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80 minutes Aim:
Material:
Aids:
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to analyse idiomatic expressions and their use;
to develop practical understanding of key terms
1. Lewis, M (1997). Implementing the Lexical Approach. Hove: LTP.
2. B.J.Tomas (1986) Intermediate Vocabulary. Cambridge
3. McCarthy, M. and O’Dell, F (2004). English Vocabulary in Use. Upper-intermediate and advanced. Cambridge: CUP
Text-books. charts, laptop with speakers, handouts
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Lead-in (5 min.): Teacher asks the questions:
1. Do you use idioms?
2. What do you think is it useful to use idioms or not?
3. Give examples for English and Uzbek idioms.
Handout 1. More about idioms
An idiom (Latin: idioma, "special property", from Greek: δίωμα – idíōma, "special feature, special phrasing, a peculiarity", f. Greek: διος – ídios, "one’s own") is a phrase or a fixed expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning. An idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning. There are thousands of idioms, and they occur frequently in all languages. It is estimated that there are at least twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in the English language.
Idioms are important but they can be difficult to use correctly. With many idioms, if you make
just a small mistake, it can sound strange, funny, or badly wrong. For example: get a move; a small talk; gut an eye on, off-hands, etc.
Idioms often have special features: they may be informal or funny or ironic; they may only be
used by certain people (e.g. young children, or teenagers, or elderly people); they may only appear in limited contexts; they have special grammar. For these reasons, you can often 'learn' the meaning of an idiom but then use it incorrectly. For example: After her husband died she was down in the dumps. (This idiom means 'sad and depressed' but is completely wrong here: the situation is too serious and the idiom is too informal.)
The following sentences contain idioms. The fixed words constituting the idiom in each case are bolded:
1. She is pulling my leg. - to pull someone's leg means to trick them by telling them something untrue.
2. When will you drop them a line? - to drop someone a line means to send a note to or call someone.
3. You should keep an eye out for that. - to keep an eye out for something means to maintain awareness of it so that you notice it as it occurs.
4. I can't keep my head above water. - to keep one's head above water means to manage a situation.
5. It's raining cats and dogs. - to rain cats and dogs means to rain very heavily (a downpour).
6. Oh no! You spilled the beans! - to spill the beans means to let out a secret.
7. Why are you feeling blue? - to feel blue means to feel sad.
8. That jacket costs an arm and a leg. – an arm and a leg means something is very expensive.
9. It is not rocket science. – not rocket science means something is not difficult.
10. Put a cork in it. - put a cork in it is an impolite way to say, "shut up!" (another idiom), be quiet, and stop talking.
11. I'm screwed . - to be screwed means that one is doomed, is in big trouble, or has really messed up
12. I won a lot of dough at the casino. Look at all of this moolah! – dough, moolah means money (non-countable.)
13. Look at how many greenbacks you have in your wallet! Could you loan me a buck for the subway? – greenback, buck means American dollar (countable.)
14. I would love to be like Bill Gates. He has megabucks.– megabucks means a lot of money.
15. John should quit his job because he is working for peanuts and he can't afford his rent. – (work for) peanuts means almost no money, very little money.
16. Susie bought so many clothes she maxed out her credit card. – max out (a credit card) means spend up to the limit of a credit card.
17. Tony and Teri had to really stretch their money in order to pay all of their bills. They ate a lot of cheap food last month. – stretch money means to be careful to make money one has last longer
18. Let's decide who will start the game by flipping a coin. – flip a coin means make a decision by tossing a coin in the air and calling heads or tails. (heads = side of coin with picture of a person's face, tails = opposite side of coin.)
More examples:
The teacher told us to get a move on. (= hurry; be quick)
My wife and I take it in turns to cook. (= Г cook one day, she cooks the next, etc.)
I don't know the answer off-hand. (= without looking it up or asking someone)
It's not far. We can take a short cut (= a quick way) through the park.
I'm not very good at small talk. (= social talk; not about serious things)
I'm sorry I can't make it (= come) on Friday.
I asked her to keep an eye on (= watch / look after) my suitcase while I went to the toilet.
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