I love idioms, don't you? 100 of my favorite idioms, each in their own printable, or sharable photo.
Don't you just love English, it's intricate characteristics, it's various elements that many a student state are designed purely for the purpose of causing confusion and deception. One of these elements considered by a large percentage of students to be one of the most confusing are idioms.
Idioms are words, phrases, or expressions that are either grammatically unusual, such as, “Turning a blind eye” or "Feeling under the weather", or their meaning cannot be taken literally, as in, “Nerves of steel!” This expression does not mean that you literally have rods of steel running through your body, but it is a metaphorical expression that means that you are displaying extreme bravery in a moment that includes varying degrees of danger or stress.
Unlike most sentences that have a literal meaning, idioms have figurative meaning. A literal meaning is when each word in a sentence stays true to its actual meaning. Figurative meaning is when a combination of words mean something different than the individual words do.
If you take the sentence, The boy ate his lunch, you can figure out what the sentence means as long as you know what each part means. It's literal. But idioms don't work that way; they are figurative. Take the common idiom ''you let the cat out of the bag.'' If you take the literal parts and add them up, you would assume that it meant that a person was opening up a bag and letting a cat out of it. But that is not even close to what it means. The idiom doesn't even have anything to do with a cat or even a bag. Letting the cat out of the bag means to reveal a secret.
So, when you consider the importance of idioms, their relevance in everyday English, and the ever-increasing international opportunities that present themselves to non-English speaking people, how do we teach them to our students so that they are able to achieve a level of proficiency that is suitable for them to be able to possibly survive in an English speaking world?
Well, if you wish to follow the traditional path universally traveled by the majority of EFL institutions and teachers, firstly there are literally hundreds of websites partially, or fully dedicated to the study of idioms, and secondly, virtually every publishing house has at least one book series that is dedicated to idioms, and Englishes other pariahs; phrasal verbs and collocations.
On the other hand, if you wish to teach idioms more from the perspective of how a native speaker would learn them, keeping in mind that they don't use subject dedicated books when learning common expressions, then the way to do it is through reading, specifically fictional books. Fictional, rather than academic books, are a rich source of common expressions, be it idiomatic, phrasal verbs or collocations. Another excellent choice is auto-biographies or biographies because they too are more often than not full of these all-important common expressions.
In conclusion, it is impossible to understate the importance of idioms in the English language or the problems that a lack of knowledge in them could cause our students if, or when they are ever in a position of living, working or studying in an English speaking country. I believe that we teachers should, where possible, pay extra attention to their inclusion in our classes because when taught correctly, they can be a fun addition that the students can enjoy learning.
Good luck and good teaching.
Idioms are words, phrases, or expressions that are either grammatically unusual, such as, “Turning a blind eye” or "Feeling under the weather", or their meaning cannot be taken literally, as in, “Nerves of steel!” This expression does not mean that you literally have rods of steel running through your body, but it is a metaphorical expression that means that you are displaying extreme bravery in a moment that includes varying degrees of danger or stress.
Unlike most sentences that have a literal meaning, idioms have figurative meaning. A literal meaning is when each word in a sentence stays true to its actual meaning. Figurative meaning is when a combination of words mean something different than the individual words do.
If you take the sentence, The boy ate his lunch, you can figure out what the sentence means as long as you know what each part means. It's literal. But idioms don't work that way; they are figurative. Take the common idiom ''you let the cat out of the bag.'' If you take the literal parts and add them up, you would assume that it meant that a person was opening up a bag and letting a cat out of it. But that is not even close to what it means. The idiom doesn't even have anything to do with a cat or even a bag. Letting the cat out of the bag means to reveal a secret.
So, when you consider the importance of idioms, their relevance in everyday English, and the ever-increasing international opportunities that present themselves to non-English speaking people, how do we teach them to our students so that they are able to achieve a level of proficiency that is suitable for them to be able to possibly survive in an English speaking world?
Well, if you wish to follow the traditional path universally traveled by the majority of EFL institutions and teachers, firstly there are literally hundreds of websites partially, or fully dedicated to the study of idioms, and secondly, virtually every publishing house has at least one book series that is dedicated to idioms, and Englishes other pariahs; phrasal verbs and collocations.
On the other hand, if you wish to teach idioms more from the perspective of how a native speaker would learn them, keeping in mind that they don't use subject dedicated books when learning common expressions, then the way to do it is through reading, specifically fictional books. Fictional, rather than academic books, are a rich source of common expressions, be it idiomatic, phrasal verbs or collocations. Another excellent choice is auto-biographies or biographies because they too are more often than not full of these all-important common expressions.
In conclusion, it is impossible to understate the importance of idioms in the English language or the problems that a lack of knowledge in them could cause our students if, or when they are ever in a position of living, working or studying in an English speaking country. I believe that we teachers should, where possible, pay extra attention to their inclusion in our classes because when taught correctly, they can be a fun addition that the students can enjoy learning.
Good luck and good teaching.
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