On the Comparison of the Effects of Computerized Textual and Compound Glosses on the Learning of L2 Idioms Among Iranian EFL Learners

The present study aimed at comparing the effects of two computerized gloss modalities on the learning of L2 idiomsamong Iranian intermediate EFL learners. The two experimental groups received treatment on L2 passages containingEnglish idioms. One group received treatment on their ability to recognize the idiomatic expressions in the selectedpassages through a multimedia environment providing computerized textual glosses. The second group receivedtreatment under a similar condition but used compound glosses comprising a mix of textual and pictorial definitions.The control group, however, received no special type of treatment and was encouraged to use contextual guessing intheir attempt to guess the meaning of the idioms. The findings revealed that the experimental group who receivedtreatment through compound glosses outperformed the other two groups on the recognition test, and that the group whoworked with the textual definitions obtained a comparatively higher mean on the posttest than did the control group.Among the suggested explanations is the idea that compound glosses might help learners better decipher the meaningsof L2 idioms, thus contributing to their deep learning of the expressions. The study, then, carries important implicationsfor different groups of stakeholders, especially for ELT practitioners and language learners.

کلیدواژه ها:

compound glosses ، computerized glosses ، L2 idioms ، multimedia courseware ، textual glosses