L2 idioms learning in the context of distance learning: A focus on textual and pictorial glossing and hyperlink

This study investigated the effects of textual and pictorial glossing and hyperlink on L2 idiom comprehension in distance learning context. The participants, 60 Intermediate female English as a foreign language (EFL) students, were randomly assigned to 4 groups of 15. All groups received two stories a week through Email. Each group received the stories with a different mode of presentation. Two groups were provided with hyperlinked idioms: pictorial and textual hyperlink. The other two groups received instruction through glosses, pictorial and textual glosses. At the end of the treatment period, a multiple choice test was administered to measure receptive knowledge of idioms. The findings showed that the pictorial groups outperformed the textual groups in both hyperlink and glossing conditions on the comprehension test. The present study may have implications for teachers, learners, material writers, textbook authors, CALL package designers and distance learning planners in that it may encourage them to add pictorials to the verbal input.

idioms, distance learning, glossing, hyperlink