Does Information About the Origins of Figurative Idioms Help Learners to Remember Them? A Multi‐Site Study

It has been suggested that informing language learners about the original, literal meaning of idioms helps them to remember these expressions, but the empirical evidence is limited. A new study was conducted with three groups of learners of English (53 Chinese students at a university in Canada, 56 students at a university in China, and 77 high school students in Belgium). Each time, the students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In both conditions, they were asked to infer the meanings of 18 idioms, followed by feedback. In one condition, the inference task was supported by two illustrative sentences. In the other condition, it was supported by one such sentence and a note about the original, literal meaning of the expression (e.g., that jump the gun alludes to a false start in track athletics). The students’ ability to recall the figurative meanings was assessed 1 week later, after which they were also quizzed about the origins. Multilevel regression modeling revealed better meaning recall after the learning condition that included notes about the idioms’ origins, especially for the students who remembered these notes. Inference accuracy at the learning stage also emerged as a strong predictor of meaning recall.