Abstract:

"Education is the art of making man ethical." (Georg Hegel)
A branch of ethics which could interest applied linguists would be applied ethics that can generally define what is fair or unfair for the individual and for the society. In so thinking, a re-reading of collocations (esp. idioms) of every language, English, in particular, illuminates the fact that for a miscellany of reasons, among them, their source of emanation which typically is fed by the grassroots, their inherent colloquialism and intrinsic discourtesy, and the main concern of this study—demoralizations (for the less ethical idiomatic expressions such as to kill two birds with one stone or vent one's spleen that at least would undermine animal rights and that denies the exigencies of educational standards and ideals of every ethno)—they should reconcile with the spirit of education; i.e. a holistic growth of learners. The pedagogic conscience, alongside, has atop its agenda, visions far beyond sheer teaching of prescribed materials. This would by itself enrich the language lexicon, no matter second or first, as learners would re-idiomatize disparaging expressions into loftier notions. To this end, the researchers contrived a qualitative method for inquiry instrumented by a questionnaire, interviews (20 teachers, 40 students) and a corpus analysis of idiomatic constructions available in any well-versed idiom compendium. A two-day treatment of a task-packed lesson plan, audienced by a population of 40 students, was conducted by the researchers in the persona of team-teachers to implement the desired teaching tenet and later elicit feedback for the whole educational metabolism. The data pertained to the truism that such conglomera of teaching would breed better acquirers of language besides avid practitioners of mores.

Keywords:

Ethos, ELT, Collocations, Idioms.