Don’t you feel good when your students
use idioms and collocations in class? Isn’t it worth to see them making such an
effort to find the most accurate expression they are capable of? The big
question is: How can students learn them? The answer is easy: by reading and
listening to the most language resources they can. Once students start using
them, we can be sure that they have grasped cultural aspects and underlying
principles of the language since these idioms are usually metaphoric; needless
to say, they have a figurative meaning as well. The key is to learn them by
chunks, as units of the language, not as separate words.
Let’s start with some collocations:
Why did
she burst into tears?
Are you fully aware of the implications of your action?
The
Titanic sank on her maiden voyage.
There are many kinds of collocations; among them:
- verb + adjective: seems
different
- adjective + noun: excruciating
pain
- noun + noun: a surge of anger
- noun + verb: lions’ roar
- verb + noun: commit suicide
- verb + expression with
preposition: burst into tears
- verb + adverb: wave frantically
And what about idioms?
You can classify them by topics. For instance: idioms about weather, idioms with parts of the
body, food idioms….the list is endless.
At the tip of my tongue
Have your head on the clouds
To be full of beans
A piece of cake
Ready for a mini-test?
Which one is correct:
Fast train or quick train?
A round of applause
or
a round of claps?
a round of claps?
It is raning dogs and
cats or It is raining cats and dogs?
Gentlement and ladies or ladies and
gentlemen?
gentlemen?
Flesh and blood or Blood and flesh?
Butter and bread or Bread and butter?
Have fun while learning! And most importantly: show your
students that some combinations of words convey the precise meaning in a given
situation. Encourage them to give it a try!
Are you up to it?
Try this quiz:
Too easy? Too difficult? Or was it just right? Let us know
your strategies to get the right answers!
References
Biodata
Zarela Cruz graduated from Ricardo Palma University
as a translator. She also finished her master’s studies in Linguistics
and took some specialization diplomas in English and Spanish. She has also
completed a number of online certificates: Teaching the Working Adult,
Online, Hybrid and Blended Education, among other self-study courses. She
has taught different courses, programs and levels and has been a teacher
trainer, a lecturer and online instructor. This article aims to reflect on the teaching of idioms and collocations to sound more natural when speaking in English.
