Teach English in Fushan Zhen - Tai'an Shi

“To be or not to be taught?” This question often rises and causes heated debates in the teaching community. ESL teachers all around the world are arguing of whether idioms and slang should be included into teaching practice or not. One supports the idea that classes may avoid to include slang learning because of inappropriacy and informality of this type of language, while idioms can be omitted due to overload of the courses. Others see a necessity in its learning because they are still part of the language. In my study, I am going to analyze why slang and idioms are worth to be taught in the classroom and what are the aspects to be considered while teaching. Firstly, learning of idiomatic expressions is an inevitable part of language acquisition. In an authentic English literature, movies, magazines, etc. idioms are used at a high rate. Native English speakers also intersperse their daily life conversations with such expressions occasionally. So, if a learner of English will be immersed into an English-speaking environment, he will more likely to deal with idiomatic expressions often. Since the majority of idioms have figurative meaning, and are seen as “a group of words whose meaning considered as a unit is different from the meanings of each word considered separately” (Cambridge Dictionary), it can become challenging to figure out their true meanings. Without knowing this, misunderstanding or misinterpreting may occur between the interlocutors. Thus, pre-teaching and in-class practice may be useful for students when they are found themselves around the native speakers. Secondly, idioms usage in the speech shows the high proficiency of the speaker in the language. There is no secret, when a student takes an IELTS Speaking Test, proper use of idioms in natural and accurate way in the speech of a test taker can grant a higher band score. So, for the majority of IELTS participants, learning and using of idiomatic phrases seems as essential and indivisible part of success. In this regard, from my own teaching experience, there is seen a tremendous demand from adult students who has ever attended, or plans to participate in the exam in the future, or those who shows their personal interest in learning English at the advanced level, to incorporate the idioms learning into a course syllabus. As for slang, it is also a part of a language, that is why must be taken for consideration too. Slang is seen as “an informal language that is used esp. in speech by particular groups of people and which sometimes includes words that are not polite” (Cambridge Dictionary). More likely that the students could encounter with it outside the classroom in more informal occasions, and there they may find its learning beneficial. It is not meant to be applied by them to make the first step and curse others, but a potential purpose is to make students aware of what is the meaning of words the other people might direct at them, and what is the price and consequences for the said words. Moreover, L2 students may find themselves being dropped out from certain social groups. Slang may not associate only with bad, impolite, and offensive language, but it also may refer to particular social groups. It is well-known that certain fields of people’s occupations may use their own terms or phrases comprehensible mostly by their members, such as in high-tech community (computer slang), business world (business slang), social medias and Internet (Internet slang), etc. So, if someone wants to join the community and feel as one who belongs there, he must know the language of the group. In this sense, learning slang may contribute to social adaptation. In sense on how to teach such these subjects, there are several aspects to be considered, such as students’ age and level, as well as ethnicity. For the first two aspects, it is very important to the teacher to consider student’s maturity and their “readiness” for such controversial topics before the course. For young learners learning slang would not be an appropriate material, since they are too young to understand their true meaning and usage. It is also fair for beginners, who just started to learn English, where knowledge of slang and idioms would not be necessary in the first place. Moreover, slang teaching may cause issues in certain ethnic groups, who may find slang discussions in class offending and rude. In this regard, the teacher must be very careful with picking up materials and explaining the motives to the students. The best way to teach these topics is when the teacher sees the demand and interest from the students, and when the teacher is sure that everything that will be said, will be understood correctly. The main purpose of teaching it is to show the diversity of language and familiarize students with outside reality, but not to impose. Thus, its learning must be elective. To conclude, besides compulsory and formal knowledge, there are subjects like idioms and slang that deserve to be included in the study syllabus due to their usefulness and application in the real world. Its learning is meant to increase students’ level and help them to understand English-speaking environment. However, the material must be chosen wisely and learned on the voluntarily basis. References Idiom. (n.d). In Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/idiom Slang. (n.d). In Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/slang