A Proverb Learned is a Proverb Earned: Proverb Instruction in EFL Classrooms

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the situation about proverb instruction in EFL classrooms by seeking futureEnglish teachers’ opinions. It is based on the argument that proverbs are an important part of culturalreferences, figurative, functional and formulaic language; thereby, they lend themselves well toenhancing communicative competence. This study investigates what EFL student-teachers think and feelabout English proverb instruction, how they conceptualize proverbs, how they define their knowledgeand use of English proverbs, and what they think about the extent to which their English teachers andcoursebooks at high school taught English proverbs. In doing so, a questionnaire was designed andadministered to freshman EFL student-teachers and semi-structured interviews were conducted withvolunteers. The findings revealed that despite those student-teachers’ positive attitudes towards proverbinstruction, they did not view their knowledge of English proverbs as well as the teaching of proverbs bytheir English teachers and coursebooks at high school sufficient enough. Furthermore, traditionaldefinitions were reflected in the participants’ conceptualization of proverbs. The study has importantimplications for curriculum and syllabus design in which knowledge of phraseology in general andproverbs in particular should be incorporated as an important component of learners’ languagecompetence.© 2019 EJAL & the Authors. Published by Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics (EJAL). This is an open-accessarticle distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-NC-ND)(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).