LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES AS PREDICTORS OF L2 IDIOMS COMPREHENSION

The present study was an attempt to investigate types of language learning strategies as predictors of L2 idioms comprehension. The participants were 112 male and female Iranian undergraduate B.A. and M.A. students majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, English Translation, and English Literature at the University of Qom; Islamic Azad University, Takestan Branch; and Mofid non-profit University. Data were gathered through the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), an idiom comprehension test, and the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and analyzed using multiple regression procedure. The results showed that cognitive and affective learning strategies were the best predictors of L2 idioms comprehension. In other words, cognitive and affective learning strategies together could account for approximately 43% of the total variance in L2 idioms comprehension. These findings may have implications for language learners, teachers, researchers, syllabus designers, and materials developers. Since cognitive learning strategies were found to be the most commonly used strategies by successful idiom learners in this study, they should be taken into account more in L2 idiom comprehension. At the same time, teachers should make learners aware of affective and social strategies because they have not received much attention in classrooms.