NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING NAM DAN I HIGH SCHOOL TEACHING EXPERIENCE USING FACEBOOK AS A TOOL IN TEACHING AND REVIEWING ENGLISH IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS FOR GRADE 12TH STUDENTS SUBJECT: ENGLISH AUTHOR: VÕ THỊ DOAN GROUP: ENGLISH 12 Nghệ An, 2021 NGHỆ AN, 2020 1 skkn TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1. The necessity of acquiring English idiomatic expressions to language learners 1 1. Students’ difficulties in learning idioms at high schools 2 1. Benefits of teaching and reviewing idioms via Facebook.
Aim of the research 4 1. Scope of the research 4 PART 2: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND 5 2. What is an idiomatic expression? 5 2. Characteristics of idiomatic expressions 5 PART 3: INTRODUCING AND REVIEWING IDIOMS VIA FACEBOOK 8 3.
Procedures to introduce and review idioms 8 3. Idioms with interesting contexts 9 3. Tests for students to review the idioms they have learnt 20 3. Pictures drawn by students to illustrate the idioms 26 PART 4: RESULTS AND EVALUATION 29 4.
Results of the pre-test and post-test 29 4. Survey results 32 1 skkn APPENDIX III APPENDIX IV 2 skkn PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. The necessity of acquiring English idiomatic expressions to language learners Idioms are a significant part of acquiring a language and often indicate proficient learners. English idioms are a part of the cultural elements of the language which should be mastered by EFL learners.
By developing a clear understanding of figurative language, such as idiomatic expressions, students can further comprehend texts that contain metaphorical and lexical meanings beyond the basic word level. Idiomatic expressions or idioms should not be neglected and should not be taken for granted. Idioms are used daily and repeatedly by native speakers of English Language. Idiomatic expressions are a part of every language's vocabulary and are based on that language history, heritage, and culture.
Learning idiomatic expressions helps non-native speakers of a language become more fluent, and sound more native-like. Learning idiomatic expressions increases the vocabulary and lexicon of the English Language learners. Moreover, idiomatic knowledge leads to a better understanding of the culture and customs of that particular language. English language teachers should teach idiomatic language to their students and not overlook such a vital issue because becoming more native-like in English Language is by learning idiomatic expressions, understanding their meaning and using them frequently.
To grade 12th students, idioms learning is especially important because they appear in the entrance test papers. Some idioms exist in reading passages that may prevent them from reading comprehension. Some idioms appear in some separate questions. Therefore, to get high scores in the entrance tests to universities, students have to have a good knowledge of idioms.
These are the examples of the questions relating to idioms in the entrance paper tests: Question 12 (year 2020, code 404) : Mark the letter A, B, C or D on the answer sheet to indicate the words OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined words. 1 skkn Everyone was secretly rehearsing a surprise performance for Alex’s proposal, but annoyingly Jim let the cat out of the bag at the last minute. disclosed a plan Question 8 (year 2017, code 401): Mark the letter A, B, C or D on the answer sheet to indicate the words CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined words. It's not a pleasant feeling to discover you've been taken for a ride by a close friend.
treated with sincerity This is an example of the idioms that appears in the reading texts: ● Cut from a reading passage in the paper test for the GCSE exam, school year (2019-2020), code 404: ….Alternatively, they may decide to take a gap year between graduating from university and starting a career feeling the need for some time out before joining the rat race. From above reasons we can see that it is essential to teach English idioms to our students. Therefore, they can better their communication, their reading comprehension and their exam scores. Students’ difficulties in learning idioms at high schools Most of the students at high school find it challenging to use idioms in communication and to deal with the questions relating to idioms.
The author has conducted some pieces of interview to have a close look to the difficulties that teachers and students have to face when teaching and learning idioms. At the beginning of the school year, she also delivered a test to check students’ knowledge of English idioms (see appendix I). The results of the test have shown that most of the students have poor knowledge of English idiomatic expressions. Following are some difficulties that students have met when they learn English idioms.
First of all, one of the main blocks of L2 idiom learning is that idioms are often unpredictable in meaning, that is, their meanings cannot always be derived 2 skkn from the literal meanings of the constituent parts. Therefore, most students agree that they really have to learn them to know their exact meaning and avoid misunderstanding them. Secondly, it is the fact that there are a lot of idiomatic expressions in English but only few idioms appear in the text book so most students do not have chances to acquire them. Students mostly learn idioms in extra classes and from reference books.
It is undeniable that idioms are not treated in classrooms as regularly as might be because of time pressure. In fact, teacher must spend time on other tasks appearing in textbooks. However, many students say that they need a reliable source of idioms from teacher to learn rather than find the idioms themselves. Last but not least, it is very difficult to remember the idioms because students do not have chance to use them frequently in daily communication or they are not frequently exposed to them.
In fact, to master and use the idioms in communication, they must have chances to practice them and have chances to do the tests on them. Some teachers overwhelm students with idioms by giving them a list with a lot of idioms and ask them to remember. It is useless because students can not remember all of them at one time. It is advisable that idioms should be introduced a few at one time.
It is important for teachers to design various activities for students to use English idioms and subsequently acquire them efficiently. It is necessary that idioms should be introduced separately at different time and with interesting contexts. Moreover, students must have chances to practise using them and doing some kinds of tests about them. Benefits of teaching and reviewing idioms via Facebook.
As a teacher of English at high school, the author would like to find ways to help students overcome above difficulties and provide students with as many opportunities to master English idiomatic expressions as possible. During the time of teaching English at class 12D2, the author has seen that thanks to the development of economy and technology, all students in this class have their own smart phones and all of them use Facebook daily. Facebook has become one part of their lives and they use it frequently to get in 3 skkn touch with others. Since they use Facebook frequently and comfortably, teachers may exploit this entertainment-oriented site as an edutainment tool.
Although there are many tools available for eLearning, Facebook seems to be one of the most effective tools because students generally respond to discussions quickly and are comfortable enough in their "space" to share their information and opinions. By using Facebook in learning, the role of students can therefore shift from only receiving knowledge to both searching and sharing their knowledge. Moreover, interactions with teachers can become more instant since teachers and students can respond quickly via Facebook. Facebook is so a miraculous learning tool, “Why doesn’t the teacher make full use of the social network to help students acquire idiomatic expressions frequently?” This question has led the author to the thought of using Facebook to teach and review English idioms for students.
By using the class’s Facebook page for teaching English, teacher can introduce the idioms frequently at any time of the day, not necessary at the class time. With interesting drawings and funny examples, teacher can make it easier for students to remember the idioms. Especially, teacher usually posts the idioms on some popular topics like food, weather, body parts, money, and emotions so the most of the idioms are in a close relationship, which makes students remember the idioms more easily. It is the class rule that after the teacher has posted the idiom, the students have to comment the examples they make for that posted idiom.
As a good result, students have many chances to read many interesting examples from their friends and they are able to have deep understanding into that idiom. One more benefit is that the students’ examples are often corrected by the teacher if they are incorrect. Especially, introducing idioms via Facebook can help students save time. They can learn and review idioms at any time when they have their smart phones in their hands.
They can respond to the teacher posts during the break time at school or before going to bed or when they are going out with their friends. It is a good chance for them to make full use of their Facebook surfing time. 4 skkn One more special benefit which the teacher has realized is that all the students in class D2, even some lazy students who do not have intention to learn idioms, have been engaged in learning idiomatic expressions because of the rules of interaction given by the teacher at the beginning of the school year. Most of the students have the feeling of comfort to interact on Facebook.
The involvement of all students in class D2 in learning English idioms satisfies the teacher a lot. It is clear that when they try to think of the examples to comment under the post, they automatically memorize the idioms. Most of the students are usually inspired by the funny contexts illustrated through funny drawings. For all the things mentioned above, it is undeniable that Facebook is an interesting and useful tool for teaching idioms to the ESL learners.
In a modern society with the development of technology, it is good to engage the students to use their mobile phones in learning English so that they can have more chances to learn by themselves in less stressful situations and then receive useful feedback from their teacher and their friends. Surely, learning idioms via Facebook also enhances student’s learning autonomy and helps them to become active learners. However, the teacher realizes that only posting and interacting with the new idioms via Facebook is not enough for students to remember and use them in daily life and deal with the questions relating to idioms. The teacher believes that the students can learn idioms better when they are provided with collaborative activities and they can interact with their peers and share fun in learning.
Therefore, the teacher has designed some kinds of tests and activities after every 15 posted idioms. The tests and the activities are really helpful in reviewing what the students have learnt so that they can reinforce their memory of the new idioms. Aim of the research To help grade 12th students acquire some popular English idioms. Objectives In order to achieve the above aim, the writer will: 5 skkn (1) - Investigate to identify the current state and the problems that many teachers and students are facing when teaching and learning idioms at the author’s high school.
(2) – Introduce idioms via Facebook and assign some tests on idioms for students to practise. (3) - Analyze the effects of the designed activities on students’ ability to acquire idioms.