Idioms in English as a Second Language : Contextualization of L2 idioms (written context versus still pictures) and its effect on students' retention

Abstract: The main aim of the present study is to investigate whether there is a difference in retentionbetween two groups of Swedish second language learners of English when they are faced withidioms in a written context or in the form of still pictures. The subjects of the investigation aretwo different groups at a high school in Sweden. Both Group 1 and 2 consist of 24 subjectseach. For this study, 15 idioms were randomly selected. To Group 1, the idioms werepresented in a written context and to Group 2 the idioms were presented in the form of stillpictures. The subjects were given a pre-test and two post-tests to measure their retention.Moreover, the subjects were given a questionnaire in order to learn more about theirperception of idioms. I believe that, on the immediate post-test, Group 1 (the “written contextgroup”) did better than Group 2 (the “still pictures group”). Nevertheless, on the delayed posttest(testing long-term retention), Group 2 remembered more idioms than Group 1. But, it isimportant to note that contextualization of L2 idioms using written context and/or using stillpictures resulted, in general, to be effective strategies for the retention of idioms.