Resumen de Prompting language learners to guess the meaning of idioms: do wrong guesses linger?

Xinqiang Wang, Frank Boers, Paul Warren

• English

  Studies have shown that informing language learners about the literal underpinning of idioms can help them to remember these expressions. It has also been suggested that prompting learners to guess the meaning of lexical items may be beneficial because it can pique their curiosity and promote cognitive engagement. In the case of idioms, the literal underpinnings can be used as hints to improve the chances of successful inferencing. Even so, some inaccurate inferencing remains inevitable. Hence, the question must be asked if wrong initial interpretations of idioms might interfere with later recall of their meanings. In this study, EFL learners (N = 25) were asked to guess the meaning of idioms first without and then with information about their literal underpinnings, after which the actual meanings were given. One week later, the learners were asked to recall the meanings of the idioms. Accurate recall was found more likely when guessing had been successful than when guesses had needed to be rectified. Moreover, almost half of the inaccurate responses closely resembled wrong guesses the participants had proffered the previous week, suggesting that giving learners the correct meaning after an inaccurate guess does not always replace the latter in memory.

• 中文

  以往研究表明, 告知学习者习语的词源本义可以帮助他们记忆习语在实际使用中的语义。 此外, 促使学习者猜测习语中词项成分的意思也是有益的, 因为这可以激发他们的求知欲并促进其认知参与度。 在习语学习中, 词源本义可以用作提示信息以提高词义推断的成功率。 尽管如此, 推断错误有时不可避免。 那么, 前期词义推断中出现的错误理解是否会干扰学习者此后对正确词义的记忆呢？ 在本研究中, 25名外语学习者分别先后在无词源本义提示和有提示的情况下对习语的语义进行了猜测和推断, 随后收到正确的实际语义进行学习。 一周后, 对学习者进行习语语义回忆测试。 结果发现, 相比于需要修正推断的情况, 准确的词义记忆更有可能在前期词义推断正确的情况下出现。 而且, 测试中大约有一半的不准确的语义记忆与一周前的错误理解非常相似, 这表明在不准确的推断发生后, 提供正确的释义并不总能帮助学习者替换掉其有错误的语义记忆。