Exploring The Mnemonic Effects Of Alliteration On The Retention Of The Meaning Of English Idioms

In recent years, for its special role in linguistics and psycholinguistics, formulaic sequences (i.e. idioms, collocations, etc.) have attracted more and more pedagogical attention. However there seems few efficient ways to learn English idioms that are always reviewed as the most fixed and difficult part of formulaic sequences. Confronting such ubiquitous, useful, but bizarre language items, i.e. idioms, L2 learners need to be provided with mnemonic techniques for mass memorization. Among these techniques, Boers and Lindstromberg (2005) found that the phonological feature of alliteration shared by a large number of idioms played a positive role in helping L2 learners remember the form of English idioms. Zhang Lei (2008) also found the effectiveness of alliteration in the memorization of idioms'form, but his experimental study showed that alliteration did not facilitate memorizing idioms'meaning.To completely explore the mnemonic effect of alliteration in the retention of idioms'meaning, the present research carried out two experiments. The first experiment was mainly a replica of one part of Zhang Lei's study. The results confirmed what he and Boers had found: alliteration does not help learners remember idioms'meaning. Based on the doubts of the distinctiveness of the special sound pattern, i.e. alliteration, in the second experiment, we explicitly drew learners'attention to alliteration. Still, the results showed no positive role of alliteration in facilitating the memorization of idioms'meaning. The results combined with the analysis of the cognitive processes of experimental tasks indicated the limited role of alliteration in facilitating the memorization of idioms. Finally, we suggested that more efficient ways of learning idioms should be explored.