In TESOL education, idioms appear particularly daunting for students and teachers alike and for this reason they are often neglected in English courses. A brief overview of everyday slang reveals an intimidating array of idioms that could easily go unnoticed by the native speaker but prove confusing for the student of English. On Kenneth Lawrence’s website devoted solely to idioms, he has attempted, like many other books on idioms and websites that focus on them, to organize idioms into coherent categories. The categories are diverse; there are bird idioms, money idioms, and even arm, head and finger idioms. It is clear from the amount of idioms in existence and the limited activities used for teaching them that idioms are a subject for more advanced English learners. Of the English learning websites I explored, the only teaching methods suggested were matching games, fill in the blank, rewriting idioms as real meanings, and multiple choice definition matching. Most work with idioms in the classroom is written whereas most of its use will only be verbal. Whether it is because it is not an “essential” part of English grammar or it is too advanced to spend much time on, idioms haven’t received their due attention.

Teaching idioms is especially relevant for the student of Business English. Sportsidioms.com is a website completely devoted to how sports idioms are related to Business English. In the category of “Baseball” common idioms like “make a pitch,” “throw someone a curveball,” and “play ball” are introduced as frequent phrases used in the business world. Even the apparently limited idiom subject of “sports” has more than ten different categories including cricket, football, sailing, boxing and even archery. Considering how important rapport between client and businessman and between businessmen themselves is, idioms are extremely relevant for any Business English class. A businessman needs correct English grammar as well as the vocabulary of “business talk” to sound competent at his job.

In his article “Without Slang or Idioms, Students are in the Dark!,” David Burke discusses teachers unwillingness to teach idioms and slang. Burke claims that teachers are averse to teaching idioms and slang because they have been “equating slang with obscenity.” This seems easy enough- there are many slang words that are vulgar- but when one pays close attention to idioms it becomes clear they can be found in even the most basic conversation. According to Burke, teachers’ most persistent request for books on teaching idioms and slang is fewer examples and more activities. He suggests listening to dialogues with slang and discussing what they might mean before revealing the meaning and contends that the students will be eager to learn what they consider “real” English for a change.

From a similar stance as Burke, Dimitrios Thanasoulas defends idiom’s place in the English classroom. In his article “An Introduction to ‘Befogging’ Idioms,” he emphasizes the importance of context when teaching idioms. In his opinion, reference books are too often used in the introduction of idioms and make the student feel overwhelmed with “trivial and frustrating phrases and expressions.” Thanasoulas stresses that the importance of communicative English must not be underestimated when comparing to linguistic English. Thanasoulas has revealed an interesting distinction that may explain why idioms are so often ignored; they cannot be classified as “grammar” and easily simplified with rules, instead, they serve a communicative purpose that goes beyond the literal meaning of the words. Thus, idioms are not considered as important even though misunderstanding them would seriously limit one’s English. This is one area of English where rules and grammar must be put aside in favor of experience and context.

Molly Shaver