Promoting deep-level processing through etymological elaboration: The case of idioms in Croatian EFL context
Promoting deep-level processing through etymological elaboration: The case of idioms in Croatian EFL context

Summary/Abstract: Idiomatic expressions have long been named as one of the most notorious language items to be taught to EFL learners, mainly due to their opaque nature that prevents the reader from inferring the meaning. The purpose of this paper is to cast light on the nature of idiom comprehension among Croatian learners of English who are at upper-intermediate and advanced levels. Two groups were included in the research whereas the instrument comprised both pre-taught and novel vocabulary. The experimental group was treated by means of etymological background for each expression which was provided for them during their English course. The control group was instructed to remember as many expressions as they could by means of rote memorization strategies. Both groups were retested after a certain period in order to determine the retention of pre-taught and novel items and see whether the elaboration of etymological background exerted any effect on the retention. The results showed the experimental group outperformed the control participants in recalling pre-taught idioms as well as novel expressions, which goes in favor of etymological elaboration presenting a transferrable learning strategy as opposed to rote memorization.

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