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A piece of cake:learn ing and teach ing id iom s

Suzann e lru jo

Learning idiom s has a lways been very diff icult for second-language learn-

ers. This ar t ic le discusses som e of the reasons why idiom s are diff icult to

learn, inc luding the fac t tha t mos t mater ials for teaching idioms are inade-

quate. To help teachers prepare materials and activities for teaching them ,

cr i ter ia are suggested for deciding which idioms to teach, and ten activi t ies

are descr ibed which w il l he lp students understand and produc e idiomaticEnglish.1

Introduction The introduction to the Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English states:‘Familiarity with a wide range of idiomatic expressions and the ability touse them appropriately in context are among the distinguishing marks of anative-like command of English’ (Cowie and Mackin 1975:vi). While manysecond-language learners may be satisfied with something less than ‘native-like’ command, idiomatic usage is so common in English that it can bedifficult to speak or write without using idioms (Seidl and McMordie1978). The learning of idioms must therefore be considered an integral partof vocabulary learning.

The purpose of this article is to help teachers of English as a second orforeign language to prepare materials and activities for teaching idioms.The first section explores some of the reasons why it is difficult to learnidioms in a second language. The second presents five criteria for decidingwhich idioms to teach, since it is impossible to teach all of them. The finalsection offers a variety of activities for comparing the literal and figurativemeanings of idioms, and for teaching students to comprehend and producethem.

Diff icult ies involved There are several explanations for the fact that idioms are very difficult toin learning idioms learn in a second language. Some of these will be explored below.

Non-literalness Idioms are not literal; they do not mean what they say. An idiom is definedas ‘an expression whose meaning cannot be derived from its constituentparts’ (Stein and Su 1980:444). For example, the idiomatic meaning of hespilled the beans has nothing to do with beans or with spilling in its literalsense. Most idioms also have literal counterparts, which makes them evenharder to learn. A native speaker will quickly realize which meaning isintended, while the second-language learner is left trying to figure outwhere the beans came from and how they were spilled.

Exposure to d ioms Idioms are frequently omitted in the speech addressed to second-languagelearners. Native speakers tend to use simple, concrete, everyday vocabulary

236 ELT Journal Volume 40/3 July 1986 © Oxford University Press 1986

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when they address second-language learners; the use of idioms is avoided(Henzl 1973, Kellerman 1977). On the other hand, idioms are commonlyused in movies and on television.2 However, television and movies do notprovide the kind of interaction which is necessary for learning language;input without interaction is not sufficient for language acquisition (Long1982). Thus learners’ exposure to idioms appears to occur mainly in non-

interactive situations, where there is no opportunity for negotiation ofmeaning, rather than in interactive situations which allow learners toclarify meaning and receive feedback on use.

Correct us e Even when learners do master the meanings of some English idioms, it isstill very difficult to learn to use them correctly. Idioms vary in formalityfrom slang (you got it) and colloquialisms (he kicked the bucket) to those whichcan be used in formal situations (run the risk).3 In addition to situationalappropriateness, many idioms have grammatical constraints. You can tellyour friends that you ‘didn’t sleep a wink’ last night, but you can’t tell themthat you ‘slept a wink’. You can be ‘fed up with’ something, but you can’t

‘feed him up with’ the same thing. Most idioms are invariant and must belearned as wholes, but the verbs must still be put into the correct form, andpronouns must agree with their antecedents. If learners try to rely on theirfirst language to help them use idioms in their second, they will be success-ful in only a very few instances. In most cases, this strategy will produce anincorrect and often comical form. A Spanish man will not make a very goodimpression on his companion if he tells her she has ‘chicken skin’, althoughhis literal translation from Spanish is not very different from the Englishidiom goose flesh.

Teaching mater ia ls Another reason why second-language learners do not learn idioms is that

we do not teach them very well. Many second-language teaching materialseither ignore idioms entirely or relegate them to the ‘other expressions’section of vocabulary lists, without providing exercises or other aids tolearning. Typically, an idiom will appear in the introductory reading ordialogue, a definition, translation or example will be provided in themargin or notes, and the idiom will then appear again in the vocabularylist. These are obviously not sufficient aids to learning, unless the teacherprovides additional exercises and practice. Materials designed specificallyto teach idioms do, of course, provide exercises to help learners masterthem. However, a survey of five ESL idiom books (Reeves 1975, Feare 1980,Goldman 1981, Dixson 1983, Adams and Kuder 1984) revealed that many

of the exercises are inadequate. In some cases, it was possible to do theexercises without any knowledge of the meaning of the idiom. For example,Reeves provides dashes to indicate the number of letters in each word of theidiom which is to be inserted into a sentence. Dixson has students answerquestions containing idioms, but many of the questions can be answeredsimply by manipulating their structure, without any need to understandthem. Exercises which do involve understanding usually require com-prehension only and do not ask students to produce the idioms. Theseinclude matching the idiom with its definition or substituting one for theother (Feare, Reeves, Dixson), multiple-choice exercises where the correctdefinition or paraphrase is chosen (Feare, Adams and Kuder), and comple-

tion exercises where the correct idiom is chosen from a list and inserted intoa sentence (Goldman, Reeves, Adams and Kuder). In some cases, exercisesrequiring production of idioms are included only in review lessons which

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Deciding which

id ioms to teach

Frequency of use

Transparency

Appropria teness

Simplic i ty of form and

vocabulary

Similar ity to f irst-

language idioms

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occur no more than two or three times in the book (Dixson, Feare). Reevesincludes in each lesson an assignment to write a paragraph on a certaintopic, using all five of the idioms from the lesson. This is a difficult task,because the idioms are not related in any way. Only Adams and Kuderprovide consistently good, creative and varied exercises requiring produc-tion of idioms.4

While this survey is not meant to be comprehensive, it is probable thatthe books mentioned here are typical of ESL/EFL textbooks and idiompractice books. Thus, one of the difficulties in learning English idioms is thelack of suitable materials for teaching them.

There is a definite need, then, for teaching strategies to help learners dealwith both comprehension and production of idioms, and also to help themgo on acquiring more idioms outside formal classroom instruction. First,however, it is necessary to decide which idioms to teach. This is particularlytrue ifstudents are to learn to use them. The following are criteria that canbe used when making decisions about which idioms to teach.

The idioms we teach should obviously be those which are used mostfrequently in ordinary reading and conversation. Unfortunately, no fre-quency lists of English idioms exist, so judgements must be subjective. It isnot too difficult, however, to determine that as a matter of fact, point of view,and in charge are used much more frequently than idioms such as bend anelbow, turn a blind eye, or go to bed with the chickens.

Sometimes the meaning of an idiom can be figured out because the idiom is‘transparent’. Some idioms are really ‘dead’ or ‘frozen’ metaphors, andtheir meaning is metaphorically transparent. For example, compare thetransparency of hit the nail on the head or the coast is clear with he’s pulling your legor he has a green thumb; the two latter idioms would be very difficult to figureout if their meanings were not known, whereas transparent idioms arerelatively easy to understand.

It is probably not worth while trying to teach idioms which are restricted tocolloquial use (you bet your boots) or slang (don’t sweat it). The former are notlikely to be used at all by second-language speakers, and the latter may be‘picked up’ by those learners who find them useful.

Idioms such as a needle in a haystack are difficult because they contain verylow-frequency vocabulary. Those which occur only in the passive (e.g. takenin by), or only in the negative (can’t make head or tail of), and those which areunusual in form (come hell or high water) are more difficult than those whichfollow simple grammatical patterns (pass the buck).

If an idiom is identical to one in the learner’s first language, it will be easy tolearn. This is useful if the members of the class share the same first languageand the teacher knows it (i.e., foreign-language or bilingual educationsettings). In other settings, the teacher could try having students make thecomparisons themselves. In related languages many idioms are identical(break the ice/romper el hielo, an old flame/eine alte Flamme). These comparisonscan show students that they can transfer their knowledge from their firstlanguage. Comparisons can also point out those idioms which are very

Suzanne Irujo

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6 Play idiom charades. Divide the class into teams. Each member of eachteam gets a slip of paper with an idiom written on it. (These can beprepared by the teacher or by the students; in the latter case, each teamthinks up the idioms to be acted out by the members of the other team.)Each member of the team acts out first the idiomatic meaning and then theliteral meaning of the idiom, while the rest of the team tries to guess it. Theteacher times how long it takes to guess the idiom (time limits may beimposed); the team with the shortest total time wins. (Hand signals shouldbe taught in order to designate whether it is the literal or idiomaticmeaning, the number of words, which word is being acted out, the numberof syllables, etc.)

Teaching produc tion Activities (7) to (10) may be done using lists of idioms collected by thestudents or provided by the teacher. The meanings of the idioms should bediscussed before the activities begin. Most of the activities will be easier ifthe idioms listed are thematically related; getting students to decide whichidioms are related will help them learn their meanings.

7 Tell an ‘add-on’ story. Begin the story by giving a sentence containingone of the idioms on the list. Students add to the study by contributing asentence containing another idiom from the list.

8 Students write short plays, puppet show, stories, or dialogues, from listsof idioms which the teacher supplies or which they collect themselves.These can be impromptu, in-class activities, done either individually or ingroups, or they can be formal assignments.

9 The teacher tells a story containing several idioms (or students tell themto each other, using stories they wrote in the previous activity). (For

example: ‘Jack was down in the dumps. His car had a flat tyre, his stereowas broken, and his girl friend was going out with somebody else. He reallyfelt blue, and he looked as though he had lost his best friend. So he bought alottery ticket. How did he feel when he found out that he had won $l00,000?He was in seventh heaven! Now he could buy a new car and a new stereoand get a new girl friend! He was on cloud nine! Jack was walking on air formonths after that.‘) Students then re-tell the story to the teacher or to oneanother, trying to include as many of the idioms as possible.

10 Students role-play a situation suggested by the teacher, using idiomswhich they have learned previously. This activity allows them to try out

actually using idioms in a non-threatening situation, and to receive feed-back on the appropriateness of their use in that situation.5

Integra ting idioms Learning idioms is, or should be, an integral part of vocabulary learning inin to the p rogramme a second language. Therefore it should not be put off until students reach

advanced levels. Even at beginning levels, idioms can be added to thevocabulary being learned by including them in dialogues and stories whichare created to supplement regular materials, and by providing idiomaticsynonyms for vocabulary words which the students are learning.

At intermediate levels, students will begin to encounter more idioms intheir reading and conversations, and can begin to keep their own idiom

notebooks. Teachers and students can bring in idiomatic expressions foundin comics and advertisements. Another way to add idioms to the pro-gramme is to teach those which contain the same vocabulary words

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students are learning (when learning horse, for example, teach straight fromthe horse’s mouth or don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, etc.).

Advanced learners enjoy and can benefit from special lessons designedspecifically to teach idiomatic language. When these are not possible,teachers can devote either one class period per week or a few minutes eachday to teaching idioms. Advanced learners will recognize many on their

own, and with practice they will be able to guess the meanings of othersfrom context. They should have access to a good idiom dictionary whenneeded. Alexander (1984) evaluates both general and idiom dictionaries fortheir usefulness as sources of information about fixed expressions inEnglish.

Conc lus ion Most students are very interested in learning idiomatic language. Theyrecognize it as an area in which they have difficulties, and appreciatesystematic instruction. The activities described here can be adapted for anylevel, and have been used successfully in high-school ESL and foreignlanguage classes. Learners enjoy them, and ESL students report that the

practice provided in class gives them confidence to try to use idioms outsidethe classroom.

Students should be given ample opportunity to practise using idioms innon-threatening naturalistic situations in order to give them confidencethat they can use them correctly. Comparing and contrasting literal andfigurative meanings of idioms will enable students to recognize idiomaticusage and to interpret idioms accordingly. It also establishes a link betweenthe form and the meaning. Comparing idioms in the first and secondlanguages will enable students to discover which idioms are identical,which are similar, and which are different. In that way, positive transfer canbe utilized and interference avoided. Creative use of these strategies in

classrooms can help second-language learners overcome their ‘idiom-phobia’ and continue to acquire idioms outside formal classroom instruc-tion. •Received May 1985

Notes

1 This article is based on the ‘applications’ chapter ofthe author’s doctoral dissertation on transfer in theacquisition of idioms in a second language (Irujo1984), and on a workshop presented at the MAT-SOL Conference in Boston in April 1984.

2 A recent count made in the United States duringthree hours of situation comedies and action-adven-ture shows yielded over seventy different idioms,without counting two-word verb constructions.

3 Spill the beans, put his foot in his mouth, his hands are tied,and red herring were all heard recently on newsbroadcasts in the United States.

4 Fragiadakis 1985, published after this article waswritten, includes many creative activities for prac-tice in producing idioms.

5 Paulston and Bruder (1976) give procedures forpreparing a role-play activity.

ReferencesAdams, T., and S. Kuder. 1984. ttitudes Through Idi-

oms. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Adkins, P. G. 1968. ‘Teaching idioms and figures ofspeech.’ Modern Language Journal 52: 148-52.

Alexander, R. J. 1984. ‘Fixed expressions in English:reference books and the teacher.’ ELT Journal38/2: 127-34.

Cowie, A. P., and R. Mackin. 1975. Oxford Dictionaryof Current Idiomatic English, Vol. I: Verbs with Preposi-tions and Particles. London: Oxford University Press.

Dixson, R. J. 1983. Essential Idioms in English. NewYork: Regents.

Feare, R. E. 1980. Practice with Idioms. New York andOxford: Oxford University Press.

Fragiadakis, H. K. 1985. All Clear! Idioms in Context.Boston: Heinle and Heinle.

Goldman, L. 1981. Getting Along with Idioms. NewYork: Minerva.

Henzl, V. 1973. ‘Linguistic register of foreign lan-guage instruction.’ Language Learning 23:207-22.

Irujo, S. 1984. ‘The Effect of Transfer on the Acqui-sition of Idioms in a Second Language.’Unpublished doctoral dissertation, BostonUniversity.

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Kellerman, E. 1977. ‘Towards a characterization ofthe strategy of transfer in second language learning.’Interlanguage Studies Bulletin 2/1:58-145.

Long, M. H. 1982. ‘Questions in foreigner talk dis-course.’ Language Learning 31: 135-57.

Lorenz, E. K. 1977. ‘Excuse me: your idiom is show-ing.’ Reading Teacher 31:24-7.

Paulston, C. B., and M. N. Bruder. 1976. TeachingEnglish as a Second Language: Techniques and Procedures.Cambridge, MA: Winthrop.

Phap, D. T. 1980. A Contrastive Approach for TeachingEnglish as a Second Language to Indochinese Students. SanAntonio, TX: Intercultural Development ResearchAssociation.

Reeves, G. 1975. Idioms in Action. Rowley, MA:Newbury House.

Seidl, J., and W. McMordie. 1978. English Idioms andHow to Use Them. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Stein, J,, and P. Y. Su (eds.) 1980. The Random HouseDictionary. New York: Ballantine.

The authorSuzanne Irujo is Supervisor of Student Training in theBilingual Education Program at Boston University,and Director of Project BELT (Bilingual EducationLeadership Training) at Brown University. She hastaught graduate and undergraduate courses inbilingual education and ESL methodology. Herresearch interests include transfer in second-languageacquisition, and strategies of lexical acquisition.

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