TEACHING ENGLISH WITH THE HELP OF NATIONAL IDIOMS
TEACHING ENGLISH WITH THE HELP OF NATIONAL IDIOMS

Summary/Abstract: This paper brings forth a set of arguments and intuitions centered on the incumbent advantages (and challenges) of teaching English with the help of idiomatic expressions. As teachers, our primeval Heideggerian ambition is to bring our students as close as possible to the moral and emotional comfort (and coziness) that a native speaker experiences while presenting a topic of discussion in his “Homish” language (Heideggerianly speaking). Secondly, our social and deontological agenda revolves around the duty to prepare our students for a high-paid job in a nerve-wracking competitive society where it is often of a paramount importance to apprehend how to use idiomatic expressions so as to be able to communicate in real-time and in real-space with co-workers, supervisors and, above all, with customers (the rulers of all providers). The present chapter is anchored in the idea that a combination of words that means something different from each word by itself can and will determine the comparative quality of the conflicting motives and the comparative excellence of the linguistic pleasures. We will explore (constantly backed-up by solid tried-and tested methodological examples) the ways in which national idioms have acquired a considerable influence on the grid of processes that establish the contemporary social trajectories. With their help, we will try to have a look behind the mirrors of contemporary social itineraries (Stendhal) and “soulscapes” while discovering the “plus value” with which they supplement the act of teaching.

• Details
• Contents