Add colour to your language

Manaswini Sridhar

Idioms are an integral part of any language; additionally, they lend the language its character and richness. Idioms make the speaker sound more fluent, natural, and of course more interesting. Idioms are also able to voice a thought much more succinctly and therefore cut down on verbiage. For instance, instead of explaining at length that you think what someone else has is much more appealing than what you have, but you are fully aware deep inside that you are actually downplaying all the positives on your side, you can express the thought in a nutshell (!) by saying: The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence; or if you want to be more crisp: The grass is always greener.

Our school textbooks are generously strewn with idioms so that students are introduced to them in print, savour them, and then internalize them so that they become a part of their own language system. Unfortunately, most students continue to graduate to the next few classes without the slightest clue of what an idiom is since they only have a blurred idea of the meaning and fumble through the idiom exercises, emerging none the wiser!

How do we warrant that students pause to reflect on the meaning of idioms so that they can learn to use them in their speech and writing in order to make the writing and their conversation richer and more engaging?

http://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/colour-idioms-list-and-their-meanings/ is a very educative site that lists 90 colour idioms, explaining them and also using them in sentences so that the reader has a clearer idea of the meaning and the usage. Teachers could use the site to help students expand their vocabulary, and students too could actually do this work independently since the site is self-explanatory. But then, if wishes were horses….and the rulers of teachers were magic wands! As teachers, we know that we need to step in to design a method to encourage and assist students master the idioms and use them actively in everyday speech and writing.

Let’s have a look at some of the colour idioms listed on the website. A student who reads the sentence, The thief was caught red handed may figure out that the thief indeed did not escape, but the student may not necessarily understand that the thief was caught while committing the crime. Another sentence like Charlie is grandma’s blue-eyed boy may be interpreted to be a grandson with blue eyes (and that could also be true as far as the story or the lesson is concerned!). Similarly, does the sentence I was in the dark about the surprise party mean that I was in a place where there was no sunlight or light? What does the child decipher from such sentences? Does the child just stumble over them without understanding the full import and in the process ignore what could be an opportunity to enrich his/her language? Regrettably, this is what happens in most cases. Let us see if it is possible to take the students through idioms in a guided manner.

Put together a set of 13 pictures, any random pictures of your choice, and think of what colour idioms they could be associated with. They may not all be easy, but if the students have already been introduced to the idioms, it should not prove to be a cumbersome or an impossible task.

After the idioms have been explained at length and the students are able to associate a colour meaningfully with the idiom, students could be asked to recall the idiom at the sheer mention of a colour. For instance, if the teacher calls out red, the students should be able to recall all the three idioms associated with the colour. This is an easier way of remembering than randomly committing the words to memory. It will help students recall the idioms in their speech and writing.

The next important step is to help students use the idioms in writing. A simple form of this drill would be the conventional fill in the blanks exercise in which students choose the correct option from the brackets; the next step would be to choose the correct option from the box.

For the teacher to have an idea of the knowledge transfer that has (or has not!) taken place, students could be asked to replace a phrase with an idiom, as in the following exercise.

Replace the italicized words with idioms from the box. The first one has been done for you.

My aunt was going to visit us. I was not very happy because she thought I was the bad one (black sheep) in the family. Everyone else was brilliant and I was very, very average. Well, what can I do? I was not born so fortunate or lucky! My mother was very excited because (fortunately for me!) my aunt visited us very rarely. My mother thought her sister was very kind-hearted because she always got a lot of presents from my aunt. My sister too got a lot of presents, but then she had to wait for my mother to say yes before she took them. But then, in my sister’s case, my mother never said no! Father looked frightened because my aunt was quite the challenge to handle. I wanted to say something rude about my aunt, but my father gave me a warning look.

My aunt came in that huge car of hers. She looked very angry, but she looked healthy as always, unlike my mother, who always looked ill. Hugging my mother, she said, “I can see that your plants are doing well as always. You have always had such a fine way with plants.” Mother was of course delighted with her sister’s comments. Then my aunt turned to me and said, “Well now, I believe you were discovered doing something wrong in school. Isn’t that a shame?” And so it went on….

A more challenging and advanced version of the exercise would be to have students substitute from memory the colour idioms that they have already learned. Students may complain about the complexity of the exercise, but as teachers, we are fully aware that the more they oil the brain, the better it works, and the more beneficial it is to them!

Students with higher level competence could be asked to write a passage similar to the one above, using idioms that they have learned in class. This would be a writing exercise requiring the student to use his/her imagination, weaving in all the words that he/she has learned. There would be little or no scope for plagiarism and students would never forget what they have learned because they have worked actively on it.

The author is a teacher educator and language trainer based in Hyderabad. She can be reached at manaswinisridhar@gmail.com.