| Idioms are abundant in languages. A good mastery of L2 (second language) idioms is an important sign of proficiency of L2 learners. The three features of idioms—compositeness, semantic opacity and institutionalization may lead to great hindrance in second language acquisition. With the research achievements concerning lexical chunks, schema, and lexical iconicity, based on the dual-coding theory and the generative theory of multimedia learning, this contrastive experimental study investigates the impact of glossing individual idioms through different modalities and offers an answer to the specific research question of the efficacy of different media presentation modes on SL idiom comprehension and retention. The study adopts a one-factor-three-level within-subject design. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the three presentation modes designed in a multimedia CAI (computer aided instruction) course ware on vocabulary acquisition of intermediate-level ESL (English as second language) learners so as to test the feasibility of CAI pedagogy in SL idiom acquisition. Our research and observation reveal that, under a multimedia environment, the idiom pedagogy adopting graphic (both still picture and video) modes is better than that adopting textual mode only. In the short-term memory stage, the advantage of dynamic video mode over still picture mode is not clear, while in the long-term memory stage, the multimedia annotation mode adopting video achieves the best effect in facilitating vocabulary retention. Our research further proves the effect of multimedia technology on SL idiom acquisition.
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