The Effect of Two Attention-drawing Techniques on Learning English Idioms

Abstract

Abstract-This study investigated the effectiveness of three methods for teaching idioms. Sixty two intermediate EFL learners from a language school in Kerman were divided into three classes to be taught in three conditions: the etymological elaboration experimental group (N=20) was taught 16 target idioms in a text along with the etymology of each idiom; the typographic salience experimental group (N=20) was taught the same text as the previous group but the 16 target idioms were in boldfaced type and red; and the traditional control group (N=22) was taught the same text in plain typeface with no etymology for idioms. The participants in the three groups were not informed about the posttest and the delayed posttest. The results of the comparison between the posttest and the delayed posttest scores of all the three groups indicate that the participants in etymological elaboration outperformed the participants in the other two groups in terms of idioms' retention and recall. These findings are suggestive that the most effective method of teaching idioms vis-a-vis their retention and recall is etymological elaboration.

Uso da etimologia no ensino e aprendizagem de conceitos biológicos e taxonômicos da fauna nativa chilena

“…Al respecto, Zolfagharkhani & Ghorbani Moghadam (2011) reportaron una experiencia en que contrastaron dos grupos de estudiantes, a través del examen TOEFL, encontrando que el grupo que utilizó la etimología del vocabulario, obtuvo resultados significativamente superiores respecto del grupo control. Asimismo, Razmjoo et al (2016) señalaron que el método más efectivo para enseñar modismos en el idioma inglés es la elaboración etimológica.…”

Etymological Vs. Literal Teaching of Idiomatic Expressions in an EFL Context: No Difference in Retention of Idioms Constituents

“…Due to the pervasiveness of idioms in everyday give-and-take and the difficulty in their learning and comprehension, scholars in the field of second/foreign language learning and teaching have introduced a handful of strategies to help solve the problem. Some of these strategies include providing definitions, etymological elaboration, clarifying meaning through pictures, translating idioms into learners' first language, memorization, and so on (Boers et al, 2007;Mousavi et al, 2016;Razmjoo et al, 2016).…”

“…Considering the importance and pervasiveness of idioms in English language learning and teaching, they yet present one of the most challenging and demanding issues not only for ESL/EFL learners in learning English (Beloussova, 2015;Ghorbani, 2017;Razmjoo et al, 2016), but also for young native speakers of English who are learning idioms in their first language because of their lack of the intellectual capacity to realize that words can have multiple meanings (Liontas, 2018).…”

Etimología en la enseñanza de las ciencias: una mirada al origen de las palabras

“…Al respecto, Zolfagharkhani y Moghadam (2011) compararon dos grupos de estudiantes de inglés detectando que el uso de la etimología mejora significativamente el nivel de vocabulario. Resultados similares han sido reportados por Boers et al (2007) quienes señalaron que los estudiantes de inglés obtuvieron mejores resultados al conocer el origen de los modismos; asimismo Razmjoo et al (2016) indicaron que la etimología es el método más eficiente para enseñar modismos en idioma inglés.…”