Using English Expressions

The use of expressions is a challenge for new speakers especially when the words used have a figurative and literal meaning. I try to use expressions that are most common and then use related ones. The point is to get the student to use them eventually on his own without thinking in his own language. The most that I have been able to teach have only been a few at any one time. The aura of learning them quickly passes as the learner looks for equivalences in his own language and the success of learning them largely depends on finding equivalences. Expressions largely contain phrasal verbs and other components such as an object associates with it.

Expressions such as ‘getting rid of’ are the easiest to come across because we live in a material world and consumerism is all around us. We use objects and then we throw them out or get rid of them. Even throw them out is a phrasal verb that is of wide use. Obviously having a basis in the English language helps in the learning of this new expression and associating the ‘getting rid’ with what is discarded or thrown out is part of our wasteful culture and can be identified with and learned easily compared to harder expressions.

Other useful expressions also abound in the material world such stretching out your dollar. It consists of the phrasal verb to stretch out which means extending something physically. When the dollar is added,  the spending power of money is suggested. So to stretch out your dollar would be to extend the ability of your spending power. In this perois of recessions being able to stretch your dollar would refer to making larger savings than before.

It is recommended that the student then associate phrasal verbs and the expressions they are found in to those fields of interest they would have to talk about. They do no however have to use them as classical forms of English work quite well is expressing the same thing.