SESSION: COLLOQUIALISMS - FIGURES OF SPEECH

In Session Seven, the emphasis was on literal and figurative meanings of words and phrases. It was pointed out that idioms are expressions that do not necessarily mean what they say. This lesson builds on the ideas developed in Session Seven by showing that colloquialisms also occur in informative text.

1. to reinforce awareness that some words and phrases have dual meanings, both literal and figurative.
   
   
2. to foster independence in using context to infer meaning and
   
   
3. to teach the meaning of some colloquialisms.

1. Illustrates the point that sometimes words do not mean exactly what they say by using expressions from Canada Votes by Linda Granfield, published by Kids Can Press, Toronto, and suggesting:
   
   When we were reading Amelia Bedelia we talked about how a whole expression may sometimes convey a different meaning from the individual words. For example, Amelia Bedelia thought a "telephone operator" was a doctor carrying out surgery on a telephone and that "a big game hunter" was a person looking for large-size versions of the games of checkers and chess.
   
   In the book Canada Votes there is a section called Animal Farm (p.46) that uses expressions that are related to elections and to government. In this section, the author explains such terms as: "dark horse", "sacrificial lamb", "underdog", "lame duck" and "pork barrelling".
   
   When you read this section you will find out what each of these terms means and how we came to use them.