Processing Arabic Idioms: A Psycholinguistic Study of Second Language Learners

Idiomatic expressions pose a considerable obstacle in second language acquisition due to their non-literal interpretations and profound cultural significance. Arabic idioms are notably intricate, necessitating learners to utilise contextual, cognitive, and cultural information for practical interpretation. Notwithstanding their communicative significance, idioms are inadequately represented in Arabic language education and scholarship. This study examines how second language (L2) learners of Arabic interpret idiomatic idioms, emphasising their perceptions, cognitive processes, and the psychological aspects that affect comprehension. Data were gathered from 100 intermediate to advanced L2 learners utilising a quantitative, descriptive-correlational methodology via a structured questionnaire. The measure examined learners' exposure to idioms, perceived difficulty, strategic utilisation, motivating influences, and interpretative accuracy. Research indicates that although learners acknowledge the communicative significance of idioms, they usually regard them as challenging and rarely encounter them in formal education. Contextual inference became the predominant comprehension approach, succeeded by dictionary utilisation and peer consultation. Motivation and cultural experience exhibited a positive correlation with idiom comprehension, although emotional context showed no impact. Students exhibited more precision with semantically transparent idioms and those found in authentic sources. These findings underscore the need for more explicit and contextually rich idiomatic instruction in Arabic language education. The research enhances psycholinguistic and applied linguistic studies by emphasising the interaction between cognitive processes and emotional aspects in idiom processing. • L2 learners think that Arabic idioms are important but hard to master. More over 80% of the people who took part said that idioms were important for communication, yet 61% said they were hard or very hard to understand. This shows that there is a difference between knowing how useful idioms are and being sure that you understand them. • The main way to understand idioms is through contextual inference. Seventy-six percent of students utilize cues from the context to figure out idioms, while fifty-two percent use a dictionary and thirty-eight percent ask their friends. This means that it's better to learn idioms in rich, relevant situations than by themselves. • Motivation and exposure to other cultures make it much easier to understand idioms. Students who were more motivated and had more access to Arabic media (such dramas and podcasts) understood idioms better. These elements were positively associated to how accurate the interpretations were, showing how important emotional and experiential aspects are in learning a language. • The emotional context doesn't have a big effect on how idioms are processed. Psycholinguistic theory says that emotional states (such anger or joy) should help people comprehend idioms, but 47% of the people who took part were not sure if they did. This suggests that emotional salience may not be a good way to help people learn idioms. • Learners are better at figuring out idioms that are semantically clear. Sixty-three percent of learners properly understood idioms like "شد الرحال" ("to pack up and leave"), but only thirty-six percent understood culturally sophisticated idioms like "كأن على رؤوسهم الطير" ("they were completely silent"). This backs with the ideas about familiarity and decomposability in idiom processing. • Learners still don't use idioms very often. Only 29% of the people who took part said they used idioms in speech or writing, and majority of them did so in school or written work. This shows that we need teaching methods that encourage the active and spontaneous usage of idioms in conversation. • The results support teaching idioms in Arabic language classes in a clear and context-rich way. The study suggests that idioms should be taught early on using real-world examples, comparisons between languages, and multimedia input to improve students' cultural literacy and practical skills.