Food for Thought: idioms and proverbs in the teaching of EFL

Proverbs and idioms are considered here to be a subtype of phraseology, whose knowledge is necessary for native and non-native speakers of a language to communicate effectively.. From a cultural point of view, they can also be referred to as stereotypes forming the basis of the linguistic world image of every community of speakers. The main goal of teaching these fixed expressions to learners of English is to make them understand any message written or spoken in a native-like English. This article offers a working distinction of idioms and proverbs, details of their syntactic structures and a brief practical guide to Teachers of EFL.