This study investigated the on-line processing strategies used by a sample of nonnative speakers of English who were asked to give the meanings of selected common idioms presented in a written context. Data were collected by means of the think-aloud procedure: Participants were asked to verbalize their thoughts as they arrived at the meanings of the idioms. Analysis revealed that most of the participants engaged in a heuristic approach to idiom comprehension, employing a variety of strategies through trial and error to find the meanings of the idioms. Models of L1 idiom acquisition did not apply well to the comprehension of idioms by the L2 users. Some pedagogical suggestions derived from the findings are included.

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Since idioms are figurative expressions that do not mean what they literally state and since they are so frequently encountered in both oral and written discourse, comprehending and producing idioms present language learners with a special vocabulary learning problem. Idiom acquisition research, however, has uncovered a number of findings that have pedagogical implications for idiom instruction. This article summarizes these research findings and presents the language teacher with a systematic plan for teaching idioms to native language learners, bilingual students, and foreign language learners.

The purpose of this article is to report on a collaborative project among members of colleges of education, colleges of arts and sciences, and high school foreign language departments. The project involved conducting an online survey of 341 current foreign language teachers in Georgia in order to determine how these K‐12 teachers perceived and evaluated the effectiveness of their professional preparation. Close to 60% of the teachers in the sample were graduates of colleges and universities in Georgia. Most of the others had received their training from various other colleges and universities in the United States, and 51 individuals reported that they had graduated from foreign institutions. The survey consisted of 42 questions asking teachers to evaluate their preparation in language skills, knowledge of foreign language standards, planningfor instruction, methodology, using technology in instruction, meeting the needs of socially and economically diverse students, classroom management skills, and professional growth. The survey results strongly suggest that foreign language teacher development programs should include (1) more time spent in carefully supervised and monitored prestudent‐teaching field experiences; (2) more careful mentoring of student teachers during the student‐teaching internship; (3) more time spent in language learning experiences in countries where the target language is spoken; (4) more emphasis on developing foreign language proficiency in the requisite university classes; and (5) more effort spent on teaching effective classroom management.