The effects of pictures on short and long-term retention of congruent and incongruent English collocations

Abstract

The present study investigates the effects of pictures on short and long-term retention of English collocations. It also explores whether retention ability varies according to Korean-English collocational congruency. Participants in the study were Korean elementary school students who learn English as a foreign language (N = 64). These students were assigned to either a Picture or No-Picture condition, and were instructed to remember eight congruent English collocations (i.e., collocations that have Korean translation equivalents) and eight incongruent collocations (i.e., collocations that do not have Korean translation equivalents). Their short- and long-term retention of these collocations was assessed using collocation tests, both immediately and one week after learning. Overall findings indicate that pictures may be useful in promoting both short and long-term retention of English collocations. The study also found that the effects of pictures on collocational recall may not vary according to Korean-English collocational congruency. Given that this study is the first to examine the role of pictures in collocation learning, its findings appear to make significant contributions to existing L2 acquisition literature. Additionally, findings from this study could have an important influence on collocation teaching and learning for young EFL learners.