What I really want to know is how I can get students to get to a point where they either recognize or use idioms. I want students to use idioms when interacting and know how to correctly use them.
This is important because my students aren't practicing their English. They don't have English at home and when they come to school they constantly revert to Spanish when speaking with their classmates. They get basic conversational how to's in ELD (English Language Development). I feel that the use of idioms are a step above that and are an important thing to teach them since they are not explicitly taught. I used idioms when speaking and I'm not sure if they always know what I'm saying. They will hear idioms as they get older and in order for them to truly get a grasp of conversational English, they need to know how to use these idioms properly.
Therefore my question at this point is, How can the study of idioms help improve my students' understanding and recognition of idiomatic phrases in conversational English?
Hey there!
ReplyDeleteSo I'm commenting here because my 8:00 person hasn't updated her blog and Claire said to comment on someone's post that seems interesting. I think our work is very intertwined so I wanted to suggest you borrow or get your hands on the book I'm reading by Michael Graves. As I've been reading the sections specifically about word consciousness, "talk" about idioms and figurative language keeps coming up. So, let me know if you want to look at it. I have come to realize I really need to read the entire book, but now I just have to figure out when! :)