Language Teaching Research

confronted with in both multiple-choice exercises. Table 2 suggests that tackling
the identify-the-source task prior to the identify-the-meanings task generally
leads to better recall (although statistical significance – using a
Mann-Whitney U-test again – was obtained for only two series of idioms).
With the exception of one trial (2nd year, series B), students who had been
given the opportunity to use etymological information to try and figure out the
idiomatic meaning of the expressions seemed more likely to remember the
expressions than students who had perhaps resorted to blind guessing when
doing the identify-the-meanings exercises. In the latter case, etymological
elaboration may have been used ‘merely’ as a mnemonic technique encouraging
dual coding after the idiomatic meaning had been explained, while in the
former case it was also used as a problem-solving technique encouraging
‘deep’ processing. The data therefore lend support to the Levels-of-processing
theory in general as well as the Dual Coding theory, and show how combining
both can enhance learning effects.
VI Experimental data, part 2: etymology as a guide for
usage restrictions
Frank Boers et al. 53
Figure 2 Average % scores on idiom comprehension (from strongest to weakest
contribution by etymological explanations)
The second research question is whether awareness of the original, literal
usage (or source domain) of idioms can occasionally help learners estimate
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