Presentation English idioms.

Teaching vocabulary

• Have you ever tried to teach idioms to your ESL students and found yourself biting off more than you could chew? After looking at your students' confused faces, you might have said, 'Well, I guess it's back to the drawing board.'

Biting off more than you can chew ;)

• Idioms like 'biting off more than you can chew' and 'back to the drawing board' are figures of speech that are not meant to be taken literally, which can confuse ESL students because the phrases don't make sense when you break down the individual words. A student studying English might recognize these words: 'raining,' 'cats,' and 'dogs'; but when they are put together as an expression about the weather, all students hear is mumbo jumbo.

Sound more like native speakers

• The key is to teach idioms EXPLICITLY. The only way for students to advance their English fluency and knowledge of colloquial expressions is to learn and practice them.
• I hope that by the end of this presentation, you'll see that teaching idioms to your ESL students is a piece of cake!

One of the things that really gives a language its character is its idioms. Learners are often keen to give a translation of an idiom in their language and very often we can supply the equivalent expression in English. 

Find similarities

• Ex. In Korean there is an expression along the lines of ‘ someone else’s rice cake always looks bigger than yours .’  In English we would say   ‘ The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. ’ Different expressions in different languages have common meaning and moral value.

Why teach idioms? Learners don’t necessarily have to use a lot of idioms but they will need to have the most common ones in their passive knowledge if they wish to maximize their understanding of the language.  This is as true of written language as spoken.  Newspaper headlines are a good example here.

Teaching Idioms is Teaching Fluency When you throw cats and dogs in a scene where they are falling from the sky, it’s hard to know exactly what a phrase might mean. It’s almost like a code-breaking game, where students must learn that when certain words come together in a phrase, they can mean something very different. 

How to teach idioms?

• Only introduce a few idioms at a time. Don't overwhelm students by throwing lists of phrases at them.
• Use stories. Telling a story can help students understand and remember the meaning behind the words.
• Use visuals.
• Use conversations.
• Say the idioms regularly in the classroom.
• Keep it fun and light.

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Don't jump the gun .

Don't do something before the allotted time.

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I go out for walks once in a blue moon .

I go out for walks very rarely.

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When chickens have teeth.

Something's never going to happen.

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Bull in a china shop

awkward and clumsy

Blue

To feel blue.

To feel down.

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Cost an arm and a leg.

Very expensive.

Act it out ;)

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pig

books

https:// en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/confessions-idiomlistening

Elephant: https:// en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/elephant-idioms

A girl and an old lady: https:// en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/58-years-apart-girl-and-woman-talk-about-life

Song: https:// en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/selena-gomez-who-says-idioms-and-adjectives-a2-b1