulaic language based on holistic processing of phenomena came to be the

preferred strategy for coping with a wide range of troubles that could arise in the
course of language communication. Where interaction fluency of processing
complex utterances might be in danger, formulaic language is drawn upon to meet
the communicational shortfall. Wray (1998:47) argues that prefabricated and
holistic units are functionally used as a “way of maximizing the processing space
available for the novel referential and descriptive creativity that is unique to
analytic language”. It is simply a natural human tendency to economize the effort
of communication about recurrent human affairs through generation of stereotyped
formulae and so avoid processing overload. Wray & Perkins (2000:18) say also
that formulaic recurrent phenomena had better suit to be communicated through
idiomatic prefabricated language, because “a hearer is more likely to understand a
9
message if it is in a form he/she has heard before, and which he/she can process
without recourse to full analytic decoding”. Thus, it seems that we use routine
sequences as a way of minimizing the risk of mismatch between our linguistic
capabilities and the information to be expressed. Similarly, Bolinger, Fillmore,
Coulmas, or Sinclair propose that “we do not have to go through the labour of
generating an utterance all the way out from ´S´ every time we want to say
something” (Becker In: Wray 1998:63). In terms of keeping and enhancing
fluency, Pawley (In: Skandera 2007) reports that some language learners attempt
to gain language command fluency in that they instinctively memorize larger
language chunks, and among those also formulaic and idiomatic phrases that
might be useful in particular contexts. This phenomenon is not that illogical for
one simple reason: idiomatic expressions or any other types of prefabricated
speech structures enable the speakers to fix their attention to larger content units of
the discourse. In other words, if speakers were supposed to focus on individual
words as they are pronounced one by one, the desired idiomatic fluency of a
native-like speech would be endangered (Nattinger and DeCarrico In: Kavka
2003).
Concentration on larger (preferably holistically processed) meaning units makes it

possible for language user to use larger language chunks to communicate recurrent
stereotypes of everyday life without losing time with permanent re-formulation of
linguistic material. Instead, such units spare space for processing capacities for
generation of completely novel analytic units describing new phenomena.
2.4.3. Idioms convey speaker’s commitment and evaluation
“The words of a language often reflect no so much of the reality of the world, but
the interest of people who speak it” (Palmer In: Baker 2006:18). In other words,
idiomatic figures not only express factual meaning but also convey certain
10
evaluative aspect towards the relevant phenomenon. Expressing ideas through
idioms communicates an evaluation of the situation that the speaker refers to.
Miko (1989) says that the speaker puts him/herself into position of a judge of the
situation. Idiomatic expressions convey a sort of aphoristic truth about the referred
affairs. The speaker’s expressive commitment to the discussed matter via a
figurative approximation with an emotional evaluative aspect of the phenomenon
is more than a mere stating about the matter of fact. Similarly, Gibbs (In: Geeraerts
& Cuyckens 2007) states that speaking idiomatically conveys an interpretation and
evaluation of the situation that the speaker refers to. Let us consider the idiom to
skate on thin ice. The idiom conveys in itself the experiential image of movement
on thin ice implying a dangerous situation. The perception of danger is
strengthened through specifying the movements as intensive movement of skating,
which increases the jeopardy of breaking the ice and drowning. Everybody knows
that walking on thin ice is dangerous, and performing any more intensive
movements on such a thin surface would be qualified (evaluated) as audacious
boldness of the person about which the speaker would expresses his/her attitude.
2.4.4. Idioms support communication organization and textual coherence
“A traditional view of idioms and related speech formulas sees these phrases as
bits and pieces of fossilized language […] speakers must learn by arbitrarily
pairing each phrase to some non-literal meaning without any awareness of why
these phrases mean what they do“ (Gibbs In: Geeraerts & Cuyckens 2007:697).

Yet Gibbs (In: Geeraerts & Cuyckens 2007) also says that idiomatic expressions
are not mere linguistic ornaments that facilitate social interaction, but they can be
used also to enhance textual coherence and reflect fundamental patterns of human
thought. Idioms have two principal organizational functions in discourse.
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Firstly, Idioms signal topic transition in conversation. Consider the following
example from a conversation between a daughter and her mother where they
talked about the death of someone they both knew (adapted from Drew and Holt
In: Gibbs In: Geeraerts & Cuyckens 2007:703):
Leslie: The vicar’s warden, anyways, he died suddenly this week, and he
was still working.
Mum: Good grace.
Leslie: He was seventy-nine.
Mum: My word.
Leslie: Yes, he was.
Mum: You’ve got’s real workers down there.
Leslie: He was a, uh. Yes. Indeed, he was a buyer for the only horse hair
factory left in England.
Mum: Good grace.
Leslie: He was their buyer. So he had a good innings, didn’t he?
Mum: I should say so. Yes. Marvelous.
Leslie: Anyways, we had a very good evening on Saturday.
Through the phrase he had good innings, Leslie not only summarizes the
information from the prior turn, but she also refers to the whole topic of their
conversation until that point. Her description also confirms that we often refer to
more abstract concepts through idioms rather than through ´single words´,
comparably with as if Leslie rather said only ´…he had a good life´. The idiom
thematically summarizes the information discussed in the conversation and
indicates the point at which one topic is terminated and subsequently moved on to
another one. Idioms seem to be effective in terminating a topic because of their

distinctive manner of substantiating abstract themes in concrete figures.
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Secondly, Idioms provide textual coherence. Let us consider the example of using
the image of the proverb Don’t put the cart before the horse when talking about
British economic problems (from The Guardian of July 1990, as cited in Moon
1998:126 In: Gibbs In: Geeraerts & Cuyckens 2007:703-704):
To regard savings as the animating force in this scheme of things is to put the cart
before the horse. The horse is the growth of national income, propelled by the
level of spending, the harness linking horse and cart the financial system, and
bringing up the rear is the cart of saving. The horse is larger the greater the level
of investment, and the larger the horse the larger the cart of savings it can
support.
The author applies here the surface image of putting a horse before the cart to
draw out various entailments of the analogy between the proverb and the financial
situation in England. In this way, the author uses a common figurative expression
and its parts to provide coherence to his complex argument about an abstract topic
giving it tangible features.
We can assume that the content of words can vary from one use to another.
Different word combinations can carry different amounts of semantic surplus
resulting in a manifold variety of surplus functions that locutors can convey into
communication through their particular choices of language means. Paradoxically,
more semantic surplus is conveyed by idiomatic combinations compared to literal
ones. In addition, this seems to be the reason why idiomatic expressions (often
referred to as ´senseless´ combinations) make communication perfectly
meaningful, easier, more appropriate and even faster. Regardless of how this is
possible, the attribute ´senseless´ seems to be apparent only. Moreover, thanks to
their underlying metaphorical concepts, such superficially ´senseless´
combinations (idioms) are often able to convey more meaning.
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2.5. Idioms in use

It is important to know when and where to use idioms. It depends on the person
you are speaking to, the situation, place and time.
Idioms are used both in spoken and written language. “Idiomatic language is as
fundamental to English as tenses or propositions.”
Idioms are used in daily life. A native English speaker may be not realize that he
or she is using it. With them, using idioms is natural.
2.5.1. The use of idioms in American English and British English
There are no radical differences in actual use. The main differences are in the
situations where idiomatic expressions are used. There have been many studies
recently on this subject. American English adopts and creates new idioms at a
much faster rate compared to British English. In addition, the idioms of AmE
origin tend to spread faster and further. After it has first been established in the
U.S., an American idiom may soon be found in other "variants" and dialects of
English. Nowadays new British idioms tend to stay on the British Isles and are
rarely encountered in the U.S. British idioms are actually more familiar to other
Europeans or to the people of the British Commonwealth than to Americans, even
though the language is same. The reason for all these facts is that Britain is not the
world power it used to be and it must be said that the U.S. has taken the role of the
leading nation in the development of language, media and popular culture. Britain
just does not have the magnitude of media influence that the United States
controls.
2.5.2. Stylistic and cultural value of idiomatic expression
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An idiomatic unit comes into existence from a figurative expression describing
situations, phenomena, or human traits that usually exceed limits of neutral
perceptions. Referring to Miko (1989) and his view of idiom as an expressively
more mouldable and more tangible expression than a literal naming unit, idiomatic
images enable the speaker to cover sensitive pictures and phenomena hiding and
mildening the unpleasant and undesired positions of everyday life expressed by
linguistic means. In other words, idiomatic units can grasp the meaning of

complex positions of life in a more re-fined communicative manner. Similarly,
Gibbs in his Idioms and formulaic language (In: Geeraerts & Cuyckens 2007)
reports that people use idioms (mostly with an underlying metaphorical concept)
to politely communicate subjective opinions and so in an indirect manner avoid
responsibility for what is communicated. For example, under the ´guise´ of an
objectively common physical situation of throwing in the towel we can indirectly
communicate the negative act of giving up a fight. Thus, we can use a figurative
image to represent the meaning proper of an expression.
As to the cultural status of idiomatic expressions, this is reflected by the extra-
linguistic motivation that offers a deeper insight into the origin of the term and
provides more complex information on cultural and historical status than literal
single ´words´ do. Idiom takes on an objective demonstration of the cultural origin
of the expression. Consider the example of an idiomatic expression for an
intensive downpour in Slovak leje ako z krhly (literally: it is pouring like from a
watering can) and in English it´s raining cats and dogs.
15
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
This chapter describes the way the research is conducted, including the research
settings, participants, instruments of data collection as well as the procedure
employed to carry out data analysis to complete the ultimate purpose – answer the
following research questions:
i. What types of idioms are exploited in the Market Leader course books?
ii. In what contexts are these idioms presented?
iii. How are idioms learned by the double major students at the Faculty of
English Language Teacher Education - University of Languages and
International Studies - VNU?
3.1. Research method
The research was conducted in the form of a case study of idioms in use for
several reasons. Firstly, case study research excels at bringing us to an

understanding of a complex issue which is already known through previous
research. The issue of the research hereof is idioms in use in the Market Leader
course books. Secondly, case study can extend experience and add strength to the
studied issue through detailed contextual analysis (Yin, 1994:23). The analysis of
the idioms in use in the business contexts will add more information for users,
language learners and teachers of idioms in use in a particular context, which is
business.
3.2. Research setting
Since the research was conducted in the form of a case study of idioms, the setting
of the research is the use of the idioms in the Market Leader course books
17
(Intermediate and Upper Intermediate) written by David Cotton, David Falvey,
Simon Ken and published by Pearson Longman in 2006. Besides, a survey
questionnaire is carried out in order to provide grounds for the findings of the case
study.
3.3. Data collection process
The process of data collection involved the collection of idioms in the two Market
Leader course books of intermediate and upper-intermediate levels. Besides, the
research also involves the participation of 30 students learning double major at the
Faculty of English Language Teacher Education – ULIS, VNU through a survey
questionnaire. The questionnaire surveys as a tool of collecting data about the
actual situation of learning the idioms provided in the Market Leader course books
at the Faculty. Therefore, the steps of collecting data are:
Step 1: Collecting the idioms and the contexts where the idioms are used in
the Market Leader course books
Step 2: Conducting the survey questionnaire
Step 3: Analyzing the data
3.4. Data analysis
The collected data are analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods
following the below steps:

Step 1: The collected idioms are classified into groups of different types of
idioms namely pure idioms, semi idioms, and literal idioms. Findings will then be
concluded basing on the actual distribution of the idioms in use in the business
contexts.
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Step 2: The idioms are studied in the particular contexts where they are
present so as that conclusion about the use of idioms in the business contexts is
disseminated.
Step 3: Data collected from the survey questionnaire are processed
qualitatively and quantitatively in the forms of tables, figures, and comments,
which in turn provide grounds for the findings of the research about the actual
situation of learning idioms of the third year double major students at the Faculty
of English Language Teacher Education – ULIS – VNU.
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