Young EFL Learners’ Incidental Collocation Learning Through Different Multimodal Inputs: A Mixed‐Methods Study

This study explores how multimodal input modes affect young EFL learners’ incidental collocation learning performance and experience. A total of 97 EFL learners (aged 12–13) in a Chinese secondary school were randomly assigned to two multimodal groups (reading‐while‐listening and viewing‐with‐captions) and a reading‐only group (as a control group). The results revealed that both multimodal conditions positively contributed to incidental collocation gains at both recognition and recall levels. Although the two multimodal input types did not differ significantly in their effects on recognition knowledge, the viewing‐with‐captions mode showed a statistically significant effect on recall knowledge. However, collocation learning gains in form recognition and meaning recall decayed considerably within two weeks across all three input modes. Despite the decay, students in the multimodal conditions still outperformed in receptive knowledge of target collocations and reported more enjoyable learning experiences and better comprehension of both content and the unknown collocations.