Fun With Idioms, Collocations & Phrasal

Verbs************

David BurnsEnglish Language Fellow

ELTA ConferencePrishtina, Kosovo

14 December 2011

The English Language Fellow Programhttp://elf.georgetown.edu/

http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/el-fellow.html

David BurnsEnglish Language Fellow in Tirana

Contact information:

www.facebook.com/ELFellow.Albania

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Class Activities with Idioms

• Have a different student learn an idiom and teach the class.

• Individuals or groups

• Tongue-twisters • Group activities and

competitions• Games using current

events, films, You tube, VOA 60, etc.

• Pantomime activities to ‘act out’ the idiom

Use News Articles • Have students scan articles for idioms, collocations and

phrasal verbs.• For English articles: even those with complex vocabulary

can be modified.

• Simplify the language; shorten the article.

• Teaches current, local and international events.

More Useful Activities• Vocabulary• Reading / Writing• Poetry / Games• Speaking/Role Play

• Translation• Current Events• Videos/PBL

Speaking - Reading - Writing• Reading + Writing =

increased fluency.• Building vocabulary• Free writing• Personal writing• Reading response• News journal• Writing/speaking with

prompts• Group storytelling

Poetry • Ask students to create a poem using idioms, etc.• Higher level: The content of the poem must

accurately represent the content/meaning of the idiom.

• Mid level: use key words to make poem.

• Lower level: acrostic poem.

• All levels: Haiku

What is an idiom?

• An idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words.

• This makes it difficult for ESL learners to understand and master their proper use.

• Can you think of some examples?

Idiomatic Expressions

• To bet the farm

• Don’t count your chickens before they hatch

• A bird in hand is better than two in the bush.

• The pot calling the kettle black.

Class activity with idioms:

• You can use this activity after teaching or reviewing ‘human body vocabulary’.

• It’s a good warmer exercise or a break in between lessons.

• Have students stand up and elicit body parts (adjusted for level).

• Then put your students in groups for the activity.

Idioms with Body Parts• turn up one’s nose

• get out of hand

• catch someone red-handed

• go in one ear and out the other

• fall on deaf ears

• joined at the hip

• loose lips sink ships

• stick your nose in everything

• have a chip on your shoulder

• put your foot in your mouth

• have your finger in many pies

• a slap on the wrist

• beauty is in the eye of the beholder

• pulling your leg

• keep an eye on something

More Idioms with Body Parts

• to turn a blind eye

• to put one’s foot down

• to dig in your heels

• to kick up your heels

• to let your hair down

• break a leg

• bury one’s head in the sand

• blood is thicker than water

• Have butterflies in your stomach

• Use elbow grease

• To go belly up

• To have elbow room

• The apple of my eye

• Keep your chin up

What are collocations?

• Collocations are a group of words that are commonly used together.

• Rush hour, catch a cold, soft drinks, etc.

Class activity

• After a vocabulary lesson on food, have students think of common collocations for those food items.

• Fast food, fresh fruit, junk food, self-serve, take out.

• Try to think of some collocations with eggs

‘Eggs’ collocations

• Hard-boiled, soft-boiled eggs

• Sunny-side up eggs

• Over-easy eggs

• Scrambled eggs

• Eggs Benedict

• Egg whites

• Crack an egg; beat an egg

• Runny yolk, solid yolk

What are phrasal verbs?

• A phrasal verb is a verb + a preposition or adverb or particle (usually 2 or 3 word combinations). The word combination changes the original meaning of the verb.

• Break away, break down, break up, break in, break into, break out, break out of, etc.

Class activity: Directions

• After reviewing vocabulary ‘giving directions’ (left, right, up, down, straight, back, forward, across, etc).

• Use one of the directions to show how it can be used with a verb to make a phrasal verb (particle verb) or collocation.

• Left out, left behind, straight ahead, be right back, in front of, across from; etc.

What about the direction UP?

• This is a great word to give your students an (exaggerated, yet real) idea of the complexity of the English language.

• First, divide them in groups and ask them to ‘come up’ with as many word combinations as they can using UP.

• Can you think of some?

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky…

…but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and why are the candidates UP for election, and why do bad businesses go belly UP?

Why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen and put UP with things we don’t like. We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car while giving a thumbs UP to something we like.

People stir UP trouble, line UP to buy tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. A thief sticks UP a bank….

UPTo be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special!

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but then we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about the word UP!

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, the earth soaks it UP. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.

If you are UP to it, you and your students might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

One could go on & on, but I'll wrap this UP for now because my time is UP!

GREAT online resources!

• http://www.idiomsite.com/•http://www.englishgateway.com/esl-vocabulary-exercises•http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/•http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/•http://www.speakenglish.biz/idioms.html•http://www.learn-english-today.com/phrasal-verbs/phrasal-verb-list.htm•http://www.eslcafe.com/pv/•http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/collocations.htm•http://www.better-english.com/strongcoll.htm•http://www.eslflow.com/collocationsandphrasalvebs.html

•https://www.facebook.com/VOA60 

Falemenderit shumë!Thank you very much!