Teaching Idioms and Phrasal Verbs in Context, Inspired by The Caldwell Diaries (Series 1)
Mia Tarau
One of the best (and most entertaining) examples of just how tricky idioms can be for non-native speakers to master is found in Shawn Levy’s 2006 movie The Pink Panther. The infamous interrogation scene starring Steve Martin as police inspector Jacques Clouseau (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkgntZqYDHU) goes like this:
Inspector Jacques Clouseau, to Bizu: You were acquainted with Yves Gluant?
Bizu: I am glad he is pushing up daisies!
Inspector Jacques Clouseau: He is NOT pushing up daisies! He is dead!
Bizu: [glares] It's an idiom.
Inspector Jacques Clouseau: YOU, sir, are the idiom!
Reflecting on the difficulty of understanding and using idioms correctly in students’ target languages, in this post I follow up on Michael Rabbidge’s first article on this topic: (https://chasingtimeenglish.com/posts/2024/11/5/teaching-idioms-and-phrasal-verbs-in-context-creative-strategies-for-success). I draw on the suggestion to use scenes from stories to introduce idioms and phrasal verbs, using the Chasing Time English original drama series The Caldwell Diaries (Series 1) as the basis for an idiom-focused lesson plan that can be used for each episode. In this series, students follow the story of two girls who have big dreams of travelling the world together.
Lesson outline
Episode and idiom selection options based on The Caldwell Diaries (Series 1):
a. Episode 1: TO HAVE A WAY WITH WORDS
b. Episode 2: TO SNEAK UP
c. Episode 4: TO LET DOWN
Suggestion – each episode/idiom pair should be the basis for one lesson.
Part 1: Fun lead-in task
a. Provide the students with the idiom that is the focus of the lesson.
b. In pairs or groups, students draw whatever they imagine when they see those words together.
c. The pairs/groups then present their drawings to the class, explaining their reasoning behind selecting the particular elements that they have included in their drawings.
Encourage the students to ask follow-up questions or challenge others’ drawings, using their own understanding of the individual words in their own illustrations for each idiom. The focus of this task should not be on art skills, but on explaining their reasoning/vocabulary use and understanding to each other.
Part 2: The lesson
a. Students watch the entire episode for the first time, but with a listening focus: they should indicate when hear the idiom (they could write down the minute in the episode when the scene plays out if working individually, or they could stand up or tap their desk when they hear it – any strategy that would best suit the learner group is fine).
b. Students watch again, this time focusing on the context, or the wider scene in which the idiom is used – the imagery, the dialogue, the accents, the characters’ actions – anything that could help them decode the meaning. In their groups, they discuss these possible meaning(s), as framed by the scenes in which they played out.
Optional: If needed, they can also then be provided with the script for the episode, for additional assistance.
c. Groups check with each other - did they identify the same possible meanings? If not, discussions or explanations should be encouraged.
d. The teacher provides feedback/the explanation for each idiom.
Part 3: Consolidating learning
Students draw the idioms again in their groups, with the aim of showing the correct meaning; they then share their drawings with the class.
Optional: This step could turn into a fun competition – the drawing voted by the class as the best illustration for the idiom wins a prize!
End-of-series - Wrapping up
Once the class has completed all the lessons in the Caldwell Diaries series, the teacher could prepare short quizzes or activities to help the students check their understanding and make sure they have remembered the meaning of all the idioms covered in this drama.
How do you teach idioms?