And why not… 'con señales y pelos'?: clues for sequential motivation in Spanish L2 idioms

Abstract

Idioms are units of words that mostly result complex and difficult to remember, in particular for non-native speakers. This study will focus on some strategies that could be useful to avoid the mere study by heart and help students, French-speaking in this case, develop a more cognitive learning process in Spanish L2. As a complement of an approach based on a metaphorical comprehension of the literal imagery involved, we propose to start from the syntagm of the idiom in order to discover motivational clues that could justify some of the restrictions imposed on the organisation of its components. Learners will be able this way to understand better what motivates the internal word order and make less mistakes of this kind during the production phase. As it will be highlighted, these techniques could also be helpful to fight against some other formal mistakes, mostly related to cases of omission.