Teaching idioms is an absolute gong show. How so? Well, if you are not a native speaker of English, I would have to explain to you that the first sentence was expressing the chaotic nature of idiom instruction. Then I would have to explain that the Gong Show was a game-show in the 1970s, and that idiomatically, in Canada and the United States, something described as a « gong show » is something that is disastrous, but in a charming way.
Yet, why do we persist in teaching idioms? Partly, it is because it is a marker of fluency, to understand not just the translation of a sentence, but the idiomatic sense of a sentence. It is also seen as intercultural proficiency: to understand a culture is to understand its idioms. What « there’s more than one way to skin a cat » or « let the cat out of the bag » tells foreigners about English’s treatment of felines is probably best left unexamined, but idioms are a great way to examine cultural mores. And lastly, idioms are fun! It’s the best of language: playing with sound and meaning to create vivid images that stick around, sometimes for centuries.
Teaching idioms is one of my favorite things to do, though I think it’s important to be careful that we don’t « otherize » or make broad assumptions about the target culture (as in « what weirdos: all English-speakers mistreat cats »). In French, I’ve got some go-to resources that I’ve created (some I’ve mentioned on the blog before):
- Word of the Day: Mot Du Jour
- I would start each day with an idiom from the above powerpoint. Students would guess the meaning, and then I would reveal its use. When I started having students keep a journal in the class at all times, a routine would be to find your journal, and write the mot du jour inside on a special page. Then, with a partner, write an example sentence. Prior to that, I would have a big sheet of paper on which I would write all the idioms of the day. Idioms are, by the way, a great improv prompt for inspiring a scene!
- Idiomatic Fairy Tale:
- I also wrote about this before, but basically, it’s a fairy tale that uses 40 idioms (which are explained in the footnotes with both their literal and figurative meanings). The tâche finale for my fairy tale unit is a twisted fairy tale (conte de fée tâche final 2017 copy), and one variation has students needing to include idioms (either from the unit vocabulary or found on their own).
- I have one version using passé simple (the literary past) and one version that is less ‘correct’ but easier to use for students who have not yet learned passé simple (or you can use the two versions to compare passé composé to passé simple):
- Matching idioms:
- This is a guessing activity where students try to match the idioms to their meanings. A great followup can be an improv scene or writing their own stories that incorporate these idioms.
My own défis: most of the idioms that I use/teach are from France or Quebec (there’s a significant overlap). It’s a goal of mine to expand my idiomatic repetoire to include idioms from other Francophonie countries. As I make my French courses more culturally inclusive of all the varied French speaking nations and cultures, I hope to have many new idioms to share.