چكيده
The effect of input enhancement on learning languages has been subject to investigation in recent years. Two modes of input enhancement, i.e., input flood and underlining were selected and their effects on learning idiomatic collocations were sought in this study. To pursue the purpose of the study, the researcher made use of stratified random sampling procedure to select the participants for this study. A total number of one hundred fifty language learners at Sokhanvar and Padideh language institutes were given Nelson language Homogeneity test. Seventy two language learners were selected to pursue the purpose of the study. These participants were divided into 3 main groups, i.e., experimental group 1 (underlining), experimental group 2 (input flood), and the control group (no particular treatment). A researcher-made pretest containing 25 English idiomatic collocations was used in this study as a pretest. The treatment lasted for 15 sessions in 2 months. For each group of participants 12 reading texts were prepared and designed by the researcher. The reading texts included idioms from the book ‘Idioms and Phrasal Verbs’ from Oxford University Press. For the experimental group 1, the idiomatic collocations in the texts were underlined. For experimental group 2 (input flood) the idioms were repeated in the texts at least 3 times, and for the control group, the same texts used in experimental group 1 were used without the underlined idiom. Independent samples t-test results indicates that there is a difference between the control group and experimental group I (underlining) and underlining input has significant effect on learning idiomatic collocations. In addition, independent samples t-test results indicates that there is a difference between the control group and experimental group II (input flood) and input flood has significant effect on learning idiomatic collocations by Iranian EFL learners. it was also realized that the difference between two experimental groups is not significant. This study has pedagogical implications for language teachers and material developers.
Keyword: Underlining - Input flood- Idiomatic collocation
