In a paired-associate learning (PAL) task, Dutch university students
(n = 129) learned 20 English second language (L2) idioms either
receptively or productively (i.e., L2-first language [L1] or
L1-L2) and were tested in two directions (i.e., recognition or production)
immediately after learning and 3 weeks later. Receptive and productive
performance was affected by direction of learning. This finding parallels
findings from PAL experiments on L2 individual-word learning. On a
productive test, productive learners had a sizable advantage over
receptive learners, whereas on recognition, receptive learners
outperformed productive learners. Two idiom characteristics, imageability
(capacity to evoke a mental image) and transparency (overlap between
literal and figurative meaning), as assessed in a norming study by an
independent sample (n = 80), qualified these findings. Indicating
the importance of dual coding in idiom learning, imageability predicted
performance, and receptive learning was particularly inefficient for low
imageable idioms. Transparency was a weaker predictor of performance and
only affected recognition.This study is
based on the first author's MA research. We would like to thank the
four anonymous SSLA reviewers for their helpful comments on this
manuscript. Any errors or omissions remain our own.