Preserving cultural heritage by teaching idioms to young learners as part of imaginative language in Setswana

Abstract

Teachers need creative strategies and techniques when teaching idioms in Setswana. However, they do not know what idioms are nor are they aware that through idioms cultural heritage can be preserved and that idioms can be taught as part of imaginative language, especially in Grade 3. As a result, teachers and learners in Grade 3 Setswana classes lack the understanding of the role of idioms and language proficiency in using and writing idioms. The aim of this paper was to show how intervention could help teachers with new strategies for teaching idioms. Constructivism and the five subtheories of decoding idioms were used (Liu 2008). The project consisted of two research-based phases and the findings showed that teachers can now use their own initiative and creativity in language teaching and the learners learned and retained the idioms they have learnt.

Stand in someone’s shoes: Propuesta didáctica sobre idioms y análisis en grupos bilingües y no bilingües de Secundaria

“…Por otra parte, seguimos la clasificación establecida por Gibbs (1987), quien divide las expresiones idiomáticas en tres grandes grupos atendiendo a su transparencia semántica y, por ende, a su nivel de dificultad a la hora de ser aprendidas (Ramagoshi y Joubert, 2016): el primer grupo está integrado por los llamados frozen idioms (expresiones idiomáticas fijas), que, aunque no puedan modificarse sintácticamente, preservan su significado original. El segundo grupo lo constituyen los llamados transparent idioms (expresiones idiomáticas transparentes), cuya definición es más fácil de adquirir y comprender, ya que no existe demasiada distancia entre el significado figurado y el literal.…”