The Effect of Narrative Paragraph Writing on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners' Idiom Learning Improvement

Idiomatic expressions usually make FL learners feel worried in the process of language learning. Due to the fact, that there has been no clear-cut answer as to how to teach idioms effectively, answering the question whether narrative paragraph writing facilitates idiom learning improvement may be of great help to put an end to the problem. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to examine the effect of narrative paragraph writing on learning improvement of idioms. 24 intermediate students were selected out of a larger population of 60 students in Karoun Language Institute in Touyserkan, Iran, and randomly assigned to the experimental and the control groups. The treatment lasted for eight sessions, each session with at least a two-day interval, about two months. At the end of each class, the control group had to do matching exercises while the experimental group was asked to write a short narrative paragraph using as many newly-taught idioms as possible. The results of the study revealed that subjects in the paragraph writing group performed better on the post-test than the control group. The findings of the present study can be of great help for non-native speakers of English and teachers to teach better and feel the pivotal role of writing in SLT.

idiom, narration, prargraph writing