Teach English in St Johns - TEFL Courses

Teaching slangs and idioms Slang and idioms is a very important part of english. As common knowledge, slang and idioms are unavoidable as they frequently appear in every english context (newspapers, magazines, articles and everyday english - most frequently among teenagers' conversation...). A student who is always absorbed in learning english from course books, textbooks or grammatical exercises can find himself at a loss to understand a normal native speaker's conversation if he never learns anything about slang and idioms. Slang can be understood as words which are normally used by teenagers. Thoses words are often invented and each day there're new more slang words appearing. However, it's important to bear in mind that we can not use slang in every situation as it may appear to be impolite or offensive, or even extremely vulgar. For example, ¨be spooked¨ (means to be frightened) is commonly used and not vulgar, but most others are and they tend to be used among friends only. Another thing is that slang can easily go outdated, that is why we need to handle them with care to ensure that our listeners can understand what we mean. Idioms, on the other hand, are more standardized and we can use them in almost every situation. For example, ¨a piece of cake¨ is an idiom and it means a task that is very easy to achieve. Idioms add colors to the conversation. However, idioms can also go outdated and there're thousans of idioms exist in the english language. Learning without knowing which idioms are used and which are not would be a pointless work. These are the reasons why teachers of english also need to go through some most common slang and idioms in classroom, at least once in a while, to make students be aware of the fact that everyday english could be grossly different from the textbooks. However, before teaching idioms and slang, it's necessary to know if it's proper to teach them to students or not and whether the slang words or idioms are commonly used nowadays or not. Students with the aim of attending an university abroad shouldn't learn much slang because if he gets too used to using slang he may produce essays or researches with improper language. By contrast, knowledge of slang and idioms can be extremely useful when the student's goal is to be able to communicate with native speakers and understand what they say. Besides, beginners or low-level students of english should not take up learning it. When teaching slang, there're several aspects of slang words and idioms that we need to ensure that our students understand: Meaning – what it means. Use- in what situation it is proper to use. Whether it is British english or American english. Word grammar - where it belongs. Difference between spoken and writen form (if there is). The origin of that slang word or idiom (if necessary) Techniques for slang and idioms teaching: ?Engage: discussion, discovery, word guessing, pictures. ?Study: Gap-filling exercises, matching exercises, sentences making, text reading...?Activate: Role-play, story building, discussion, material production task (advertisements....) Apart from the internet, with its millions of video clips of everyday english, which is the most useful tool in learning slang and idioms, teachers can introduce students some materials which are useful for them to learn idioms and slang. Books about idioms and slang are also available to download, such as: The Dictionary of American Slang by Robert L. Chapman Slang American Style: More Than 10,000 Ways to Talk the Talk (The Artful Wordsmith) by Richard A. Spears Boatload of Idioms - Over a Thousand english Expressions Slang and Euphemism: A Dictionary of Oaths, Curses, Insults, Sexual Slang and Metaphor, Racial Slurs, Drug Talk, Homosexual Lingo, and Related Matters by Richard A. Spears The Oxford Dictionary of Rhyming Slang by John Ayto The Ultimate Verbal Phrase Book Fresh Rabbit: A Dick 'N' Arry of Contemporary Rhyming Slang by Ray Puxley