Abstract
The present study investigated the effect of learner generated illustrations on the immediate and delayed idiom recall of Iranian EFL (English as a foreign language) learners. To accomplish this end, 40 female students participated in this study. A placement test (Quick Placement Test, Version 2) was administered to the participants to ascertain that they were all at intermediate level of proficiency. Since the design of the study was quasi experimental, they were randomly assigned to control (N: 20) and experimental (N: 20) groups. A pretest of idioms was given to the participants to ensure that they were homogeneous in terms of their knowledge of idioms. Both groups were provided with the clarification of idioms through definitions and examples. However the experimental group was required to draw their own mental image of the idioms on a paper. At the end of the treatment, students took an immediate posttest of idioms. After an interval of 2 weeks, a similar posttest was given to the students to examine the delayed recall ability of the learners. The obtained results through an independent samples t-test indicated that the experimental group slightly outperformed the control group on immediate posttest, but the difference was not statistically significant. However the results on the delayed posttest suggested that there was a significant difference between the two groups and the participants in the experimental group had stronger delayed recall ability.
Highlights
Figurative idioms were neglected in earlier days of SLA research but recently it has received great attention in the SLA literature
Before starting the treatment an idiom test was selected as the pretest and the learners were asked to take the test to make sure that they don’t know the idioms which they were going to be taught during the treatment; the data were entered in the software and an independent sample t-test was conducted to compare the pretest scores for the control group and the experimental group
The results provided in the output showed that there was no significant difference in scores for the control group (M=2.05, SD=1.60) and the experimental group, M=2.20, SD=1.32; P=
Summary
Figurative idioms were neglected in earlier days of SLA research but recently it has received great attention in the SLA literature. The lack of concern for idioms could have had three reasons: First, language was assumed to be made of grammar rules and individual words. Idioms were considered to serve stylistic purposes limited to rhetoric and poetry. They assumed the meaning of idioms as absolutely unpredictable. It was believed that it couldn’t be taught. The only achievable way to learn idioms was blind memorization. SLA research has found out the significance of learning idioms and prefabricated patterns (Boers, Demecheleer & Eyckmans, 2004)
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