Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thu_tinh]

I have a list of common shopping idioms.
I have what they mean, and an example sentence for the students.
What can I do to make it fun for them and helps them memorize?
Please and thank you~

[OiGirl]

Why memorize them? It would probably be more effective to have them encounter them in a natural context in their reading.

[Fat_Elvis]

I agree with Oi Girl, I hate rote memorization, but there are some things you can do to make them familiar with the idioms. You could get them to write a dialogue using some of the phrases and perform it in pairs. You could ask a question or make a statement and they hve to respond with the correct idiom. You could even make that a team game.

[thu_tinh]

well i am going to be explaining to them what the idioms mean. and there are sample dialogues and they would be making up their own too. but the time frame might be short and getting them all to present doesn't seem like a good idea correct?
so what activities would you do with idioms?

[OiGirl]

In my research, explaining to them what the idioms mean is useless, compared to having them explore them on their own through their reading.

I have one Korean friend, university graduate guy, has clearly worked hard to memorize English idioms and not an utterance comes out of his mouth that doesn't include one or two of them. It's annoying as anything, and not the way native speakers talk. Just something to consider as you teach idioms in dialogues.

[xCustomx]

I wouldn't do idioms with middle school students. I tried with my 3rd graders but it was way over most of their heads, plus I think there are more valuable things to teach them. They did however like one of the lessons where I taught them expressions that make them upset. I gave them different situations that might frustrate them such as their neighbor playing the piano late at night, someone throwing popcorn at a CGV, a teacher taking their cellphone away, etc.. They then had to use the idioms or expressions to tell how they felt or to describe which situations make them angry.

[thu_tinh]

it's easy to say I don't want to teach them this, and I wouldn't if the teacher didn't pick this and said she wanted this taught.

[Rteacher]

There's a ton of idiom exercises at this site: http://a4esl.org/q/h/idioms.html

[xCustomx]

[thu_tinh]

[Woland]

If these are common collocations, then okay. But I agree with OiGirl about how they should be taught.

If these are true idioms (in which meaning is non-decomposible), time shouldn't be wasted on them. There's a lot more valuable stuff to be taught. OiGirl's point about people learning idioms but not knowing how to use them is incredibly good. And the only way to teach proper use is in discourse.

If you have to do it because your co-teacher says so... well, lists work for learning vocabulary.

[mrsquirrel]

I taught my students today

He has a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp.

They took a bit to get it but once they figured it out used it quite effectively against the boy in the class who claimed he was a bulldog (after asking them what type of dog they would be)

[ddeubel]

I wouldn't teach idioms at all in an EFL environment. Unless it was specifically to motivate the students and for and of their own wishes....

Not effective and unless there is an immersive environment where they will encounter them and be able to use them appropriately, it is for very little payback. Idioms are loaded with so much cultural content that unless you are learning English in an English environment, you'll be up the creek without a paddle when trying to use them.

There are a few (I'd say 20) that are valuable to teach higher level learners. Examples are "I feel blue", "under the weather", "shown the door" etc.....

DD