Idioms for Everyday Use - Student Book

I've been teaching English as a Second language and as a Foreign language for several years now and have looked over hundreds of textbooks. For what this books aims to do, it accomplishes perfectly. Each unit introduces the set of idioms to be learned in a kind of story, which creates a context for the idioms. The students then are to guess the meaning of some of the idioms by talking together. This makes for a great warm-up. Next the idioms are presented with their definitions. This is the time for the teacher to go over the meanings and check any unfamiliar vocabulary. After that section, the same idioms are presented in a concept-check section. For example, "Nora has a big test tomorrow and hasn't studied. Is she on pins and needles? Why or why not?" This discussion section is invaluable in solidifying the students' understanding of the idioms. After that section, the students are to fill in the blanks with the best word. Since idioms must be used word-for-word in order to sound natural, this is great practice. For example, "She's so smart. She's ___ sharp as ___ tack." or They worked hard so they finished the project ___ no time flat." Next, the students are presented with a selection of idioms used in sample conversations. I have them go over the conversations and try to work on their pronunciation as they do so. After that (and this is my favorite part) the students are to work in pairs and create their own conversation, using three idioms from the unit. Finally, once the students have performed their dialogs for the class and have been given feedback, there is a set of discussion questions as a cool-down. Each lesson can easily fill a 90-minute class. If you only have an hour then you can skip the story at the beginning and the discussion questions at the end. I can't recommend this book enough, as I have never had a class fall flat while using it. One caveat, though. Some of the units are harder than others: some are suitable for intermediate + while others are more for upper-intermediate +. I tried teaching lower-intermediate students a lesson once and, while it was interesting, it took too long to get through the material and in the end I regretted aiming too high. Lessons could be adapted for lower levels if you were to teach half of the idioms presented one class and the other half the next class.

I tutor privately and have been teaching ESL for more than 10 years. I've tried other idiom books but have given up on them because their definitions, examples, and exercises are off the mark and/or more confusing than the idioms themselves. Ms. Broukal has done an outstanding job of presenting idioms in easily understood terms with simple but clear example paragraphs and sentences. The supporting exercises are excellent. I use the book with all of my students, and I've given it as a gift to several of my non-native-English-speaking friends. I highly recommend this book. Ms. Broukal, if you read this, how about writing volume 2?

I have spent years and years trying to find ways to have my son who is learning disabled to learn with out thinking he is and to strengthen the absoluted gifted younger sister who has strong language arts. My son is so literal when I said to him at a younger age, it is raining cats and dogs he went to the window to look. In our area, the kids are taught way above grade level and the method of writing employed is called the 6 plus traits of writing. The strongest emaphaisis is placed on writing a strory or paper that a person can touch, feel and experience. It is not to be a paper of my summer was fun. I took classes in art. I went to a fun day camp and we sailed. I took swim lessons and did a back flip. We went to Tahoe and went to the beach and we took a raft ride down the truckee. My summer was great. Boring! So the book we reviewed a little at a time and this is what my daugter wrote" with some more help of a little at a time studying idioms to understand others in conversation and to help to describe and to understand the idioms that if taken literaly are scary and make no sense. So they say pick on part of summer. Hers. After waiting for so long, for what seemed to be the as long as it takes a beauetiful Oak Tree to grow, the Trukee River was so perfect for Rafting it brouht tears of joy to my mom's eyes. Rafting on the truckee is like calling a cat a Lion. The River is so smooth, like the fur of a plush cat but with claws of the branches on the side and a few rocks to bounce off of and have fun like a ball in a pin ball machine, It was important to my mom for us to go on the river after years of disppointment of the droughts and her illness preventing her from taking us and my dad not interested. We fought over the oars, and my mom wanted to float and bounce off the rocks, reminding us of our favorite river raft ride at California Adventure. Then, when just floating, and my brother, his friend and I were fiighting like cats and dogs oer the oars, although my mom says alot of cats and dogs don't fight, we got stuck in the branches and the rocks on the side. My mom laughed and thought of the fun of bouncing and wanted to stop to swim. We did and although we were not so willing at first my brothers friend was having so much fun we got in. My mom was right. We had a blast and she knew, she told us later that we could swim and laugh or row hard and finish the finish line. Swimming and laughing was her decision and she came and joined us. We splashed and then splashed the complaining Malia, the person to help my mom, and now she even laughed, It was so fun. My mom called us back to the boat and now we did not like this and yet then again we wanted to cross the finish line in record time. My mom wanted to enjoy the stillness but our nanny with us took an oar determined to get to the end, so again the push, and the next thing we knew she was falling off the boat her legs in the air and moving back and

I bought this book as a supplement to the ESL tutoring I do on the side while I'm in graduate school getting a TESOL degree. I found that this book not only has good exercises and excellent organization, it also utilizes idioms that are very commonly used and are important for students to learn if they want to communicate with the average American. I highly recommend this book for anyone tutoring ESL students.

I used this book when I was teaching executives of DaimlerChrysler from Germany. Each lesson is self-contained and tells a brief and humorous story along a particular theme using paritcular idioms that fit the theme.This is a fun book to use and to teach from. The exercises and great and challenging. I highly recommend this book!