TEFL Largo Maryland

Slang and idioms exist in every language and is something rarely taught in language classes. They are usually picked up in colloquial style conversation and can even be picked up in magazines, books, movies and TV. I do believe that it is important for students of english to learn some common slang and idioms, which will prove to be helpful in casual communication. I used to study french as a foreign language for nearly eight years. We were never taught any slang or idioms and I used to perform above average in my classes. I was always confident because my grades proved it and I could even manage communicating with people while doing shopping, ordering food, asking for directions and such. I was invited out to a movie with a group of cousins one day and I felt confident that even though the movie was in french, I would be able to understand it. It was a comedy so I knew it would be light and casual french. I was completely lost throughout the movie! People in the cinema were laughing at things I could hardly understand or just could not make sense of. After the movie my cousins explained that they felt the same way when watching english movies. I believe that this is greatly due to the fact that movies incorporate a lot of slang in their dialogue, especially a genre like comedy. How does one approach teaching slang and idioms? Before answering this question its a good idea to have a definition of the two terms. Slang is defined as “a type of language consisting of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people... ” This already provides an issue with teaching slang. Slang is constantly evolving and can be any made up word and can be only used by a certain group of people. It would be impossible for teachers to know every bit of slang used in the english language. An idiom is defined as “a form of expression natural to a language, person, or group of people... ” Contrary to slang, idioms are more commonly understood. David Burke, an esl teacher and writer of books for the purpose of teaching slang and idioms in english, has found that “presentation” is a terrific method of teaching slang and idioms. I would write out a dialogue between two people, which uses some common english slang and idioms and present this to students. We could then identify the slang and idioms in the dialogue, and students would be explained the meaning, pronunciation and use of these terms/phrases. If teaching business students english, it would be important to explain many acronyms to them such as “FYI, ASAP, RSVP” etc... It may even occur that students pick up slang or idioms from certain sources and would ask for their meaning in class. I personally would find this acceptable (considering the slang is appropriate) and would even encourage students to bring in any words/terms/phrases that they would not find in any dictionary. Although some teachers choose to avoid teaching slang and idioms in classes I would personally accept it. I do believe it is important because many native english speakers do incorporate the use of slang/idioms when communicating. It is debatable as to how a teacher could approach teaching these concepts to students and this is something that would depend entirely on the group of students being taught. For example it is highly unlikely that a group of children would be exposed to slang so it can be avoided in a class of young learners. It would especially be useful to a group of students who are learning english in an english speaking country because they would, without a doubt, be exposed to these concepts from a variety of sources. Word count: 658 words References: Burke, D. 1998. “Without Slang and Idioms, Students are in the Dark!” Retrieved 25 August 2012, at http://ingles.ing.uchile.cl/otros/downloads/Without%20Slang%20and%20Idioms.pdf