How to Teach English Idioms and Their Meaning

How to Teach English Idioms and Their Meaning

Should we or shouldn’t we teach English idioms to ESL students? Although it is uncommon for ESL students to use them comfortably and effectively, if we choose to not teach them idioms, they’ll be missing an important cultural element of the language they strive to speak fluently. However, it stands to reason that idioms should be taught to upper-intermediate or advanced students, individuals who are ready to take their English fluency to the next level.

To make sure that the time you spend teaching idioms is not time wasted, follow these steps and instructions:

How To Proceed

·         1

Choose 5 to 8 idioms that may be easily grouped

Most idioms fall into simple categories, like idioms with animals or parts of the body. Choose 5 to 8 from any category, for example idioms with time. If you choose more than 10, you’ll only succeed in overwhelming your students, and they won’t remember any of the idioms they saw in class. So, to teach idioms with time, you may teach the 8 idioms found in this worksheet called Time Flies When You’re Having Fun. Before presenting the idioms, make sure students understand that they are usually used in spoken English, and rarely in written form, with some exceptions (they are widely used on the Internet, in blogs, ezine articles, etc...but students must understand that their use is informal).

·         2

Introduce idioms in context, never in isolation

Some ESL teachers simply go over a list of English idioms and their definitions or explanations. However, to ensure that students not only understand them, but also learn to use them, present idiom examples in context, for example, in simple conversations where the meaning of the idiom is clear. To introduce the idiom to give someone a hard time, present a conversation like this one:

- Juan: Hey Sarah, you look sad. What’s up?
- Sarah: Well, I didn’t play very well today during volleyball practice, and my teammates were not very understanding. They said I was clumsy and had to focus more on the game. They said a 5-year old girl played better than me.
- Juan: Oh! I’m so sorry they gave you such a hard time.

Ask students to guess or figure out the meaning of the idiom. Correct as necessary. Ask them to provide other examples of what it means to give someone a hard time. Then, move on to another conversation for another idiom.

·         3

Students create conversations using idioms

Remember that the goal is to get students to not only understand idioms, but also learn how to use them effectively. Divide the class into pairs. Each pair of students gets one or two idioms to work with. They must write a conversation and use this idiom in it. Walk around the classroom to assist students and check for accuracy.

·         4

Students act out their conversations

Each pair stands before their classmates and acts out the conversation they wrote. This way they not only practice using the idiom phrases, they hear other examples from classmates, other ways in which these idioms may be included in conversation.

·         5

Practice with games and activities

The worksheet for Time Flies When You’re Having Fun provides a matching game and a gap-filling exercise. There are plenty more worksheets like these at BusyTeacher.org's Idioms worksheets section.

·         6

Use real life, authentic material

Show students how some of these idioms are used in the media, in newspaper and magazine articles, and in songs, cartoons, videos, advertisements, etc…Thanks to the Internet, all you have to do is Google an idiom, and you’ll find plenty of sources! If you Google, “gave him a hard time”, you'll run across a Daily Mail article that states voters gave a British politician a hard time. You don't have to read the entire article, just the headline and the basics will do for students to see how this idiom is used in a newspaper headline.

Just remember to keep it real. Your students need to know that there are real people out there who actually speak like this, and say these things. Soon enough, they may feel ready to start using some of these themselves.

How to Teach Descriptions

How to Teach Descriptions

Generally when introducing descriptions for the first time, textbooks and instructors focus primarily on describing people. The simplest way to teach descriptions is to use the structures “He/She is ~.” and “He/She has ~.” With these two simple structures, you can introduce and practice your new vocabulary quite extensively. Since learning how to describe someone is a lesson for beginners, more complex sentence structures such as “The tall girl with curly brown hair is in my class.” should not be used at this time.

How To Proceed

·         1

Warm up
Use a warm up activity to review the basic sentence structures you plan to use in this lesson. You can ask for volunteers to answer questions which require them to use these particular structures. Another idea is to conduct a short activity. Have the first student in each column of desks stand up, and explain that only these students can volunteer to answer your question. The first student to volunteer and answer the question correctly can sit down and the person behind him must stand. This becomes a race to see what column of students can finish answering questions first. In order to play this game, the columns should be even but you can adapt it to work in most classes.

·         2

Introduce Basic Vocabulary
Using flashcards or drawings, introduce a new set of vocabulary. Adjectives like tall, short, long, short (write it on the board twice because these words are usually practiced in pairs), straight, curly, thin, fat, old, and young would be a good place to start. Drill these using your flashcards or drawings.

·         3

Practice
Have students complete some matching or fill in the blank exercises. The images used on these worksheets should clearly demonstrate what you are trying to convey to your students and should even match the images on the flashcards if possible. This will help reinforce the flashcard image, word, and meaning.

·         4

Introduce Additional Vocabulary
When describing people, there is some additional vocabulary that should be introduced. Words such as freckles, glasses, a mustache, and a beard, for instance, may be appropriate however your textbook will help determine which words should be used in this lesson. Use choral repetition to practice pronunciation. Check comprehension by asking questions such as “Who has glasses?” and have volunteers answer using people at your school, famous people, or cartoon characters.

·         5

Practice
A short practice activity that combines both sets of vocabulary would be appropriate at this point in the lesson especially if only a few words were introduced in the second set. You could show students images and ask for volunteers to say one sentence about the person in the picture or have a worksheet that required students to write a few sentences about some images. Matching exercises may also be appropriate and be sure to check the answers aloud as a class for further speaking practice before continuing to the production activity.

·         6

Produce
Students should now be able to accurately describe someone so give them the opportunity to produce material of their own. You can ask students to write a description of themselves or a partner and have students volunteer to read their descriptions aloud near the end of the lesson. You could also have students work in pairs and play a version of Guess Who? Obviously having enough of these games for your entire class is not feasible but you can adapt it for use in the classroom. Simply make up a worksheet with twenty to twenty-five images. Tell students to choose one image and then take turns answering yes/no questions based on the image they have chosen. Students can then put Xs next to images that have been eliminated and the first student to correctly guess his partner’s chosen image wins. It may even be possible to play this game multiple times within a single class period.

·         7

Review
You can ask students comprehension questions to review the new vocabulary words at the end of the lesson or ask for sentences that describe some of the images you used earlier in class. Whatever activity you use can be used as the warm up for the following lesson too.

Lessons on descriptions are important because most of the vocabulary can be used to describe more than just people and thus is useful in many future lessons as well. Since this vocabulary will resurface during the course of their studies, it will be important to review it frequently. If students enjoyed a particular activity more than others, make a note of it and reuse that activity when it comes time for a review.

Teacher-Tested Ways To Keep A Class Interesting

Teacher-Tested Ways To Keep A Class Interesting

Many teachers will find that a particular class might drag. For them, this could sometimes be a once-off thing and generally they get on well with a particular group of people. But everyone, now and then, will come across a group of students who appear bored by everything.

There could be a number of reasons for this. When teaching in a large company, it could be that the people there are only doing it to get out of work. Having a language trainer in is a great excuse for many people to skive off for a bit. Children might be taking classes because their parents are making them: this is usually the case. Therefore, one needs tokeep the students interested and engaged at all times. Allowing them to become bored will cause their minds to wander. Not paying attention will mean that they will absorb very little information. Here are several pieces of advice which a teacher can use in order to keep a class’s attention.

Try These Ideas To Keep Your Class Interesting

·         1

Role Play

Putting two people into a situation where they have to act out specific roles can be a very effective method of language learning. A lot of people quite enjoy this, too. There are many benefits. The student isn’t simply sitting there and passively taking notes: they are actively involved in the class and hat is going on. They need to think creatively, and this will stimulate the mind in a specific way. Using the language they already know, the students will be able to come up with new words and phrases. It is important to start the class off, perhaps, on a warmer exercise by giving them a set dialogue. After this, however, one is completely free to allow the students to follow their own dialogue and see where it ends up. See our collection of role play ideas here.

·         2

Games

Games are definitely a great way to keep people engaged. Both children and adults enjoy them, but these are especially important for children. Turning class time into play time, and helping them to speak English is definitely a good idea. Teachers ofyounger learners will discover that the kids will pick up the language a lot quicker.Bingo is often a good idea for teaching beginners, particularly if one is teaching numbers. People can get very competitive, and it is important to make sure that even if arguments arise they must speak in English. This way, the class’s attention will be held.

·         3

Writing Exercises

Allow your students’ creativity to flow. Writing doesn’t have to be a boring exercise. Perhaps give them a topic and, in groups, let your students think up all kinds of situations for particular characters. This way they will be able to come up with their own unique story. Tell them to write out a plan, a draft and then write the story in full. Beforehand, however, have a brainstorming session to which everyone can contribute. Another great idea is to have a brainstorming session about two characters, and write half of the story up on the board with help from the students. Afterwards, pair them off or get them into groups and ask them to finish the rest of the story off. People will be interested in finding out what is going to happen next, and their attention will be fixed on the readers.

·         3

Chinese Whispers

This little activity is usually a schoolyard game but it can be a very interesting exercise in terms of language. Students might find it amusing with the kind of words and sentences that one comes up with in the end. In order to play this game, seat the students in a circle if at all possible. Start from one end, and think up a sentence but do not tell the rest of the class. Whisper it to the first student in the line, and have them whisper it to the person next to them. Usually the end result is completely different from the one which they began with!

·         4

Sudden Death

This is a very simple game which language teachers everywhere use in order to test vocabulary. It will keep the students on edge. Give them a list of vocabulary to memorize within a few minutes. This will give them something to focus on and, once time is up, have everybody stand up. At random, ask students to describe a particular word. If they get it right, they remain standing. If not, then they have to sit down. Other names for this also include “bowling” or “knock out”.

These are of course, only a few ideas. It won’t be difficult for the skilled teacher to come up with more interesting ways of keeping a class’s attention. Classes need to be interesting in order to allow the students to keep thinking. There is no use in them just sitting there, taking notes and learning passively. Language learning is an active and creative process. It needs to be taken advantage of as much as possible.

Allowing your students creative freedom in their learning is essential. Learning off set phrases is useful up until a point. After that, they need to be able to understand why a particular word is said in a particular way, and how they can manipulate it to suit the current situations.

How to Teach Business English: Employment

How to Teach Business English: Employment

When starting out, many teachers might find themselves intimidated by these words. Business English undoubtedly sounds very professional, and appears to require a whole range of different skills and qualifications. This is not necessarily so.

Being a native English speaker or someone of near-native level will undoubtedly be one of the first steps with regards to this. When one steps into a business English class, it is important to realise the goal first and foremost. You will be there to teach people how to improve their English communication skills within a business setting. It is just like teaching English in any other sense, the only difference is that it is focused on doing it within a corporate setting as opposed to a casual, everyday set-up.

How to Teach Business English: Employment

·         1

Suss Out the Class

One of the first things to remember is that you will be teaching adults. Depending on where you are, this could be a single one-on-one class or a large group. Some of the students may be paying for the classes themselves, whilst other will be sent their by a company. Students who pay for their own classes tend to be more interested and motivated. For students sent by their employer, it is possible that they could see this as time off work.

·         2

Setting the Goal

Keeping the class interested and engaged will be one of the first things one needs to do. It is paramount that the students do more talking than the teacher. This is referred to Student Talking Time as opposed to Teacher Talking Time. When beginning, it will be you who is speaking the most. The aim of the class will be togradually decrease one’s own amount of speaking and allow the students to take over.

·         3

Grab Their Interest

So in order to find a topic which might interest everyone, employment would be a good place to start. Students might start to “come out of their shell” so to speak, if you begin to ask them about their work and their hours. It is well known that most people like to complain, and this could be a chance for them to vent. In venting any frustration they might have, they will be using English and attaining the goal you originally set out to do.

·         4

Explore and Build Vocabulary

So to begin, a good idea would be to elicit words from the students with regards toemployment. “Contract”, “pay check” and others could be written up on the board. A word of warning: don’t go prying into the student’s lives and ask them what their pay is. Rather focus on the aspects of being employed. It is also important to steer away from any negative comments about a particular employer. Rather, focus on the positive or the everyday aspects of the job.

·         5

Time to Develop

With a fresh bank of vocabulary now available, it might be a good idea to encourage the students further. One of the ways of doing this is to come up with an activity or a game. Perhaps even a role-play. Setting up a mock interview would also be a good idea. In doing this, the students will get a chance to speak to the imaginary “employer” and answer questions through English.

·         6

The Importance of Eliciting Words

From this mock interview process, we can then elicit more words from the students. Eliciting words will help the students to think, rather than being spoon-fed by their instructor. So to begin with, have the students pair up. Give them a topic, or make them come up with their own. Then, ask one to be the employer and one to be the candidate. Give the “employers” a few minutes to create some questions for the “candidate” to answer.

·         7

Allow Some Supervised Free Reign

Allow the class about ten minutes to practice their role-plays. Walk around and make sure that they are speaking English, and see if anybody has any problems. By keeping an eye on them, they will be more likely to speak in English to one another rather than slipping back into their native tongue. Listen and keep score until the very end, and then end the exercise.

·         8

Keep Focus on New Words

Ask questions of the students. What skills did X have. Try and elicit more words. For example, if a student mentions the verb “buy”, ask them if there are any other verbs which mean the same thing. This will definitely help to expand the vocabulary of the students, and allow their brains to get thinking.

·         9

Rehashing the Practice Session

Once we have collected a large amount of vocabulary, it is time to put it into use. Get two students to come up to the front of the class and act as a candidate and employer, echoing the previous exercise. Give them a few minutes to prepare, but this time they must use some of the new words that you have written out on the board and gotten from other students.

·         10

Building Confidence

Everyone else will be able to sit back and watch the interplay. By coming up in front of the class, they will be encouraged to speak a little louder and talk more in English. If time permits, one could do this for all the groups present although this is not necessary. Alternatively, one could choose to simply re-do the role-play exercise but with the new vocabulary.

·         11

Always Remember the Goal

The key to business English is to teach the students how to use it within a business setting, and apart from that the addition of new vocabulary is always a plus. When students are familiar with grammar structures and how to use them, all one can do is to build on their bank of word knowledge, and teach them how to apply it to a specific scenario or situation.

Role-plays are an essential component of business English, as they allow the students to express themselves in a certain manner. Any activity, especially from the reading of a specific text, will also allow for more vocabulary opportunities to arise.

So when heading into one’s first business English class, there is no need for alarm. At the end of the day, business English is just giving people instruction in a specific manner of talking.