The weekly column

Article 16, June 2000

INCREASING LEARNERS' VOCABULARY AWARENESS USING IDIOMS CONTAINING ANIMAL NAMES

by Rolf Palmberg

Department of Teacher Education
Abo Akademi University
Finland

Editor's note: Rolf Palmberg's article discusses using the program "Ghosts & Animals", which allows students to practise idioms containing animal names on their or their school's computer. The program is free and can be downloaded by clicking here. More information on setting up and using the program can be found at the end of the article.

The purpose of the lesson plan outlined below is to suggest ways of increasing EFL learners' vocabulary awareness using idioms and expressions containing animal names. The lesson plan is divided into three parts and it presupposes that the learners have access to the computer program Ghosts & Animals. The suggested activities are primarily aimed at secondary and upper-secondary level EFL learners but can of course be modified to suit other learners as well.

Suggested pre-computer activities

Ask the learners, individually or in pairs, to prepare lists of idioms and expressions containing animal names in their mother tongue or in English. If needed, you may have to provide some examples to get them started. After a while, ask the learners to form new pairs and to share their findings and discuss what their idioms and expressions mean.

Suggested computer activities

Ask the learners, in pairs, to work with the program Ghosts & Animals and list all the animal names they come across. Ask them also to make a note of whether they like or dislike the idioms and whether they think the animal names appear in positive, neutral or negative contexts. The learners may need bilingual dictionaries while working with the program in order to look up the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Suggested post-computer activities

Arrange the learners in groups of four, and ask them to discuss any of the following topics (these are only examples; you - or your students! - can easily come up with similar topics to discuss):

• In general, are the English idioms that contain animal names rendered by idioms containing animal names also in your mother tongue? If so, do the two languages use the same animals or different ones?

• What animals tend to appear mostly in negative contexts? What animals tend to appear mostly in positive contexts? What do you think is the reason for this? Is this true also for animal idioms in your mother tongue?

• What idioms did you come across that do not exist in your mother tongue?

• What idioms did you come across that are rendered using totally different analogies in your mother tongue? Which one(s) do you prefer? Why?

• Which of idioms or expressions that you came across do you like the most/the least? Why?

• Invent some totally new idioms or expressions containing animal names. Invite your classmates to guess what (you think) they mean.

For homework, ask the learners to write an essay where they use, in context, at least ten of the idioms that were new to them.

Ghosts & Animals - about the program

When the program starts, it requests the learners to type in animal names in English, and all accepted entries are displayed on the screen. When at least five different animal names have been entered correctly, the learners can start testing their knowledge of idioms and expressions containing animal names.

During the first part of the program (with the suggested animal names still displayed on the screen), 10 randomly selected idioms or expressions containing these animal names appear on the screen, one idiom or expression at the time. In these idioms and expressions the animal name has been replaced by the word 'ghost' (or 'ghosts', if the original word is in the plural). The idiom "to flog a dead horse", for example, would come out as "to flog a dead ghost", leaving the learners with the task of choosing the correct animal name for the word 'ghost'.

After each answer, the cumulative percentage of correct learner responses is displayed on the screen together with the correct answer (provided that the animal name suggested was not the wanted one). The learners can now go on to the next idiom, or, they can request an explanation or definition of the idiom and then continue.

When the learners have finished the first set of idioms and expressions, they may continue with the second part of the program. The list of animal names displayed on the screen will disappear, and from now on the idioms and expressions appearing on the screen will also contain animal names other than those appearing during the first part of the program (and, as an additional spice of excitement, the word 'ghost' itself). The task will thus be more difficult for two reasons; firstly, the learners must activate their productive vocabulary knowledge as they can no longer choose the correct answer from a given list of animal names, and, secondly, they will regularly come across new (or at least unexpected) animal names.

The second part of the program goes on until the learners decide to quit (the idioms are selected randomly by the computer, so some of the items will inevitably reappear at some point). As in the first part, the cumulative percentage of correct responses is displayed on the screen after each learner response (together with the correct answer whenever necessary), and the learners can then request an English explanation or definition of the idiom or expression in question.

The program can be used for two main purposes. It can either be used to revise and find out more about idioms and expressions containing specific animal names (by concentrating on the first part of the program) or, it can be used to practise or learn (whichever is appropriate) animal idioms and expressions in general (by concentrating on the second part of the program).

To download the program (for PC computers only), click here.

Rolf Palmberg has been training FL teachers for twenty years at Åbo Akademi University in Vasa, Finland. His publications include two Swedish-language books (a book containing communicative activities for learners of Swedish as a second language - co-written with Olav Palmqvist - and an introduction to CALL), about 50 articles in international journals and magazines, and about 50 CALL programs. He has given presentations at conferences in Finland, Sweden, Poland, Norway, Belgium, Australia, Singapore, Greece, the Soviet Union (Estonia), Hongkong, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

Questions or comments about this week's article? Why not post them on our Discussion Forum!