Abstract
<p>Mastery of idiomatic expressions by foreign language learners is often equated with the fluency of native speakers of that language. However, learning these idiomatic expressions is one of the significant problems experienced by learners. The present quasi-experimental study conducted over four weeks in the ELT department of a Turkish university aims to investigate the effectiveness of teaching idioms via graphic novels compared to teaching them via traditional activities. The most frequent and useful forty figurative idioms from the Michigan Academic English Spoken Corpus (MICASE) were used in a script and the script was converted to a graphic novel with the use of a computer software. The results revealed that participants in the experimental group who had learned idioms through the graphic novel performed significantly better on the post-test, indicating the efficiency of the graphic novel in vocabulary teaching. The study also offers recommendations for the use of graphic novels in the teaching of vocabulary.</p>
Highlights
The never-ending search for effective vocabulary teaching has been of ongoing interest to language teachers, since vocabulary learning is important in achieving competence in a language and a priority for language learners (Coady & Huckin, 1997)
The results revealed that participants in the experimental group who had learned idioms through the graphic novel performed significantly better on the post-test, indicating the efficiency of the graphic novel in vocabulary teaching
Results of the study indicate that the experimental group, which learned figurative idioms with the use of a graphic novel performed significantly better than the control group, which learned the same figurative idioms with traditional activities
Summary
The never-ending search for effective vocabulary teaching has been of ongoing interest to language teachers, since vocabulary learning is important in achieving competence in a language and a priority for language learners (Coady & Huckin, 1997). In this context, good knowledge of idiomatic expressions can help language learners to reach proficiency level in the target language (Boers et al, 2006), and is even generally equated with sounding more natural (Schmitt, 2000; Wray, 1999). Reading should be the main focus of vocabulary instruction in language classes
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