Teach idioms through interactive, contextualized activities such as role-play and movie clips rather than isolated definitions¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Based on the finding that role-play, movies, and sentence-use outperformed definitions, the authors recommend that teachers create innovative idiom-based activities and embed idioms in authentic contexts. They suggest teachers 'resolve to create innovative idiom-based listening-speaking activities and to teach and explain more idioms in authentic contexts', and propose projects giving learners opportunities to comprehend and use idioms in real-life situations. They also suggest trying new technologies, which offer learners an authentic context to comprehend the meaning of expressions.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Teachers need access to authentic materials (e.g., movie clips) and class time for interactive role-play activities; the article notes eight one-hour sessions were used.

Constraints¶

• The recommendation rests on one quasi-experimental study with 47 Iranian upper-intermediate/advanced learners; the authors note their findings might be challenged by studies favouring decontextualized word-list learning for beginning and intermediate learners.

Target Learners¶

• EFL learners in language institutes and classrooms

Target Learning Goals¶

• idiomatic competence in comprehension and production

Affordances¶

• Dual Coding Idiom Imagery Account
• Context Proportionality Idiom Comprehension

Claims¶

• Role-play was the most effective idiom-teaching mode, with effectiveness descending through movie, sentence-use, and definition modes [+W]
• Mode of teaching idioms has a statistically significant effect on EFL learners’ idiomatic competence [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Teach EFL idioms through humorous video clips with contextual guessing and collaborative sentence production
• Contextual Vocabulary Introduction
• Contextualize English grammar instruction within purposeful, authentic writing tasks
• Use movies or TV series clips so learners notice how formulaic sequences are used among speakers

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Zainab Abolfazli Khonbi & Karim Sadeghi. (2017). Improving English Language Learners’ Idiomatic Competence: Does Mode of Teaching Play a Role? Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research 5(3), 61-79. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1156202