This document provides teaching ideas and activities for instructing students on idioms, collocations, and phrasal verbs. It includes examples of each and suggests having students find examples in news articles, create poems using idioms, act out idioms, and learn about the many ways the word "up" is used in phrasal verbs and collocations. A variety of engaging exercises and online resources are also presented.

1. Fun with Idioms,
Collocations & Phrasal
Verbs
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David Burns
ULICORI – Santa Cruz
18 June 2015

2. David Burns
Facebook: English on the Move
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3. Figurative vs. Literal Language
• Figurative Language:
• Similes and Analogies
• Metaphors and Allegories
• Personification
• Hyperbole

4. Class Activities with Idioms
• Have a different
student learn an idiom
and teach the class.
• Individuals or groups
• Tongue-twisters
• Group activities and
competitions
• Games using current
events, films, You tube,
VOA 60, etc.
• Pantomime activities
to ‘act out’ the idiom

5. Use News Articles
• Have students scan articles for idioms,
collocations and phrasal verbs.
• For English articles: even those with complex
vocabulary can be modified.
• Simplify the language;
shorten the article.
• Teaches current, local
and international
events.

6. More Useful Activities
• Vocabulary
• Reading / Writing
• Poetry / Games
• Speaking/Role
Play
• Translation
• Current Events
• Videos/PBL

7. Speaking - Reading - Writing
• Reading + Writing =
increased fluency.
• Building vocabulary
• Free writing
• Personal writing
• Reading response
• News journal
• Writing/speaking with
prompts
• Group storytelling

8. Poetry
• Ask students to create a poem using idioms, etc.
• Higher level: The content of the poem must
accurately represent the content/meaning of the
idiom.
• Mid level: use key
words to make
poem.
• Lower level: acrostic
poem.
• All levels: Haiku

9. What is an idiom?
• An idiom is a phrase where the words
together have a meaning that is different
from the dictionary definitions of the
individual words.
• This makes it difficult for ESL learners to
understand and master their proper use.
• Can you think of some examples?

10. Idiomatic Expressions
• To bet the farm
• Don’t count your chickens before they
hatch
• A bird in hand is better than two in the
bush.
• The pot calling the kettle black.

11. Class activity with idioms:
• You can use this activity after teaching or
reviewing ‘human body vocabulary’.
• It’s a good warmer exercise or a break in
between lessons.
• Have students stand up and elicit body
parts (adjusted for level).
• Then put your students in groups for the
activity.

13. Break a leg!

15. Put your foot in your mouth!

17. Have butterflies in your stomach!

22. Idioms with Body Parts
• turn up one’s nose
• get out of hand
• catch someone red-handed
• go in one ear and out the other
• fall on deaf ears
• joined at the hip
• loose lips sink ships
• stick your nose in everything
• have a chip on your shoulder
• put your foot in your mouth
• have your finger in many pies
• a slap on the wrist
• beauty is in the eye of the beholder
• pulling your leg
• keep an eye on something

23. More Idioms with Body Parts
• to turn a blind eye
• to put one’s foot down
• to dig in your heels
• to kick up your heels
• to let your hair down
• break a leg
• bury one’s head in the sand
• blood is thicker than water
• Have butterflies in your stomach
• Use elbow grease
• To go belly up
• To have elbow room
• The apple of my eye
• Keep your chin up

33. Itsy-Bitsy Spider
• Itsy-bitsy spider
went up the water spout.
Down came the rain
and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun
and dried up all the rain.
Itsy-bitsy spider
went up the spout again!

34. What are collocations?
• Collocations are a group of words that
are commonly used together.
• Rush hour, catch a cold, soft drinks, etc.

35. Class activity
• After a vocabulary lesson on food, have
students think of common collocations for
those food items.
• Fast food, fresh fruit, junk food, self-serve,
take out.
• Try to think of some collocations with
eggs

36. ‘Eggs’ collocations
• Hard-boiled, soft-boiled eggs
• Sunny-side up eggs
• Over-easy eggs
• Scrambled eggs
• Eggs Benedict
• Egg whites
• Crack an egg; beat an egg
• Runny yolk, solid yolk

37. What are phrasal verbs?
• A phrasal verb is a verb + a preposition
or adverb or particle (usually 2 or 3 word
combinations). The word combination
changes the original meaning of the verb.
• Break away, break down, break up, break
in, break into, break out, break out of, etc.

39. HANG
• Hang + up (+ on)
• Hang + out
• Hang + in + there
• Hang + on
• Hang + over
• Hang + onto
• Hang + around
• Hang + about

40. Class activity: Directions
• After reviewing vocabulary ‘giving
directions’ (left, right, up, down, straight,
back, forward, across, etc).
• Use one of the directions to show how it
can be used with a verb to make a phrasal
verb (particle verb) or collocation.
• Left out, left behind, straight ahead, be
right back, in front of, across from; etc.

41. What about the direction UP?
• This is a great word to give your
students an (exaggerated, yet real)
idea of the complexity of the English
language.
• First, divide them in groups and ask
them to ‘come up’ with as many word
combinations as they can using UP.
• Can you think of some?

42. It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky…
…but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, and
why are the candidates UP for election, and why do bad businesses go
belly UP?
Why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our
friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the
leftovers and clean UP the kitchen and put UP with things we don’t like.
We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car while giving a thumbs UP
to something we like.
People stir UP trouble, line UP to buy tickets, work UP an appetite, and
think UP excuses. A thief sticks UP a bank….

43. UP
To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special!
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a
store in the morning but then we close it UP at night. We seem to be
pretty mixed UP about the word UP!
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun
comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, the earth soaks it
UP. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.
If you are UP to it, you and your students might try building UP a list of
the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you
don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
One could go on & on, but I'll wrap this UP for now because my time is
UP!

44. GREAT online resources!
• http://www.idiomsite.com/
•http://www.englishgateway.com/esl-vocabulary-exercises
•http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/
•http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/
•http://www.speakenglish.biz/idioms.html
•http://www.learn-english-today.com/phrasal-verbs/phrasal-verb-
list.htm
•http://www.eslcafe.com/pv/
•http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/collocations.htm
•http://www.better-english.com/strongcoll.htm
•http://www.eslflow.com/collocationsandphrasalvebs.html
• https://www.facebook.com/VOA60