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Teaching Slang and IdiomsIn the world of modern english, teaching slang and idioms is an essential element. While students need to know the difference between informal and formal terms, slang is an important part of learning the language. Watching english speaking films, news broadcasts, tv shows or even everyday conversation is filled with nonstandard english. Not making a student aware of slang and idioms is really a disservice to their learning. It's important to define the terms ?slang? and ?idiom.? Slang is often one word ? a term that is nonstandard and can change with popular culture. Example: ?nerd?. A noun that means someone who is fairly conservative and bookish. Slang can have a few different categories: there is media slang that just about everyone is familiar with, then there is slang that is particular to certain groups ? teenagers, different economic groups. While another category could be business slang. Acronyms come to mind when thinking of business slang. ?I need this ASAP? and ?Can you pdf this?? These are particularly common in the American business world. Idioms are phrases that have different meanings than their literal meanings. I will touch base with you tomorrow, Don't try to pull the wool over my eyes, Money burns a hole in her pocket are just a few that come to mind. In my experiences as a volunteer english conversation partner, idioms are a very popular topic. I think they are really fun to teach ? keeps the class lively and the students are very engaged. It's important to make students aware that slang and idioms can be used in a negative or inappropriate way. Often slang and curse words are used in popular songs and students might think it's okay to use this in everyday conversation when it definitely isn't! What is also important is the context in which the expressions are used. I read a story a teacher told where one of his students said to him in the second class, ?Hey dude, what's up?? When he looked a bit surprised, the student said, ?What's wrong? All my friends say that so isn't it okay?? It's best if a student has reached an advanced level of study to be able to understand the complexities of informal and formal use of slang and idioms. What is also important to realize is what the student's learning goals are. If a person is going to go to university and have to write papers, emails etc then they need to know how to write more formally. If a person is learning english for their job, they need to know how to communicate in a proper, mature manner. If a person is learning the language to just go and socialize, they will be exposed to a lot more slang and idioms. My approach to teaching slang and idioms would be to first ask the students what terms they have heard, and do they have any idea what they mean. We could then examine commonly used slang and idioms in every day life, business situations, songs. It would be a fun activity to listen to some audio conversations and watch some clips from tv shows or news casts. Then with everyone texting there is a whole new language of abbreviations! In conclusion, I feel that slang and idioms play a very vital and important role in learning the english language and one that benefits students and teachers alike.
