Idioms and Phrasal Verbs forms part of the Oxford Word Skills vocabulary series. It is a series of two books for students to learn, practise, and revise everyday English idioms and phrasal verbs.
There are over 1,000 new idioms and phrasal verbs in each level, and all of the material can be used in the classroom or for self-study.
How are the books organized?
Each book contains 60 units of vocabulary presentation and practice. Units are one or two pages long, depending on the topic. New vocabulary is presented in manageable quantities for learners, with practice exercises following immediately, usually on the same page. The units are grouped together thematically in modules of five to nine units. At the end of each module there are further practice exercises in the review units, so that learners can revise and test themselves on the vocabulary learned.
What are idioms and phrasal verbs? Why teach them together?
Idioms are usually defined as groups of words whose overall meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words. So, over the moon has nothing to do with the literal meaning of "the moon': it means 'extremely happy or excited". An organization that changes hands passes from one owner to another; and if you are in someone's way, you are stopping them from moving or doing something. As these examples illustrate, in some idioms the meaning can be almost impossible to guess out of context, while others are more transparent.
Phrasal verbs consist of two and occasionally three words: a base verb and at least one particle (preposition or adverb). Many phrasal verbs are idiomatic: in other words, the meaning of the verb and particle is different from the base verb on its own. For example, the meanings of give up and give in are quite different from the meaning of give. As with idioms, some phrasal verbs are more transparent than others, e.g. stand up and the most common sense of stand are very similar in meaning, as are sit down and sit. In other words. phrasal verbs can be seen as a type of idiom. although they are often singled out for specific attention in language-teaching materials.
Putting idioms and phrasal verbs together has a linguistic rationale, but perhaps an even greater pedagogic one. A relatively short passage of text - a practical necessity in most language-teaching materials- does not normally produce nine or ten naturally occurring phrasal verbs, but it can easily yield that number if the target language includes both phrasal verbs and idioms. This makes it easier to present the target language in continuous text rather than disconnected sentences, and gives learners more opportunity to see the expressions being used naturally.
