How to Teach Idioms

"See no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil" is an idiom.

An idiom, an English term consistently used by American speakers, is a phrase which is used figuratively instead of literally. For example, when a person "hears it through the grapevine," he has just used an idiom. No one hears anything through a grapevine, instead, they hear information from a person or news source. The grapevine phrase is used when a person does not wish to divulge their source. Teaching children about idioms is fun once the children realize they already use or have heard idioms.

Things You'll Need

• List of idioms

Instructions

1. Gather a list of idioms. List the idioms you use before turning to other sources. The idioms you use have been used in your classroom and may be common idioms within the community. The children are more likely to have heard these phrases in the past.

2. Talk to the children as a group. Discuss with them how people talk and ask them if they have ever heard anyone use a phrase which was not interpreted by its meaning. Ask some students if they've ever been called, "cute as a button" or if they've ever heard anything "straight from the horse's mouth." Explain that these are idioms.

3. Assign students to create their own idioms. Help struggling students by providing pictures and asking the student if he can come up with an idiom based on the picture.

4. Create a chart for the classroom where you list real idioms on half the chart and the student created idioms on the other half. Display the chart in the room for the duration of a unit on vocabulary structure and language parts.

References

• Scholastic Teachers: It's Raining Pigs and Noodles
• Linguarama: What is an Idiom?
• Scholastic: Say What You Mean, Please