Idioms or collocation?

Hi

In your opinion, what do you think would be more beneficial to teach international academic students, idioms or collocation? and why do you think that is?

Thank you

Natalia.s said:

Hi

In your opinion, what do you think would be more beneficial to teach international academic students, idioms or collocation? and why do you think that is?

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I think idioms are more fun.

Natalia.s said:

Hi

In your opinion

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***** NOT A TEACHER *****

In my opinion, your international academic students would benefit more from idioms.

1. The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar (1994) by Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner lists the following as idioms:

under the weather, for crying out loud, paint the town red, etc.

2. The same book gives some examples of collocation:

a. the foresight to do it. Not: the foresight of doing it.
b. break off an engagement. Not: discontinue an engagement.

3. That book reminds us that in "some cases there is no very clear distinction between idiom, collocation, and fixed phrase."

4. I think that idioms would really entertain -- and educate -- your students; collocation, on the other hand, might bore them to tears.

Re:


In my opinion, you would save some time if you'd just pick one.

I agree with the others that idioms are more fun. However, collocations are more useful in terms of your students constructing grammatically correct sentences and being able to speak/write without that common marker of being a non-native.

not a teacher

Both of them. But in think idioms is more important because it will help your students in paragraph, essays. Because when i was i high school, my teacher took 1 month and a half to teach me abt idioms. I had to learn by heart and be tested many times.

That way of teaching idioms used to be common. Believe it or not I (in England, in a class of native speakers) was exposed to that method (about 55 years ago ).

b