Formal Writing and Research Workshop

Synthesis of the Case

Mateo is a five year-experience English as a Foreign Language teacher (EFL) in Mexico and has been
teaching B1 students at a private school for the past 4 years.

This is the first time he will be teaching a C1 class. Mateo’s group is formed by 12 girls and nine boys,
ages 16 and 17. The program he must follow focuses on developing the four skills of language and requires
a textbook with a communicative approach.

This year, the school authorities want teachers to add some initial training for an international standardized
test to measure all four skills of language from an academic English perspective.

All the students are a little concerned about this preparation because it is part of the assessment criteria,
but they are not familiar with the type of exercises used in this sort of exam. After the first practice test,
students realized there is a lack of knowledge for the vocabulary section.

Therefore, some of them would really like to have a better grasp of idioms and collocations. They have
been attempting to use such phrases learned from the audio recordings, but oftentimes they fail to apply
them accurately.

Mateo thinks this could be mostly because of two factors: lack of vocabulary and the young age of his
students. Another particularity he singles out is the fact that students find it both hilarious, and nonsensical
when doing a literal translation of the idioms from English into Spanish.

All of this has made Mateo reflect on how he could make the most of his students’ level, their curiosity,
and the type of training course he is in charge of. He has set himself two clear goals: a) to get his students
to understand and use the idiomatic phrases they need to learn as part of their preparation and b) to
engage learners in the topic of semi-fixed colloquial expressions which is a pragmatic component of all
languages.

2. Consignas por resolver

1. Analyze the relevance of the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis in EFL teaching.

2. Justify the reason why a foreign language teacher should teach and contrast idiomatic expressions
between his/her students’ L1 and L2.
3. Contrast the similarities and differences between idioms and collocations.
4. Design three vocabulary activities to use in standardized test preparation to teach the use of
idiomatic expressions at C1 level.
5. Integrate evidence of language transfer in the linguistic performance of C1 English learners at any
language level: phonologic, morphologic, syntactic, semantic or pragmatic.
6. Evaluate whether using idiomatic language must be considered as an indicator of second language
proficiency or not.
7. Design a lesson plan for a C1 English class where the presented topic is the contrast of idioms and
collocations. Include the elements for lesson planning such as: class description, objectives, class
starter, content presentation, practice, closure, teacher’s notes and teaching materials and
resources.