As I began exploring the RSS feeds I just subscribed to, I saw a feed from The English Blog about English idioms. As a second, third, and fourth language learner (eek!) myself, I know that idioms are some of the trickiest things that language learners encounter. You can't really translate them, but they are used so frequently that they are a very important thing to learn...I bet you don't even realize when you are using an idiom...but if you are speaking to a non-native English speaker, they may not understand your use of an idiom, and you may get a very confused look!
This feed from The English Blog talks about another blog-called Mad Dogs and English, which illustrates (literally) the idioms of the English language. Each blog post shows a cartoon which ilustrates a particular idiom as it would literally be understood and probably translated by a non-native speaker.
The English Blog suggests incorporating idioms into lesson plans, and having students come up with their own cartoons based on English idioms. I think it's a brilliant idea! I would love to implement this in my ESL classroom. I think it would introduce students to the concept of idioms and help them understand how to use and comprehend them as well.
Check these cartoons out for yourself at Mad Dogs and English: http://maddogsandenglish.wordpress.com/
And check out The English Blog: http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/
1 comment:
Brooke,
You found a great post! For some reason I can't open the site right now. I'll try again later because I'd like to see some visualization of looking at idioms literally. They should be very funny.
Dr. Burgos
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