ESL Idiom: Plugging Along

Idioms are a very important part of the English language. If ESL learners aren't taught idioms, they will be limited in their understanding of English. Unfortunately, idioms, expressions and slang are endless. The problem is where to start!

I often try to teach my ESL students idioms that are related to their careers, or are otherwise somehow relevant. There are also every day idioms that can be used by anyone. "Plugging along" is one such idiom.

"To plug along" could also be considered a phrasal verb. It is often used when responding to the question, "How are you?" or "How have you been?"

My response to "How are you?" can be "plugging along" or "I'm plugging along." It means that I'm doing fine, nothing is new. I'm just living my life as usual."

Other idioms or expressions with "plug" include "unplugged." This has become a way of saying that music is being played acoustically, without electricity (like an electric guitar).

And other one: "I'm all plugged up." I'll let you figure this one out on your own if you don't already know!

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"I Don't Drink" for ESL Students

Since I'm an ESL teacher, I probably pay more attention to the everyday use of the English language than other people. My ears are continually perking up to phrases, expression, idioms, and "strange" uses of English. Even when I walk to my English lessons, I hear or see things that I know my ESL students most likely will not know. In only a five minute walk, I encounter at least a couple of things that would be new to English language learners. If it's something useful or interesting, my next ESL student will benefit from my observation.

I caught a part of "The View" on TV this morning and Whoopi Goldberg said, "I don't drink." It made me think of how an English language learner would interpret this sentence. Of course, it means, "I don't drink alcoholic beverages," but you'd never hear this longer sentence from a native English speaker. All native speakers will know that "I don't drink" means "I don't drink alcoholic beverages."

I think this is a useful English phrase for ESL or EFL students to understand and to use, if needed.

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ESL-Once in a Blue Moon

Native English language speakers use idioms on a daily basis. In fact, we use them so regularly that we aren't even aware that some of them are idioms, or slang, or even euphemisms.

One expression that is based on reality is "once in a blue moon." An example of this idiom would be "I only tutor ESL students from Germany once in a blue moon." This means that I do tutor ESL students from Germany, but only occasionally.

Literally (or almost literally), a blue moon refers to the second full moon that occurs within a calendar month. This event only happens about once every two-and-a-half years. As for why astronomers call a second full moon in a month "blue," you'll have to visit someone else's blog!

Idioms are extremely useful for English language learners to learn. I'd say that every single day someone communicates in English, they will use or encounter an idiom and/or slang.

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Learning Vocabulary from Television

I often encourage my ESL students to watch television. Although watching TV is usually a mind-numbing process, for English language learners, it's another way to practice English listening skills. It also (for better or worse) teaches about American culture. Sitcoms are particularly useful for learning new vocabulary and idioms. TV news can also be useful, although most of my ESL students tell me that they have trouble understanding TV news. The stories are often out of context so the English learner cannot use the context to understand what's going on.

I was just watching a Sunday national news program. One of the stories was about adults who take care of their aging parents. One of the lines in the story was, "She took care of her aging parents until they both passed." Although an English language learner could probably figure out what this sentence means, it was interesting to me that the reporter said "passed" instead of "passed away." "To pass away" is the more common euphemism to talk about death; yet, any native English speaker would have no trouble understanding this sentence. I wondered if a non-native speaker would completely understand.

Incidentally, I looked up "pass" on dictionary.com. Without using "pass" as part of a phrasal verb, there were 75 definitions! Seventy-five definitions for the word "pass!" How's a person supposed to learn English?!

"He Tooted His Own Horn" Idiom

One of the examples used to teach past tense pronunciation in Azar's Understanding and Using English Grammar is "He tooted his horn." I've found very, very few ESL students who know what this means. Of course, native English speakers know that this means that someone "honked" the horn of a vehicle, such as a car. Right here we have a vocabulary learning opportunity.

And then, another learning opportunity comes along. What happens if I add "own" to the sentence? "He tooted his own horn." Now the meaning has totally changed and we are using an idiom. I often explain that this means for someone to "brag" about himself. Very few English language learners are familiar with the word "brag." Another learning opportunity.

Of course, there has to be a balance between sticking to the original intention of the lesson and not getting too sidetracked. Fortunately, as a private ESL tutor, I'm able to monitor and keep track of this balance a little easier than I would be able to in a classroom.

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Why are Idioms Important?

Many of my advanced ESL students specifically want to improve their speaking skills. Some of them say that although they have been living in the U.S. for several years, they are still unable to understand what people are saying. For example, in a circle of colleagues, they notice that when native English speakers speak directly to them, they speak differently than when they speak to other native English speakers in the same circle. And the student is unable to follow what they are saying to each other.

I’ve observed that one of the reasons ESL learners have trouble in group conversations is that the native English speakers frequently use idioms, aphorisms, phrasal verbs, and colloquialisms. When native English speakers use these, the second language learner is at a loss. English has so many rules that students have learned (and tons more exceptions), but then these rules go out the window when native speakers are talking to one another.

I often encourage (and teach) my students to learn idioms and as many phrasal verbs as they can. This is also my suggestion when students say that they want to increase their vocabulary.

Why are idioms important? Idioms are important for ESL learners so that they can understand what everyone is saying!

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English Conversation Practice

Most of my students are advanced level English as a Second Lanuage speakers. Many have learned grammar very well in their home countries, but most do not feel comfortable with their English speaking skills. The majority of our tutoring sessions focus on speaking skills. The trick, sometimes, is in finding a topic that the student has enough knowledge about (and vocabulary) and feels comfortable enough to speak about in English.

Knowing something about your student's interests will help with this. When I first meet a potential ESL student, I ask about their hobbies, their likes and dislikes, what they do in their spare time, etc. This way, I can choose topics that are interesting to them when we meet. I often try to find an article (often on Yahoo!News) relating to one of their interests for them to read before our meeting. Using an article as the topic of our conversation practice accomplishes several purposes: (1) new idioms and phrasal verbs are introduced within a relevant context, (2) new vocabulary is introduced, (3) the student can exhibit understanding of written English --at least the central meaning, and (most helpful to the English tutor), (4) an article helps to focus the tutoring session.

I often start with a couple of open-ended questions, for example:

1) What is the article about?
2) How do you think the writer feels about the subject?

And then I ask more pointed questions, for example:

1) What does the word xxxxx mean in this sentence?
2) What does this phrase means?
3) Other specific factual questions that the article answers.

I'm lucky that I have a lot of different interests and know a little bit about a lot of different things (just enough to get into trouble!). So when I'm lucky enough to have a student who is a "talker" I can help increase their speaking skills by asking some questions that help stretch the abilities of the English language learner.