Promoting English Idiomatic Competence Among Chinese College Students via WeChat-Enhanced Instruction

• In Event: 35.078 - MTCC Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.078-11 - Technology and Second Language Learning

Abstract

This study focuses on how social media applications can promote English idiomatic competence among Chinese college students. Specifically, the primary aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of adopting a social media application, WeChat, to promote idiomatic competence among the college students at a liberal arts college in China. The second aim is to examine the affordances of multimedia features on WeChat affecting idiomaticity training via the lens of Vygotskian sociocultural theory and Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Research findings indicate that WeChat helped English learners comprehend and produce idioms effectively and appropriately in both social and online environments. Moreover, this study shows that the multimedia affordances on WeChat provide optimal conditions of idiom learning.

Authors

• Zhengjie Li, University of South Florida

• John Liontas, University of South Florida

• Yu Sun, College of Humanities & Sciences of Northeast Normal University

• Ke Cheng, University of South Florida - Tampa

• ZHIYAO YI, University of South Florida