EXPLORING EFL STUDENTS’ STRATEGIES IN LEARNING IDIOMATIC EXPRESSION AT A STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY IN PEKANBARU

This research aims to explore the strategies used by EFL students in learning idiomatic expressions at an Islamic university in Indonesia. Mastering idiomatic expressions is important because idioms contribute to communicative competence and language fluency. This study employed a descriptive quantitative design using a questionnaire consisting of 18 items distributed to 112 students of the English Education Department. The strategies were measured based on two factors: the Language Component factor, which includes linguistic strategies such as contextual guessing, translation, and native-language comparison, and the Workshop factor, which involves activity-based strategies such as discussion, media use, reading, and dictionary consultation. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that students demonstrated a moderate level of strategy use, with 70.5% of participants reporting that they sometimes used the strategies. The Language Component factor was found to be more dominant than the Workshop factor, indicating that students relied more on linguistic strategies. Overall, the study suggests that although students use various strategies in learning idiomatic expressions, their application is not yet systematic, highlighting the need for more explicit instruction.