Some methods to help grade 12a4 students at thach thanh iii high school learn english idioms well

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ TRƯỜNG THPT THẠCH THÀNH 3 SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM TÊN ĐỀ TÀI SOME METHODS TO HELP GRADE 12A4 STUDENTS AT THACH THANH III HIGH SCHOOL LEARN ENGLISH IDIOMS W

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ

TRƯỜNG THPT THẠCH THÀNH 3

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

TÊN ĐỀ TÀI SOME METHODS TO HELP GRADE 12A4 STUDENTS

AT THACH THANH III HIGH SCHOOL LEARN

ENGLISH IDIOMS WELL

Người thực hiện: Đỗ Thị Thu Nga Chức vụ: Giáo viên

Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Thạch Thành 3 SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực (môn): Tiếng Anh

THANH HOÁ NĂM 2019

CONTENTS

page

I REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH 2

II AIMS OF THE RESEARCH 2

III SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD 2

IV CONTENT: 2

1 Some methods for teaching idioms effectively 2

2 Practice activities and test 6

3.Some useful tips: 14

V RESULT AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING 15

VI CONCLUSION 16

VII REFERENCE MATERIALS 18

I REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH

From the fact that seeing students do tasks relating to idioms randomly and discouragingly, I decided to choose this subject as my research.Many of my students confessed that they couldn’t guess the meaning of the idioms because the words they knew their meaning didn’t help them at all.However, when I explained and corrected them they expressed their surprise and interest I my self make such as “How must I do to help the students get correct answers for hard-to-do questions?” and “how should practice activities and test be to get their high attention to English idioms?”

It can’t be denied that to choose a correct answer about idioms is not easy at all Their real meaning themselves are fairly different from the meaning of individual word in it In addition there are no rules of generalisation of them and different language and culture make it more sosphisticated Therefore; they make us confused

Little understanding, little practice led into the fact that most of my students couldn’t find out the answer correctly, which cause them frustrated with idiom

exercises Teaching idioms might seem intimidating, especially if students have

never heard any of them before Idioms are a common part of speech, though Getting students familiar with them early on can help them communicate more naturally and give them a deeper understanding of the English language

Thus, all the factors have forced us to ask ourselves once again:

+ Why can't many students do idioms exercises correctly ?

+ How do we teach them effectively?

+ What useful practice activities should we use for students to practice?

+ How do we test them ?

II AIMS OF THE RESEARCH

- To help students learn and use English idioms correctly

III SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD

- Scope : Researching in the process of teaching English at Thach Thanh

3 High school

- Object: This subject is concerned with ways of practice activities in the

class

- Researching method: Reading reference books , discussing with other

teachers of english, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out experiences and searching on the Internet

IV CONTENT:

1 Some methods for teaching idioms effectively

a.Teaching idioms in contexts

The role of context is central in language learning It’s common that my students don’t really understand the various meanings of new words in different contexts That’s why they don’t know how to apply the words they have learned practically in various contexts It’s fundamental for teachers to provide a rich context for students’ language learning and practice “For instance, linguistic contextual information enhances adolescents’ interpretation of idioms (Nippold

& Martin, 1989) The contextual cues surrounding a particular word can help readers get that’s meaning In contrast, context-reduced language will be hard for readers to tolerate (Brown, 2001)”[1] Consequently, it’s more effective for students to learn language in meaningful contexts than learn isolated words through memorization and drilling

I am sure that my students can understand the idiom below by guessing through the context :

Linda: I’m sure your parents were worried when you were sick and when you are under the weather.

Marie: yes

“To be under the weather” here doesn’t mean that you are standing in bad

weather such as rain or black heavy clouds Students can infer from the precede

information “ when you were sick” that “To be under the weather” is

comething like sickness Thus, this idiom means normal tireness, not serious illness

Practice activity: Teacher writes some idioms on board for students interpret

and match them with corresponding phrases

For example:

1 Jane can do any math problem It’s a piece of

cake

2 My friend and I see eye to eye in Rap music.

Both of us like Snoop Dog

3 The GCSE is coming and we need to hit the

books really hard.

4 Wow, that car looks like a million dollars.

5 After a long day of hard work Jimmy just wanted

to hit the sack.

a study / review lessons

b it’s so easy

c luxurious/ smart

d want to go to bed

e have the same taste

The answer: 1b 2e 3a 4c 5d

b Teaching idioms with illustrations

Some idioms appear again and again, but students can not remember clearly And I introduce pictures and images to solve the problem It really works because lively pictures and images are entertaining, which helps them remember longer and more clearly It is efficient to provide interesting pictures to foster and reinforce vocabulary development As a result, pictures or visuals must be

stimulating, interesting and motivating to students’ comprehension and retention

of idioms

For example:

c Teaching idioms with theme

We can include idioms in your normal lessons by introducing them thematically This is another good method to teach students idioms with desire effect When idioms are related to a topic, students will remember them easily and will be familiar with the vocabulary they are using When talking about

pets, for instance, you can introduce idioms such as “work like a dog” and

“dog tired” which are related to the topic and will give students something to

discuss What makes idioms so interesting is that they are a unique

combination of words that have completely different meanings from the individual words themselves.

For example: to express happiness, students often use normal words such as: happy, glad, delighted… and it’s boring It’s necessary to highlight and get more fluency by using these suggested idioms:

1 Get a kick out of something = Enjoy doing smt every much

E.g: I get a kick out of podcasts

2 Over the moon – to be extremely pleased or happy

E.g: I was over the moon when I passed my speaking test

E.g: I have been over the moon ever since i got engaged

3 Like a dog with two tails

E.g: Was he pleased? He was like a dog with two tails.

4 Full of the joys of spring (When you are energetic, cheerful and happy):

E.g: James must have had some good news, he's full of the joys of spring today

5 Happy as Larry

When you are as happy as Larry, you are, of course, very happy But who is Larry? No one is certain but it is believed that 'Larry' refers to an Australian boxer called Larry Foley (1878 - 1917) who after receiving a large payment after winning a fight was described in a newspaper as being 'happy' Somehow this description stuck and is now used all these years later

E.g: My daughter was as happy as Larry with her birthday present

6 On top of the world: To feel ecstatic, enjoy great health, success.

E.g: I've been feeling on top of the world since I started doing yoga every

morning

7 On cloud nine: A person who is on cloud nine is overjoyed because

something wonderful has happened

E.g: She's been on cloud nine since she found out she is pregnant

8 In seventh heaven: To be so happy it feels like you are in heaven.

E.g: I was in seventh heaven when I landed my dream job

9 Having a whale of a time: To have a very good time, have an exciting or fun

time

E.g: We had a whale of a time on holiday

10 Burst with joy: To be so filled up with happiness as to be unable to contain

it

E.g: My kids burst with joy when we told them we were going to the theme park over the weekend

d Teaching idioms through reading, dialogue writing and role-play

I found from my experience that when there are sample dialogues which can be viewed as short plays and used for students to act out rather than simply read aloud, they can write their own dialogue containing idioms when they are asked

to do Moreover, the dialogues the students write function as basic communication at all levels (Scott & Ytreberg, 2000) Nunan (2003) stressed that role-plays are also excellent activities for learners’ speaking in the relatively safe environment of the classroom before they must do so in a real environment [2] Therefore, dialogues offer students opportunities to act out and practice oral skill before encountering the real world

Dialogues and role-play are useful written and oral activities, so I assigned my students in pairs to write one dialogue by using the English idioms introduced in class and then act out the dialogue out in the following class Dialogue writing could motivate students to write without burden because of pair collaboration and role-play activity could help them remember the dialogue they wrote through repetitive practices It was easier and more fun for them to remember English idioms because they shared and enjoyed learning English idioms with

friends Thus, dialogue writing and role-play are useful and interesting activities for students’ meaningful and efficient drills

For example: Teacher asks students to work in pairs to write dialogues, each of

which contains one of 4 idioms they have learnt: long time no see, How long is

a piece of string?, to cut a long story short, a bunch of people

Here are some suggestions:

1 Binh: Hi Jill! I haven’t seen you for ages

Jill: Yeah, long time no see! [I haven’t see you for a long time]

2 Nam: Hey, what happened to your plan to go on holiday with Hai?

Hoa: Oh, it’s a long story I’ll tell you next time I see you [It’s all complicated

and difficult to tell]

3 Bao: How long do we normally have to wait till they give us an answer?

Manh: (laughing) How long is a piece of string? It could be three days or three

month! [That’s an impossible question to answer Used in answer to questions beginning ‘How long …?’]

4 Karen: But how did it happen? I don’t understand

Laura: Well, to cut a long story short, Peter fell in love with the restaurant

owner, married her and now he is the manager [Tell the main points, but not all the details]

2 Practice activities and test

2.1 Idiom practice worksheet

Write a sentence using the idiom and then explain the figurative meaning of the idiom

1 piece of cake sentence:

_ meaning:

_

2 raining cats and dogs

sentence:

_

meaning:

_

3 cry over spilt milk sentence:

_

meaning:

_

4 feel blue sentence:

_ meaning:

_

5 all ears

sentence:

_ meaning:

_

.2.22gyhjkf

2.2 idioms crossword puzzle

1 2

3 4

7

8

15

16 17

Cross:

2 The US team did not win the World Cup, but they gave it their best

_

3 You think Al should tell his boss that she’s wrong? Easier said than

_!

4 The English teacher gave her students a useful of thumb She told them not to repeat the same adjectives too many times in one essay

6 You have an exam tomorrow morning? You’d better start hitting the !

7 Todd doesn’t like reading It’s like teeth to get him to read anything

11 Julie was very upset when her landlord increased her rent by 25 percent Now she doesn’t know how she’ll make ends

14 Eva loves to travel She’s traveled all the world

15 Stop jumping up and down on the bed! If it breaks, it’ll be no laughing

16 I wanted to buy The New York Times this morning, but by the time I got to

the store, they had already out

Down:

1 On a hot day like today, an iced tea is just what the ordered!

2 We’ve only got two hours to finish this project Let’s roll up our _ and start working

3 Pfi zer really wanted to Tanya to accept their job offer, so they agreed to sweeten the

5 If you studied your idioms, this crossword puzzle should be a of cake

8 Ted _ around the bush before telling his parents that he failed his test

9 Mmmm, this chocolate cake is out of this _!

10 Joe wants to join the army, but he hasn’t yet broken the to his mom

11 Oh, you’re fi nally home That’s a load off my !

12 Frank, our best salesman, hasn’t made a sale all week I’m afraid he’s lost his _!

13 Mark drove a hard and got two T-shirts for the price of one

17 Vivian is a night _ She never goes to sleep before midnight

The answer:

D

E

I

N

2.3 advanced idioms practice

For example: students read the letter then do tasks

2.3.1 Explain the idioms in bold

Ex1

Dear Mary,

Sorry Lionel and I were such poor company last weekend, but we were both

feeling 1) down in the dumps, especially after finding out that Terry had been 2) keeping us in the dark about the severity of the company’s money

problem I was so angry with him My own brother – can you believe it?

Believe me, running a family business 3) isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!

Anyway, the morning after uyou left, I was reading the paper when an

advert for a week in a country cottage 4) caught my eye It sounded 5) right

up our street, so I mentioned it to Lionel and, after a lot of persuading, he

finally agreed that we both needed to 6) take things easy for a bit.

We’ve been here for five days now and I feel so much better It’s right 7)

off the beaten track, so Lionel and I have had enough peace and quiet to

talk about the company’s problems and come up with some solutions I’ll tell

you one thing – Terry is going to 8) come down to earth with a bump when

we get back!

Explaination:

1) down in the dumps: ………

2) keeping us in the dark:………

3) not be all it’s cracked up to be!:………

4) caught my eye:………

5) right up our street:………

6) take things easy:………

7) off the beaten track:………

8) come down to earth with a bump:………

2.3.2.Match the items with the idioms

For example: Match the items with the idioms from Ex1 above

a to relax

b to keep sb unware of sth

c to be not as good as people say

d.to stop dreaming and start

thinking practically

e.isolated and quiet

f within one’s range of interests/ knowledge

g.depressed h.very happy/ suited to a situation i.to get sb’s attention

j very early in the morning

The answer:

1g 2b 3c 4i 5h 6a 7e 8d

2.3.3 Choose the correct answer

Directions: Determine the meaning of the bolded expression Choose the best

answer

1 After going to the zoo, the mall, and the movies, Cassie was sick of bending

over backwards to entertain her nieces.

a Cassie was doing very little to entertain her nieces

b Cassie was making small efforts to entertain her nieces

c Cassie was trying very hard to entertain her nieces

d Cassie was not trying at all to entertain her nieces