Learning English idioms: traditional approach and modern online opportunities

Аннотация

This article discusses the problem of teaching English idioms in a non-linguistic university. The imaginative and emotional potential of idiomatic expressions of professional vocabulary used to describe various topics makes it possible to attract these units of language to increase the educational motivation of students, to develop general cultural and linguistic competence. Keywords: teaching methodology, non-linguistic university, idiomatic expression, idiom, motivation, linguistic competence, educational problem, electronic resource. The problem of expanding the vocabulary of students has always been in the focus of attention of linguists and methodologists working in the field of teaching foreign languages. One of the ways to enrich the dictionary is the study of figurative means of language, among which idiomatic expressions occupy a special place. There is an opinion that the study of idioms is unnecessarily time-consuming and does not justify the effort due to their limited use in productive speech. However, it is impossible not to recognize the fact that ignorance of idioms can significantly complicate the perception of authentic English speech in both audio and text format. As a rule, students show great interest in idioms because of their expressiveness. And the factor of interest as a way of motivation to learn a language is very valuable and must be used. Idioms can be considered as an effective tool to increase motivation in the learning process for a number of reasons. Firstly, they reflect the national culture, the peculiarities of everyday life, customs and traditions of the country of the studied language, are part of the linguistic picture of the world and include students in the practice of intercultural communication. Familiarity with the etymology of idioms often generates vivid associative connections, which makes it easier to remember them. For example, the idiom to bury the hatchet means 'to reconcile, to restore friendly relations'. The idiom has historical roots. During the Indian Wars, in 156 order to conclude peace, the belligerents had to literally bury, bury their axes. Another idiom - nuclear option - means 'last resort, last resort'. The appearance of this idiom is associated with the sad facts of the tragedy of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The idiom baptism of fire means 'the first difficult experience' and refers us to the Christian religious tradition of Baptism. Thus, the mastery of phraseological units goes in parallel with the study of history, expanding the horizons of students, enriching their cultural experience. Secondly, the study of idioms is necessary, as it develops the linguistic competence of students, arouses interest in the expressive means of language. The neutral phrase very quickly is much less expressive than the corresponding idiom before you can say knife. In addition to emotional content, students get used to catching connotative shades of meaning. For example, the Chair Force idiom means 'office workers' and expresses a somewhat derogatory emotional and evaluative attitude adopted in the US Air Force to those who do not fly. The consonance of the words air-chair also works to create the desired effect. The phonetic similarity of the components of an idiom often works to create a certain stylistic effect. For example, the idiom full battle rattle means 'full combat gear'. It usually includes a bulletproof vest, helmet, night vision device, weapons, ammunition, sleeping bag, food rations, water. In motion, all this equipment creates a certain noise (rattle). Knowledge of idioms allows you to use different stable expressions to convey one thought without losing emotional potential. Thus, the ability to apply linguistic synonymy develops. For example, the idiom in the trenches, which means 'on the most difficult site, on the front line, in the trenches', has a synonym on the frontlines. The idiom back on the block, which means 'on the citizen', has a synonym in civvy street. Thus, all of the above proves that idiomatic expressions have characteristics that arouse genuine interest of the trainees. They have a positive effect on the level of motivation when mastering English. The world of idioms is fascinating, informative, motivates students to learn the language, but it is very difficult. Analyzing the difficulties that arise when studying idioms, it should be noted that those idioms that attract trainees are at the same time a source of many problems in the educational process. As noted above, the difficulty of learning idioms is associated with a great dependence of the successful mastery of an idiom on the background knowledge of the trainees. The broader the horizons, the easier it is to understand the origin of the idiom, the connection of its verbal components with the image that is fixed for them. In many cases, an etymological analysis of the idiom is necessary. On the one hand, the history of origin is always interesting, on th