Dr John I. Liontas

1. Across an extensive career in ESOL and Second Language Acquisition, idiomatic and figurative language has remained a major focus of your work. What first fascinated you about this aspect of language, and what has sustained that interest over the years?
What first fascinated me about idiomatic-figurative language was its ability to reveal that knowing the words in a language does not necessarily mean knowing the language itself. Idioms, proverbs, similes, metaphors, hyperbole, collocations, and a wide range of such forms and categories invite L1 and L2 learners alike to move beyond literal meaning and into the cultural, cognitive, pragmatic, and contextual dimensions of communication. Over the years, I have remained interested in idiomatic-figurative language because it sits at the intersection of language, thought, culture, and meaning-making—and because it continues to challenge even advanced second language learners.

2. Your LERC2026 presentation introduces “screenshot-mediated idiomatics noticing.” How did observing contemporary digital reading practices lead you towards this framework?
Our reading practices have changed dramatically. Learners increasingly encounter language through screenshots, headlines, social media posts, news feeds, and other visually mediated digital environments. I became interested in what happens when an idiomatic-figurative expression is encountered in this kind of context and, rather than being explicitly taught, simply captures the learner’s attention. “Screenshot-mediated idiomatics noticing” emerged from this observation: digital texts can preserve, foreground, and revisit naturally occurring instances of idiomatics, creating opportunities for learners to become aware of idiomatic-figurative expressions, notice them in meaningful contexts, and begin constructing hypotheses and tentative interpretations about their possible meanings.

3. You conceptualise idiomatics learning through noticing, inferencing and confirmation rather than isolated lexical learning. Why is this distinction important for our understanding of how advanced L2 readers develop figurative competence?
Idiomatic-figurative expressions are not simply vocabulary items that can be learned one expression at a time. Their meanings are often inseparable from context, discourse, cultural knowledge, and the speaker’s communicative intentions. For advanced L2 readers, development involves more than memorizing definitions. Learners need opportunities to first become aware of an unfamiliar idiomatic-figurative expression, notice it in context, engage in inferencing to construct a possible meaning from contextual and linguistic clues, and then confirm or revise that interpretation. This process makes idiomatics learning more exploratory and cognitively engaging while also reflecting how readers actually encounter authentic idiomatic-figurative language beyond the classroom.

4. Algorithmically curated news feeds and headline streams are now part of everyday reading. Do you see these environments primarily as a challenge for language learners, an opportunity for incidental acquisition, or perhaps both?
I see them as both a challenge and an opportunity. Algorithmically curated environments expose learners to abundant authentic language, including idiomatic and figurative expressions that textbooks may never introduce. Yet the speed, fragmentation, and unpredictability of digital reading can complicate comprehension, particularly when meaning depends on cultural or contextual knowledge. The challenge is not to shield learners from these environments but to help them engage critically, selectively, and reflectively. As with any learning, one must learn to crawl before walking, and walk before running. Running a marathon is a distant fourth goal, requiring considerable stamina and effort. Language learning is no different: development must be incremental.

5. Having presented your work to audiences around the world, what question about idiomatic-figurative language do you believe language educators still need to think about more seriously?
I believe we need to ask a more fundamental question: What does it actually mean to know idiomatics (i.e., the art and science of idiomatic and figurative language)? Is knowing an expression’s dictionary meaning enough, or does genuine idiomatics competence require knowing when, where, why, and with whom it can be used? I would argue for the latter. As language becomes increasingly mediated by digital technologies, we also need to reconsider where idiomatics learning takes place and what counts as meaningful, natural exposure. The classroom remains important, but learners’ real-world digital encounters may be equally significant contexts for developing competence in idiomatics. No one can be said to be truly proficient in another language until he or she develops full idiomatics control of it.