TEACHING IDIOMS IN ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE: AN ANALYSIS OF ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS

Abstract

Idioms are said to mirror the culture of the language. As it happens with most culturally-determined language aspects, idioms pose great difficulties for learners, to the point where some teachers avoid dealing with idioms in the classroom altogether. Prodromou speaks of an “idiomatic paradox”, where native speakers rely on idioms in spoken discourse, while even advanced learners struggle, finding them elusive. However, many scholars insist on teaching idioms in an EFL classroom. Celce-Murcia proposes a communicative competence model, where one of the competences (figurative) rests on the ability to use idioms. CEFR includes idiomatic expressions in its band descriptions. All this makes a case for including idioms in academic syllabi.