Teaching idioms: using authentic language in the classroom
This post was co-written with Marcos Cordeiro*.
As a foreign teacher, how many times have you heard that native language teachers are better? Part of this understanding is due to a widely spread culture in Brazil, that claims that everything which is not from our country is superior. On the other hand, some people believe that non native English teachers do not know a lot about the language. Also, the teaching style we endorse in Brazil is too bookish, and most of the time we do not teach authentic, up to date language. Thinking about that, we are going to suggest the use of idioms in the classroom as an alternative approach to a teaching practice which relies on non authentic, outdated language. We are going to list three strategies to approach idioms in class. Please share your ideas with us too!
According to McCarthy (2005, p.6), idioms are “groups of words in a fixed order that have a meaning that cannot be guessed by knowing the meaning of the individual words”. Take, for instance, the idioms jump the gun, water off a duck’s back and about time. Would they make sense if we translated them word for word?
ELEMENTARY STUDENTS
Encourage your students' independence!
Teachers who work with more elementary levels should always encourage students to be proactive throughout their learning process. Staying tuned to new vocabulary through music, movies and such is a good practice to be strongly recommended. The internet is a wide source for that matter, and there are many pages full of interesting information. Take for instance the Instagram account @outeacherr, by Marcos Cordeiro. There you can learn about idioms every week. You can even write sentences on the comments to practice more!
INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS
There is always room for new words and idioms.
Sticking to a specific topic to improve your students' vocabulary is also a good way of teaching idioms in class. For example, imagine that the book approaches the theme Valentines' Day. After working on it, the teacher may bring some idioms, tell students what they are and ask them afterwards to connect the idioms to their definitions.
Examples:
Third wheel - someone who is not dating anyone but goes out with a couple;
Head over heels - when you are madly in love with someone;
You are my number - someone who you enjoy;
To have a crush on someone - To be attracted to someone;
Ship - When you think two people are cool together.
As a follow up, students must be encouraged to use some of the language, talking about themselves or someone famous they like. In case the students need more time, the teacher can talk about idioms in the beginning of the following class as an ice breaker. Also, the students can look up new idioms about the topic and share them with the rest of the group.
Since students have been getting to intermediate levels earlier and earlier, matching exercises may prove more effective because they provide the classes a better learning context even in the mother language (we will eventually talk more about it on the blog).
Tip: The book "Novo Dicionário de Expressões Idiomáticas Americanas", by Luiz Lugani Gomes is great!
ADVANCED STUDENTS
Comparing Portuguese and English could be fun and interactive.
As we all know, young students love using social media to get informed about what is going on in the world. Some pages compare English and Portuguese in a playful way, and this insight would be super fun in class.
Show your students the Instagram account @greengodictionary, eliciting from them what it is about and showing some examples of the kind of comparisons they make;
Divide the class into groups and let them decide which idioms they are going to look up. As the idioms @greengodictionary posts are not accurate, students should find the correct ones on dictionaries. In case there is not a parallel between the idioms they choose and a real one, students can come up with other possibilities;
After that, the groups share information and discuss the idioms in English that make more sense in our language.
We believe this practice gives students more autonomy. Also, by putting students in the driver’s seat (idiom alert!), we learn more and improve our own vocabulary. For example, the acronym, and idiom “bae” (before anything else, used to talk about a best friend or a partner) was taught to me by a teenage student in class. Hence, this moment of sharing is perfect for the teacher to address the fact that languages are broad and hold cultural, geographical and chronological nuances. This is the reason why it is not fair to expect anyone to know everything.
We hope these tips are going to help think of more ways of adding authentic language to your teaching practice. Do not be afraid of new vocabulary, as the language keeps moving and changing, and it is natural not to know everything that is going on. Not allowing your students to learn more for fear of being stuck between a rock and hard place (idiom alert!) is not fair to either of you, as there are many cultural settings and interests out there! The world is your oyster!
References:
GOMES, Luiz Lugani. Novo Dicionário de Expressões Idiomáticas Americanas. São Paulo: Cengage Learning, 2009.
MCCARTHY, Michael. English Collocations in Use: Intermediate. 8ª edição. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
#esl #efl #learningtips #teachingtips #idioms #authenticlanguage
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