Learning idioms through the multimodal approach

Abstract

The present quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of using the Multimodal Approach for teaching English idioms to 24 A2 EFL Ecuadorian learners majoring in Math, Social Work, Law, Journalism, Physical Education, Philosophy, and Engineering. All the participants were students of the University of Cuenca, Ecuador and whose mother language is Spanish. In order to collect the necessary data, a quantitative method was used. Data was collected by means of a pretest and posttest. The analysis and discussion of the quantitative data revealed that the Multimodal Approach had a positive effect when teaching English idioms to EFL students. The findings also demonstrated that the activities used during the classes were dynamic and that broke the traditional practices used to teach these non-formal words. Also, it is necessary to consider modern techniques that allow students learn in different styles and mostly that motivate them learn contents in an active way. Therefore, based on the obtained results, it was concluded that the Multimodal Approach could be considered as an effective way to teach and learn English idioms within EFL contexts.