The use of pictorial devices to improve english idioms elucidation among efl seventh-grade students

Abstract

Idioms are considered one of the most complex aspects students of English as a Foreign Language must face on their road to mastering it, and although the literature about the pedagogical principles to teach idioms is not abundant, known studies made about the didactical aspects of idioms teaching, point in the direction of using imagery or visual aids as a successful way to help students to interpret them. Throughout the quantitative method, this paper collects the results of a study made with A1-A2 level seventh-grade students that shows how helpful in an EFL classroom the use of imagery in the process of idioms elucidation, with an improvement rate of over fifty per cent when an idioms interpretation test is accompanied with visual aids in opposition to a test with no visual aids at all.