Technology in the Language Arts / ELL Content Area: Use of Idioms in the English Language

Grade or Age Level of Students

Online higher education / adult English language learners

Pre-Planning

Big Ideas / Introduction

In this lesson, you will analyze examples of idioms in the English language. You will watch videos spoken in English, and follow along comparing the language with subtitles / captions in your native language. You will use online tools to practice and check your understanding of idioms, and tools to help you translate idioms in English to your native language for your comprehension. You will use idioms to write an essay in English, then revise your essay to translate the idioms into plain English language without the idioms.

Essential Questions

• What is an idiom?
• What do English idioms mean in my native language?
• Why is learning idioms important to understanding a language and culture?

Learning Objectives

• Apply conventions of accurate English language sentence, paragraph, and essay structure.
• Apply appropriate writing methods for clarity in written text.
• Analyze idioms in English and translated to your native language.
• Write an essay in English incorporating idioms.
• Revise an essay to translate idioms to their meanings in plain English.
• Use Google Drive to submit documents for review and grading.

Summative Assessment

• A 2 - 3 page essay incorporating idioms in the English language
• A 2 - 3 page revised essay with idioms translated into plain English language

Lesson Opening

• Visit the Rockets & Holes game. Copy and paste the instructions, questions, and answer options into Google Translate to read their meanings in your native language. Click “Roll the Die” to play the game, answer the questions, and watch your game piece progress through the board from the bottom left. Try to advance to the Finish box.
• In the YouTube videos below, enable subtitles / closed captioning (CC) and use the Settings menu to turn on the Auto-Translate setting for Subtitles in your native language.
• View the video with subtitles / closed captioning enabled in your native language: The Best of Idioms
  
  
  
  
• View videos with subtitles / closed captioning enabled in your native language: Tasty English to learn about more idioms.

Lesson Body

Explanation

• Paste the URL http://www.idiomconnection.com/whatis.html#A2 into Google Translate, and select your native language, to read the website: What is an idiom?
• With subtitles / closed captioning enabled in your native language, view the video: Fun and easy way to learn English idioms
  
  
  
  

Practice

• While you are practicing and learning idioms, choose at least twenty (20) idioms that you might want to use in your essay for this lesson, and paste them and their meanings in English into a Google Doc, along with their translations in your native language, to help you remember and study their meanings.
• While practicing, use Google Translate to translate sentences or websites into your native language.
• Use Natural Reader to convert text into spoken words so you can listen to the pronunciations of idioms in English.
• Use IMTranslater to translate text to your native language, then click the microphone icons in the English text and the text in your language to compare how they are spoken.
• Visit Idioms 4 You, and click on the idiom links to see their definitions and related words in English. Click the arrows to hear the idioms spoken in English. Open Google Translate in a new browser tab and paste the URL (web address) http://www.idioms4you.com/complete-idioms/ into the box on the left, and click the link in the Translate box to translate the page into your native language. In the list of idioms in English, click on the links to see the idioms, their definitions, and related words in your native language. (From this page you can also click the arrows to hear the idioms spoken in English.) Compare the idioms and their definitions in the browser displaying English with the page displaying them in your native language.
• Visit The Idiom Connection, and click on the links to see their definitions and related words in English. Open Google Translate in a new browser tab and paste the URL (web address) http://www.idiomconnection.com into the box on the left, and click the link in the Translate box to translate the page into your native language. In the list of idioms, click on the links to see the idioms, their definitions, and related words in your native language. Compare the idioms and their definitions in the browser displaying English with the page displaying them in your native language.
• Visit Dave’s ESL Idiom Page. Open Google Translate in a new browser tab and paste the URL (web address) http://www.eslcafe.com/idioms/id-mngs.html into the box on the left, and click the link in the Translate box to translate the page into your native language. Compare the idioms and their definitions in the browser displaying English with the page displaying them in your native language.
• Use The Idioms: Largest Idioms Dictionary to learn additional idioms. Open Google Translate in a new browser tab and paste the URL (web address) https://www.theidioms.com/list/ into the box on the left, and click the link in the Translate box to translate the page into your native language. Compare the idioms and their definitions in the browser displaying English with the page displaying them in your native language.
• Use StudyStack to create flashcards to practice learning the idioms you chose to use in your essay. (Create a free account if you don't have one already.)
• Go to Behance: Idioms in Pictures and look at the photos to study idioms matched with photographs. Copy and paste the text into Google Translate to see the idioms in your native language.

Check for Understanding

• While taking the quizzes below, continue copying and pasting idioms and thier definitions into Google Translate, Natural Reader, and IMTranslater to help you convert English language terms to your native language.
• Visit Idioms Game, and take the idioms quiz using the pictures as hints.
• Visit The Idiom Connection. Click on each letter and then click Quizzes to take quizzes about idioms.
• Visit Quia and click “Play this Game,” then click to draw lines between columns to connect the idioms with their matching meanings.

Lesson Closing

• Use The Idioms: Largest Idioms Dictionary in combination with Google Translate to re-check your understanding, as needed, of the various idioms you plan to use. Open Google Translate in a new browser tab and paste the URL (web address) https://www.theidioms.com/list/ into the box on the left, and click the link in the Translate box to translate the page into your native language. Compare the idioms and their definitions in the browser displaying English with the page displaying them in your native language
• Use WordReference to look up words and compare the definitions in English with those in your native language, and listen to them being spoken.
• In a Google Doc, write a 2 - 3 page essay in English using at least ten (10) English idioms.
• Create a copy of your essay, and in a second Google Doc, revise your essay to translate the idioms into plain language (English using no idioms). The phrases, sentences, and paragraphs in your revised essay (the one with no idioms) should have the same meaning as the original essay (the one with the idioms).
• When your assignment is completed, submit both documents to your Google Drive folder and notify your instructor that your assignment is ready for grading.

Participate in the Discussion

Participate in the Discussion Board for this module, discussing the following with your peers in your written posts:

• Write a description to your peers, in English, explaining your definition of an idiom.
• Post your favorite English idiom in the Discussion Board, followed by its translation in English and also in your native language. Write an explanation to your peers about whether the idiom makes sense in your native language: Why or why not? Does the idiom have a funny, naughty, or nonsense translation, or otherwise have a different meaning in your language?
• Write an explanation about whether you feel that learning idioms is important to understanding a language and culture.

Materials

• Computer with Internet access
• Access to Google Drive / Google Docs
• Access to the online course in the Blackboard LMS