using facebook as a tool in teaching and reviewing english idiomatic expressions for grade 12th students

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGNAM DAN I HIGH SCHOOL TEACHING EXPERIENCE USING FACEBOOK AS A TOOL IN TEACHING AND REVIEWING ENGLISH IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS FOR GRADE... As a

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

1.1.2 Students’ difficulties in learning idioms at high schools 2

1.1.3 Benefits of teaching and reviewing idioms via Facebook 3

2.1 What is an idiomatic expression? 52.2 Characteristics of idiomatic expressions 5

PART 3: INTRODUCING AND REVIEWING IDIOMS VIA

3.2 Procedures to introduce and review idioms 83.2.1 Idioms with interesting contexts 93.2.2 Tests for students to review the idioms they have learnt 203.2.3 Pictures drawn by students to illustrate the idioms 26

APPENDIX III

APPENDIX IV

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

1.1.1 The necessity of acquiring English idiomatic expressions to language learners

Idioms are a significant part of acquiring a language and often indicateproficient learners English idioms are a part of the cultural elements of thelanguage which should be mastered by EFL learners By developing a clearunderstanding of figurative language, such as idiomatic expressions, studentscan further comprehend texts that contain metaphorical and lexical meaningsbeyond the basic word level

Idiomatic expressions or idioms should not be neglected and should not betaken for granted Idioms are used daily and repeatedly by native speakers ofEnglish Language Idiomatic expressions are a part of every language'svocabulary and are based on that language history, heritage, and culture.Learning idiomatic expressions helps non-native speakers of a language becomemore fluent, and sound more native-like Learning idiomatic expressionsincreases the vocabulary and lexicon of the English Language learners.Moreover, idiomatic knowledge leads to a better understanding of the cultureand customs of that particular language English language teachers should teachidiomatic language to their students and not overlook such a vital issue becausebecoming more native-like in English Language is by learning idiomaticexpressions, understanding their meaning and using them frequently

To grade 12th students, idioms learning is especially important becausethey appear in the entrance test papers Some idioms exist in reading passagesthat may prevent them from reading comprehension Some idioms appear insome separate questions Therefore, to get high scores in the entrance tests touniversities, students have to have a good knowledge of idioms These are theexamples 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

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

A abandoned a plan B concealed a plan C revised a plan D 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

A driven away B deceived deliberately

C given a lift D 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 fromuniversity 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 readingcomprehension and their exam scores

1.1.2 Students’ difficulties in learning idioms at high schools

Most of the students at high school find it challenging to use idioms incommunication and to deal with the questions relating to idioms The author hasconducted some pieces of interview to have a close look to the difficulties thatteachers and students have to face when teaching and learning idioms At thebeginning of the school year, she also delivered a test to check students’knowledge of English idioms (see appendix I) The results of the test haveshown that most of the students have poor knowledge of English idiomaticexpressions Following are some difficulties that students have met when theylearn English idioms

First of all, one of the main blocks of L2 idiom learning is that idioms areoften unpredictable in meaning, that is, their meanings cannot always be derived

from the literal meanings of the constituent parts Therefore, most students agreethat they really have to learn them to know their exact meaning and avoidmisunderstanding them

Secondly, it is the fact that there are a lot of idiomatic expressions inEnglish but only few idioms appear in the text book so most students do nothave chances to acquire them Students mostly learn idioms in extra classes andfrom 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 spendtime on other tasks appearing in textbooks However, many students say thatthey need a reliable source of idioms from teacher to learn rather than find theidioms themselves

Last but not least, it is very difficult to remember the idioms becausestudents do not have chance to use them frequently in daily communication orthey are not frequently exposed to them In fact, to master and use the idioms incommunication, they must have chances to practice them and have chances to

do the tests on them Some teachers overwhelm students with idioms by givingthem a list with a lot of idioms and ask them to remember It is useless becausestudents can not remember all of them at one time It is advisable that idiomsshould be introduced a few at one time It is important for teachers to designvarious activities for students to use English idioms and subsequently acquirethem efficiently It is necessary that idioms should be introduced separately atdifferent time and with interesting contexts Moreover, students must havechances to practise using them and doing some kinds of tests about them

1.1.3 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 manyopportunities to master English idiomatic expressions as possible

During the time of teaching English at class 12D2, the author has seenthat thanks to the development of economy and technology, all students in thisclass 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

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 beone of the most effective tools because students generally respond to discussionsquickly and are comfortable enough in their "space" to share their informationand opinions By using Facebook in learning, the role of students can thereforeshift from only receiving knowledge to both searching and sharing theirknowledge Moreover, interactions with teachers can become more instant sinceteachers and students can respond quickly via Facebook Facebook is so amiraculous learning tool, “Why doesn’t the teacher make full use of the socialnetwork to help students acquire idiomatic expressions frequently?” Thisquestion has led the author to the thought of using Facebook to teach and reviewEnglish idioms for students

By using the class’s Facebook page for teaching English, teacher canintroduce the idioms frequently at any time of the day, not necessary at the classtime With interesting drawings and funny examples, teacher can make it easierfor students to remember the idioms Especially, teacher usually posts theidioms on some popular topics like food, weather, body parts, money, andemotions so the most of the idioms are in a close relationship, which makesstudents remember the idioms more easily It is the class rule that after theteacher has posted the idiom, the students have to comment the examples theymake for that posted idiom As a good result, students have many chances toread many interesting examples from their friends and they are able to have deepunderstanding into that idiom One more benefit is that the students’ examplesare 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 smartphones in their hands They can respond to the teacher posts during the breaktime at school or before going to bed or when they are going out with theirfriends It is a good chance for them to make full use of their Facebook surfingtime

One more special benefit which the teacher has realized is that all thestudents in class D2, even some lazy students who do not have intention to learnidioms, have been engaged in learning idiomatic expressions because of therules 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 Theinvolvement of all students in class D2 in learning English idioms satisfies theteacher a lot It is clear that when they try to think of the examples to commentunder the post, they automatically memorize the idioms Most of the students areusually inspired by the funny contexts illustrated through funny drawings

For all the things mentioned above, it is undeniable that Facebook is aninteresting and useful tool for teaching idioms to the ESL learners In a modernsociety with the development of technology, it is good to engage the students touse their mobile phones in learning English so that they can have more chances

to learn by themselves in less stressful situations and then receive usefulfeedback from their teacher and their friends Surely, learning idioms viaFacebook also enhances student’s learning autonomy and helps them to becomeactive learners

However, the teacher realizes that only posting and interacting with thenew 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 believesthat the students can learn idioms better when they are provided withcollaborative activities and they can interact with their peers and share fun inlearning Therefore, the teacher has designed some kinds of tests and activitiesafter every 15 posted idioms The tests and the activities are really helpful inreviewing what the students have learnt so that they can reinforce their memory

of the new idioms

1.2 Aim of the research

To help grade 12th students acquire some popular English idioms

1.3 Objectives

In order to achieve the above aim, the writer will:

(1) - Investigate to identify the current state and the problems that manyteachers and students are facing when teaching and learning idioms at theauthor’s high school.

(2) – Introduce idioms via Facebook and assign some tests on idioms forstudents to practise

(3) - Analyze the effects of the designed activities on students’ ability toacquire idioms

1.4 Scope of the research

Beside the introduction and the conclusion, this research consists of threeparts:

- Theoretical and practical background

- Introducing and reviewing idioms via Facebook

- Results and evaluation

PART 2: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 What is an idiomatic expression?

The word 'idiom' is a Greek term meaning ‘own’ or ‘peculiar’ An idiom

is a figurative expression that can usually be interpreted literally but that takes anonliteral meaning when used in a specific context (Rohani & Ketabi, 2012).Idioms are pervasive in the English language They are used in formal style and

in slang Idioms may appear in poetry, literature, in Shakespeare language and,even, in Bible Idiom is “a number of words which, taken together, meansomething different from the individual words of the idiom when they standalone” (McMordiew, 1983: 4) An idiomatic expression “let the cat out of thebag”, for instance, is composed of several words (let/the/cat/out/of/the/bag)whose individual meanings do not seem to contribute to the meaning of theidiom as a whole, which is “reveal a secret”

2.2 Characteristics of idiomatic expressions

a Metaphorical Meaning

Idiomatic expressions are, in a very broad sense, metaphorical rather thanliteral Because an idiom is metaphorical, its meaning is not predictable from theusual meanings of the separate words from which it is formed This can be seen

in, for example, to be on top of the world (=to be extremely happy) and to be

hard up (=to lack money):

- We were very hard up when I lost my job.

- After winning the batting title, Carol appeared to be on top of the world

Similarly, idioms such as Actions speak louder than words or The apple

doesn’t fall far from the tree are very particular to the English language and do

not make sense when you try to understand them verbatim In these twoidiomatic expressions, actions are not really ‘speaking,’ and there is no apple ortree Literally translating the sentences will not help you understand them anybetter; you simply must memorize what these idioms mean as a whole, so you

do not feel lost when someone says one to you

Another common idiom used frequently is Don’t cry over spilt milk Again,

this expression has absolutely nothing to do with milk Instead, the milk is ametaphor for a past event that you are worrying about right now Thisexpression implies that ‘what happens in the past stays in the past,’ so you

shouldn’t be upset or ‘cry' about something bad that happened yesterday (spilt

milk) that you cannot do anything about now.

b Invariability

Idioms are more or less invariable, both in wording and in certaingrammatical ways They cannot, therefore, be changed or varied in the wayliteral expressions are normally varied, whether in speech or writing Some

idioms cannot be changed at all For example, the idiomatic sentence *The

University praised the students who had worked to help those who were and-down in London is ill-formed, whereas The University praised the students who had worked to help those who were down-and-out in London is perfectly

out-acceptable In brief, most idioms resist variation in form, and tend to berelatively fixed with regard to the following:

● Replacement

A speaker or writer cannot normally replace a word with another in the idiom

phrase We cannot say *on top of the universe/globe, but we can say on top of

the world (=to be very happy) Spill the peas is not an idiomatic expression but spill the beans (=to give away secret information) is idiomatic.

● Word Order

We cannot change the order of words in an idiomatic expression, e.g It was

raining cats and dogs (=It was raining very hard), but not *It was raining dogs and cats The idiom phrase be left high and dry (but not *be left dry and high)

means to be left without any help or without the things you need

● Number

Almost all idiomatic expressions do not in one way or another admit of theusual grammatical operations which literal phrases will permit For example, we

cannot turn the object of the idiomatic expressions give up the ghost and kick

the bucket into the plural without losing the idiomatic meaning Thus, one

would not say *The men gave up the ghosts/*The men kicked the buckets.

However, a singular noun may be replaced by a plural noun in a literal sentence,

e.g The men kicked the (milk) buckets/pails One cannot turn cats and dogs in It

was raining cats and dogs into the singular, either: *It was raining a cat and a dog).

● The Use of Actives/Passives

Normally a transitive verb phrase can be changed to a passive: The man

kicked the pail/The pail was kicked by the man When one uses an idiom,

however, some grammatical operations, like the formation of the passive, are

impossible For example, one may use the idiom kick the bucket in a sentence like At 3 o'clock John kicked the bucket We cannot change the grammatical

structure of this sentence, i.e we cannot re-write the sentence in the passive It

would sound quite unnatural to say At 3 o'clock the bucket was kicked by John.

2.3 The importance of idioms

An idiom is a phrase or saying that is commonly used in everyday Englishand in written to express certain ideas or opinions Understanding Englishidioms is important because they require a deeper familiarity of the Englishlanguage to comprehend what someone means when they use them inconversation and in their writing

Idioms may seem complicated at first, but they can actually be a lot of fun tolearn Following are the reasons to explain why idioms are so important to thestudents’ English language learning

First of all, idioms give the students a new way to express themselves inEnglish Language The meaning of an idiom generally depends on the specificcontext in which it is used When someone in America tell another one to

‘break a leg’, for example, they aren’t saying that in a literal sense, but insteadare wishing her/him good luck, usually before a performance Clearly, idiomsare particularly useful because they provide students with a new, creative way toexpress themselves Rather than saying ‘you should study hard”, they could say

‘You should hit the books”, which is a more complex and interesting expression.Idioms can also be quite humorous to use, which allows students to expressthemselves in a more genuine way, including showing off their personality andsense of humor

Secondly, understanding idioms can boost our students’ conversationalEnglish skills They may encounter idioms most often in spoken or writtenconversation Idioms can help improve their conversational skills because itshows native speakers that they understand the cultural meaning and contextbehind the idioms they are using This can help them feel more comfortable andconfident with their conversational abilities

Finally, learning about idioms can help enrich the students’ language andhelp them be more native-like Native speakers often use idioms more thansomeone who is new to the language, simply because they are more familiarwith them and know the context in which they should be used Therefore, whenthe students use an idiom, they sound more like a native speaker If we think ofEnglish as if it were a soup – the basics may be good, but we need a little extra

flavor to take it to the next level Idioms, in that sense, are the spices that theteacher can add to his/her students’ English skills Understanding the basics ofEnglish is a good start, but idioms can help the students explore the language in

a deeper, more meaningful way

2.4 Overview the previous studies on the subject of idioms and the contribution of the teaching experience

Idioms are a difficult part and very important for most ESL learners tolearn so up to now, there have been some of the studies on the subject of idioms

The first one is “A Study of the Problems of Learning and TranslatingIdioms” by Asst Prof Dr Abdul Majeed Hameed Joodi in the College ofEducation for Women at University of Baghdad In this study, the author hasmentioned many problems that the students encounter when they learn andtranslate English idioms He also mentions a lot of solutions to solve thoseproblems

The second one is “Investigating the Difficulties Faced in UnderstandingEnglish Idioms” by Winis, Noora & Zakaria, M In this study, the author hasinvestigated many difficulties in understanding English idioms like students’lack of cultural knowledge, students’ poor vocabulary knowledge, theunpredictable meaning of the idioms

The third one is “Strategies and Difficulties of Understanding EnglishIdioms: A Case Study o of Saudi University EFL Students” by Maha H.Alhaysony, published by Canadian Center of Science and Education This studystresses that because the students are lack of the cultural knowledge of theEnglish language so they can not have a good knowledge of idioms and itmentions the strategies that may help students improve the cultural knowledgeand then have a deep understanding about English idioms

To the best of the author’s knowledge, so far there have been no studiesinvesting the effects of using Facebook as an useful tool to teach and reviewEnglish idioms The author believes that this is a good way to make full use ofthe social net work and increase the students’ interaction and the participation in

learning English idioms The author is also sure that the students really have funtime to share and to learn with each other on Facebook

PART 3: INTRODUCING AND REVIEWING IDIOMS VIA FACEBOOK 3.1 Participants

The participants are 45 students in class 12D2 (school year 2019-2020).Following is the participants’ demographic information

Participants’ demographic information

Number of participants 45

Age 17-18 years old

Gender Female/37 Male/ 8

Accumulated English learning experience 10 years

English oral proficiency level A2 and B1 (CEFR)

Most of the students in Class 12 D2 are quite good at English and theyspend a lot of time studying English with the aim of being able to communicate

in English and get high English scores in the entrance examination touniversities However, most of them find it really hard to use English idioms incommunication and deal with the exercises relating to idiomatic expressions.They say that in grade 10 and 11, their former teacher of English did not teachthem any English idioms so now they really want to have some extra exercises

to improve their knowledge of English idioms When the teacher suggests usingFacebook to interact and learn about English idioms, all of them are excited andready to do the given tasks

3.2 Procedures to introduce and review idioms

Step 1: Teacher provides students with a training session at the beginning

of the school year

- At the beginning of a new school year, teacher asks one student in theclass to create a private Facebook Page for learning English and asks him to addthe nicks of all members in the class to the page

- The teacher provides students with a training session in which sheexplains and demonstrates the ways and the rules to learn English idioms viaFacebook and the students raise the questions about the things they are not clearabout

Step 2: Teacher posts idioms with interesting contexts and on popular

topics one by one on class Facebook page (about 4-5 idioms per week) Studentshave to actively interact with the teacher’s posts by commenting examples andcorrecting their friends’ mistakes The teacher also corrects the mistakes for the

students if necessary Look at appendix D to see how effective the students andthe teacher interact with each other

Step 3: After every 15 posted idioms,

- Teacher asks students to make the simple conversations on some certainidioms (group work)

- Teacher delivers the tests or an activity to help student review what they havelearnt The tests may be in form of a game, a paper test or an online test

- Besides, the teacher also asks six groups in the class to choose from 15posted idioms their favorite idiom and together draw the picture to illustrate

it

3.2.1 Idioms with interesting contexts

On the class facebook page, the teacher posts the idioms with iterestingcontexts The idoms are usually illustrated by funny drawings and examples thatcan inspire the students and help them memorize the idioms more easily

In the school year of 2019-2020, the teacher was able to introduce 130idioms for students to learn via the class facebook page The students did 10tests and each group had 9 drawings to review the idioms they had learnt

Normally, teacher introduces the idioms on some of popular topics, whichhelps students remember the idioms better

Topic 1: idioms relating to emotions

Topic 2: idioms relating to animals

Topic 3: idioms relating to body parts and clothes

Topic 4: idioms rel ating to money and cost

Topic 5: idioms relating to water and food

Topic 6: idioms relating to time

Topic 7: idioms relating to health

Topic 8: idioms relating to colours

● Idioms relating to animals

● Idioms relating to body parts and clothes

● Idioms relating to money

● Other idioms

3.2.2 Tests for students to review the idioms they have learnt

After interacting with every 15 English idioms posted by the teacher, thestudents have to do a test to review what they have learnt In total, the studentshave done 10 tests relating to idioms These tests can be designed on PowerPoint

or they can be paper tests done in class or online tests However, after beingdone, all the tests are posted on the Facebook page of class 12D2 so that all thestudents can redo them at any time they want Below are three examples of thetests that the teacher asks her students to do to revise the idioms which they havelearnt The teacher often grades the paper tests and some points are taken as thepoints of oral tests

Example test 1: (Test showed on PowerPoint – This test lasts only 10 minutes

in an optional period)

- Teacher shows the questions on the PowerPoint

- Teacher divides class into two teams They try to give the correct answers asquickly as possible

- The team with more correct answers will win the game and get a smallpresent from the teacher

● Below are the pictures cut from the PowerPoint slides

Below are some pictures taken while students were doing this kind of test:

Example test 2: (In form of the game “Acting Out”)

Teacher divides class into 2 teams One team chooses one leader Eachteam will have 10 minutes and 5 idioms In turn, the leader will stand in front ofthe class and use the actions to describe 5 idioms written in a piece of paper(these idioms have been posted on the Class Facebook Page) Their teammembers will guess the idioms and then give the correct meaning of the idioms

If their team members can not give the correct answers, the other team will getthe chance The team with more correct answers will win the game Thisinteresting activity usually takes place at the beginning of the extra classes in theafternoon and lasts about 20 minutes In 20 minutes, the students can act outfrom 8 to 10 idioms This activity gives students a lot of fun and the studentsreally enjoy it

Below are some examples of the idioms that the students have acted out:

- Kick the bucket

- Cry over the spilt milk

- Bite off more than you can chew

- Up to your neck

- Get out of bed on the wrong side

- Hit the books

- Cost an arm and a leg

- Tie the knot

- Like pulling teeth

- Pull someone’s leg

- Shoot yourself in the foot

- Keep it under your hat

- Coach potato

- Let your hair down

- Spill the beans

Below are some pictures taken while students were playing “acting out” game

Example test 3: (Paper Test taken at the end of the school year 2019-2020)

Most of the paper tests have 15 questions However, this test is taken at the end

of the school year so it has 20 questions:

Choose the best option A, B, C or D to finish the following sentences

Question 1: Sorry but I can’t watch the game with you tonight, I have to

the books I have a huge exam next week