Making sense of idiomaticity in learning English as L2

This graduation thesis deals with idiomatic expressions in relation to vocabulary retention in L2 learners of English. The first part of the paper provides the theoretical background of idioms in general, connects the issues of vocabulary retention and imageability, and lays out the concept of implicit and explicit learning. The second part of the paper describes the study conducted on secondary school students of English as L2, whose aim was to compare the memorization of idioms and one-word lexical items, as well as to examine the ways in which L2 learners process the meanings of idioms