2. Idioms: in the world, the classroom and English as a Lingua Franca

3. What is… English as a Lingua Franca?

4. ‘English when it used as a contact language between people from different languages (including native English speakers)’ (Jenkins, 2014: 24).

5. EFL L1 ESL E L FE L F

6. What is the place of idiomaticity in English as a Lingua Franca?

7. Native English metaphors and idioms are local forms that do not have international currency (Jenkins, 2014: 54)

8. idiomatic usage, slang, phrasal verbs, puns, proverbs, cultural allusions and the like...as far as EIL is concerned, this sort of knowledge of the English language is ‘irrelevant’...if ELF is to succeed as a worldwide lingua franca. Its speakers will have to avoid this sort of cultural baggage. (Jenkins, 2000: 220).

9. Spot the idiom…!

10. POLONIUS: My honourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you. ? ?

12. HAMLET: You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life.

13. HAMLET: Sir, I lack advancement. ROSENCRANTZ: How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark? HAMLET: Ay, but sir, 'While the grass grows,’ - the proverb is something musty. ? ?

14. HAMLET: Sir, I lack advancement. ROSENCRANTZ: How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark? HAMLET: Ay, but sir, 'While the grass grows,’ - the proverb is something musty.

15. While the grass grows the good horse starves (first attested 1350)

16. To content myself, according to this English proverb that it is my hap to starve like a horse, while the grass doth grow (letter, Edward de Vere 1576) While the grass grows the good horse starves (first attested 1350)

17. SHYLOCK: Do as I bid you; shut doors after you: Fast bind, fast find; A proverb never stale in thrifty mind. ? ?

18. SHYLOCK: Do as I bid you; shut doors after you: Fast bind, fast find; A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.

19. ROMEO: A torch for me. Let wantons light of heart Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels. For I am proverb’d with a grandsire phrase, I’ll be a candle holder, and look on. ? ?

20. ROMEO: A torch for me. Let wantons light of heart Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels. For I am proverb’d with a grandsire phrase, I’ll be a candle holder, and look on.

21. The idiomatic puzzle

22. What I’d like to demonstrate today. Here and 1____, all things being 2______, And time waiting for no 3______, Is to explain, and, at this point in 4_____, Without further 5______, it might be appropriate To reflect on the matter in 6______, In other words, so to 7______, what I mean by this, without Jumping on any specific 8_______, And please feel 9_____ to Contradict me, as I’ve often said, And I think this is particularly Relevant, indeed I could Go on about it at some 10______, At the end of the 11_____, despite All appearances to the 12______ Life is not always a bowl of 13________.

23. What I’d like to demonstrate today. Here and 1____, all things being 2______, And time waiting for no 3______, Is to explain, and, at this point in 4 time, Without further 5______, it might be appropriate To reflect on the matter in 6______, In other words, so to 7______, what I mean by this, without Jumping on any specific 8_______, And please feel 9_____ to Contradict me, as I’ve often said, And I think this is particularly Relevant, indeed I could Go on about it at some 10______, At the end of the 11_____, despite All appearances to the 12______ Life is not always a bowl of 13________. now man equal ado hand speak bandwagon free length day contrary cherries

24. The problem is often one of collocation… Gwyneth Fox

25. Hercule Poirot… On a wild gooseberry hunt… ? ?

26. colligation…

27. ‘Aha!’ said Poirot. ‘Aha! Mon Dieu! Japp that gives one to think, does it not?’ I saw that it had certainly not given Japp to think.’

28. ‘Aha!’ said Poirot. ‘Aha! Mon Dieu! Japp that MAKES YOU THINK, does it not?’ I saw that it had certainly NOT MADE Japp THINK’

29. What can happen to idioms in the classroom?

30. I learnt how to make Turkish coffee easily, but Italian espresso was a completely different kettle of fishes. ? ?

31. When the new cook started work, Basil was always pulling his legs ? ?

32. Mrs Johnson said she was glad to see Pablo’s back ? ?

33. Don’t worry about the kids arguing it’s just a storm in a cup of tea ? ?

34. Raffaella was having an argument with her sister when she suddenly turned me on ? ?

35. I’d forgotten that Mrs Mathews’ sister died last week, so when I asked who the photograph was of, I really put my foot on it. ? ?

36. What do we mean by idiomaticity?

37. an idiom is a combination of two or more words which function as a unit of meaning. (Cowie and Mackin, 1975).

38. Type Cliches, fixed expressions Pragmatic idioms Collocations Binomials, trinomials ‘colourful’ idioms Proverbs and sayings Quotations, allusions Discourse Markers Phrasal verbs Colligations Compounds One-offs Examples The wages of sin; the coast is clear Pleased to meet you; say when River+rise; make+application heavy+fine Bed and breakfast; hook, line and sinker Red herring; fly off the handle, run the gauntlet It never rains but it pours; kill two birds To be or not to be; the best laid-schemes You know; I mean; of course, sort of Take off; make up for It is interesting/likely/true that Dry cleaner; phonecard Kith and kin; arms akimbo; by dint of; on bended knees

39. What can happen to idioms in the world?

40. - It’s raining kittens and puppies - It’s like putting the cat before the horse

41. What type of idiomaticity is this?

42. the Iraq Dossier had been ‘sexed up’… BBC defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan. 29 May 2003. Alastair Cambell, Blair’s ‘Spin Doctor’.

43. Whenever I really don't want to do something I say: Wild horses on their bended knees...wouldn't get me etc.

44. Wild horses couldn’t drag me away

45. Whenever I really don't want to do something I say: Wild horses on their bended knees...wouldn't get me etc.

46. What is Creative Idiomaticity?

47. on and off / off and on built-in/in-built drag your feet/heels take the biscuit/take the cake Regular variation

48. Creative idiomaticity Irregular variation

49. get one's knickers in a twist ? ?

50. University organisation is a bit of a mess, they have their knickers in a twist with time tables…

51. The stuff that most people get their knickers in a tangle over Somebody’s really being getting her drawers in a twist What seems to have got twisted is somebody’s knickers

52. Why is idiomaticity important?

53. Idiomaticity = fluency? ? ?

54. Idioms in the classroom

55. tested ? ?

56. What is the idiomatic paradox in ELF?

57. The idiomatic paradox for the L1-user, idiomaticity makes for fluency, while in L2 use L1 idiomaticity seems, in some of its manifestations at least, to be error-prone and elusive

58. Why is L1 idiomaticity elusive for L2 users?

59. Idiomaticity embodies shared knowledge and culture

60. ‘It was one of my mother's expressions. An amalgamation of two idioms …’ (Antoinette Moses) Wild horses on their bended knees

61. Idioms in English as a Lingua Franca

62. What happens when shared knowledge and shared culture are absent?

63. ‘unilateral idiomaticity’ situations in ELF when

64. situations in ELF when one of the interlocutors uses an idiomatic expression which the other participant does not understand

65. Rafael Benitez was manager of Liverpool football club.

66. under the cosh

67. Journalist : Rafa, you seemed to be under the cosh a little bit, didn't you? ? ?

68. Rafa Benitez: Yes, I thought we played very good football and we pressed and pressed them and did well to convert our chances.

69. But...

70. ELF flows

71. EFL L1 ESL E L FE L F

72. ELFELFL1 EFL

73. Benitez: Some people cannot see a priest on a mountain of sugar

74. Benitez: We have a saying in Spanish: White liquid in a bottle has to be milk ? ?

75. 'One should not mix frogs and grandmothers!'

76. Our Minister of Foreign Affairs, became a 'hero' of many jokes after he said this at an important meeting of the Council of Europe. Trying to explain our complicated history regarding Kosovo he said (and stayed alive!): 'One should not mix frogs and grandmothers!'

77. Is it a level playing field for L1 and L2 users?

78. ‘I was drinking like a horse’ ? ?

79. ‘when you try and play with idioms, like those fixed ones...er...you know, there was this …this party we had, you know, I was drinking like a horse and...er...then I was told that you say drink like a fish but eat like a horse and...er...my intention was that there was so much to drink and to eat that I wanted to …I wanted to blend the two idioms and come up with something new and original and I was sort of punished for that’ (laughs) Is it a level playing field for L1 and L2 users?

80. you can say that again!

81. ‘yesterday I said something to a group of teachers and one of them commented ‘you can say that again!’ Humorously, I said ‘OK, I'll say it again’ and repeated myself more emphatically - she said, ‘no, I actually meant that I agreed with you’. The assumption was, of course, that the meaning of the idiom had been lost on me!’ (L2-user). Is it a level playing field for L1 and L2 users?

82. Sybil: No, Polly doesn’t forget things. Basil: Doesn’t she? Sybil: Can you remember the last time she did ? Basil: No, I can’t but then my memory isn’t very good Sybil: You can say that again. Basil: Can I dear? Oh, thank you...I’ve forgotten what it was.

83. The point is that as language teachers, we should never forget that issues of power and language are intimately connected. For example, it is unfair, but nevertheless true, that native speakers of a language are permitted to create neologisms, as I have done with ‘grammaring’. Such a coinage, however, might have been corrected if a nonnative speaker of English had been its author. (Larsen-Freeman, 2003, p. 64)

84. conclusion

85. idiomatic usage, slang, phrasal verbs, puns, proverbs, cultural allusions and the like’...(are) ‘irrelevant’ if ELF is to succeed as a worldwide lingua franca. (Jenkins, 2000: 220).

86. ‘L2-users create their own formulas which are not necessarily TL formulas’ (Weinert, 1995: 194)

87. ‘ELF speakers are found to use idiomatic language in innovative ways resulting in the creation of idioms that do not exist in ENL’ (Jenkins, 2014: 34)

88. ‘These idioms involve both the influence of the speakers’ first language and the desire to accommodate towards an interlocutor to enhance understanding’ (Jenkins, 2014: 34)

89. ‘ELF speakers will poach on L1 linguistic territory when it suits them and when they are able to do so ’ (Luke P 2008: 251)

90. ‘L2 use of phraseology may be different from, but on an equal footing with, their L1-user counterparts’ (Luke P 2008: 252)

91. What can we do with idiomaticity in the ELF classroom?

92. Encourage Intercultural understanding and accommodation

93. Justice Shallow: ‘Better accommodated’ …it is good, yea indeed is it. Good phrases are surely, and ever were, very commendable. ‘Accommodated’ …it comes of accommodo…very good, a good phrase.

94. Aim for comfortable intelligibility

95. Encourage creativity Accept variation

96. testing

97. Shuttling between varieties…

98. We have to move from an either/or orientation in the testing to debate to a both and more perspective Canajarajah, 2006: 233-239

99. Posing the options as either ‘native English norms’ or ‘new Englishes norms’ is misleading – a proficient speaker of English in the postmodern world needs both. That is the ability to negotiate varieties… Canajarajah, 2006: 233-239

100. (testing) should be performance- based…(it) should demonstrate pragmatic competence…there is no place for universal proficiency in English-language testing anymore Canajarajah, 2006: 233-239

101. ‘Suit the action to the word, the word to the action’

102. Or… ‘Horses for courses’

103. In the classroom: principles exposure to idiomaticity explore intercultural idiomaticity share and revel in idiomatic variety encourage creativity accept hybridity

104. ‘noticing’ activities translation paraphrase contrastive idiomaticity songs poems newspapers podcasts the internet set up interactive contexts idioms in discourse In the classroom: practice

105. EFL L1 ESL E L FE L F

106. ELFELFL1 EFL

107. ‘fluency is not too different from the way a skilled jazz musician can enter someone else’s composition’ (Duranti, 1997)

108. ‘ELF: a jointly- performed dance’ (Aston, 1993: 228)

109. References and Further reading Allen. R. 2006. Allen’s English Phrases. Penguin. Aston, G. 1993. ‘Notes on the interlanguage of comity.’ In G. Kasper and S. Blum-Kulka (eds.) 224-250. Canagarajah, S. 2006. ‘Changing Communicative Needs, Revised Assessment Objectives: Testing English as an International Language’. Language Assessment Quarterly. 3/3: 229-242. Carter, R. 2004. Language and Creativity: The Art of Common Talk. Routledge. Clark, W. 1998 Longman Idioms Dictionary. Longman Cogo, A and M. Dewey. 2012. Analyzing English as a Lingua Franca: a corpus-driven investigation. Continuum. Dendrinos, B. 2002. ‘The Marketization of the (counter) discourses of English as a Global (ising) Language. In Kalantzis, M, Varnava,-Skoura, G and Cope, B (eds) Learning for the Future: New Worlds, New Literacies, New Learning, New People. Australia: Common Ground Publishing. 241-255. Duranti, 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge University Press. Fernando, C. 1996. Idioms and Idiomaticity. Oxford University Press. Jenkins, J. 2000. The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford University Press. Jenkins, J. 2014. English as a Lingua Franca in the International University. Routledge. Kasper, G. and S. Blum-Kulka, (eds.) 1993. Interlanguage Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press. Langlotz, A. 2006. Idiomatic Creativity. John Benjamins. Larsen-Freeman, D. 2003. Teaching Language: From Grammar to Grammaring. Heinle ELT Mauranen, A and E. Ranta, 2010. English as a Lingua Franca: studies and findings. Cambridge Scholars Mackenzie, I. 2014. English as a Lingua Franca: theorizing and teaching English. Routledge. O’Regan, J.P. 2014. ‘English as a lingua franca: An Immanent Critique’. In: Applied Linguistics 1-21 Prodromou, L. 2005. ‘You see, it’s tricky for the L2-user: the puzzle of idiomaticity in English as a Lingua Franca’. PhD Thesis. Nottingham University. Prodromou, L. 2010. English as a Lingua Franca. Continuum Riggenbach, H. 2000. Perspectives on Fluency. University of: Michigan Press. Seidlhofer, B. 2009. ‘Accommodation and the idiom principle in English as a Lingua Franca’. In Intercultural Pragmatics, 6-2: 195-215. Seidlhofer, B. 2011. Understanding English as a Lingua Franca. Oxford University Press. Sifakis, N. 2007. ‘The education of teachers of English as a lingua franca: a transformative perspective’. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 17/3: 355-375. Weinert, R. 1995. ‘The role of formulaic language in second language acquisition: a review.’ Applied Linguistics 16/2: 180-205.

110. lukep@otenet.gr