On the Effectiveness of Quizzes on L2 Idioms Learning

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of different quiz frequencies on Iranian EFL learners'' comprehension and production of English idioms. Furthermore, the study compared students'' attitudes toward frequent quizzes before and after the course and also investigated their opinions as to the most popular quiz frequency in the comprehension and production of idioms. To this end, 120 male and female language learners at intermediate level of proficiency were selected in four groups. Each group was randomly assigned to one of the treatment conditions. The first group received quizzes every week; the second group received quizzes biweekly; the third group was administered a quiz once a month; and the fourth group (the comparison group) received no quiz during the instructional period. The collected data were analyzed using two oneway ANOVAs, three Wilcoxon signed ranks tests, and two Chi-squares. The results of ANOVAs indicated that frequent quizzes had a significant effect on the comprehension and production of English idioms. The results of the Wilcoxon signed ranks tests revealed that the participants'' attitudes changed positively towards frequent testing in general and its effect on the comprehension and production of idioms in particular. The results of the Chi-squares revealed that bi-weekly quizzing was the most popular quizzing frequency both in the comprehension and production of idioms. The findings of the present study may have implication for teachers, learners as well as syllabus designers.