Impact of L2 Film Instruction and English Idiom Etymology on Iranian EFL learners’ Idiom Learning

Abstract

By the emergence of new approaches to teach a second language, finding a good <br /> method to teach idioms has been the main concern of some researchers (e.g., Elena<br /> & Moreno, 2001 Cook, Fazly, & Stevenson, 2007). To the researcher›s best<br /> knowledge few studies have been conducted to examine the effect of different<br /> methods of teaching idioms to EFL learners. As a result, this study was designed to<br /> investigate the effect of teaching the etymology of idioms and using movie clips<br /> containing idioms, as two methods of teaching, on the quality of L2 learners› idiom<br /> learning. Serving this purpose, teaching idioms through their etymologies and<br /> movie clips and also learners› attitudes toward<br /> s using such methods (through<br /> using questionnaires) were taken into consideration. After administering a<br /> standard language proficiency test (OPT), 90 intermediate, out of a pile of 154 L2<br /> learners, were selected and assigned to three groups randomly, two experimental<br /> (one etymology and one movie clip group) and one control group. All the groups<br /> were given two idiom multiple-choice tests, one as the pre-test and the other one <br /> as the post-test. In one experimental group (A), idioms were taught together with<br /> their etymologies and in the other experimental group (B), the same idioms were<br /> taught by displaying movie clips containing the idioms, while the control group (C) <br /> followed the traditional class activities using synonyms and antonyms. The results<br /> of one-way ANOVA and post hoc tests revealed that the participants in etymology<br /> and movie clip groups had better performance in post-test than in pretest.<br /> Moreover, the results of Chi-square revealed that, on the whole, L2 learners had<br /> positive attitudes towards using etymology and movie clips in idiom learning.