I played around with making a comic strip as a teaching tool. I thought this would be an interesting way to show how idioms work. Often, I have seen role-playing as the primary tool to teach how idioms work. Usually, the teacher then has to explicitly explain what the idiom means because the students still didn't understand the meaning. I think this is because the students are more focused on the performers (fellow students) rather than the performance itself. Also, this practice can be uncomfortable for the students who are performing the role play in front of the other students. I think creating a fun comic strip like the one I created would be a less stressing situation for everyone. It also keeps the students interested. These comics can be worked into explaining many different scenarios between people therefore they can be used to explain many different exchanges between characters. It isn't as authentic as the actual role play but I think it would provide more positive washback. Finally, you can assign scenarios for the students to create in their own comics to show to the class.
I think having the students create the comics would be a good way to check for true comprehension of the idioms.
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