Abstract:Idioms are the essence of English and one of the most difficult parts for second language (L2) learners It is of significance for the researchers in Second Language Acquisition and English teaching to explore the effective methods and rules of memorizing idioms Researches have revealed that many idioms are analyzable and rulefollowing Boers and Lindstromberg (2005) found that many idioms shared a common feature of alliteration which was proved to be beneficial for L2 learners in the memorization of idioms Based on this research, we report an experimental study aiming at exploring the effect of alliteration on Chinese EFL learners’ retention of the meaning and the form of English idioms in different experimental tasks