1. Interrogative Pronouns Through Idioms
By Felis Sian

2. Student Profile
Student Profile: Taiwanese students who are seniors in high school.
Students are false beginners of English. Most likely they have been studying English since elementary school.
Most plan to study in a university or work in the U.S. or English speaking country.

3. Why Interrogative Pronouns to Chinese speakers, you ask?
Chinese does not really have question words that are used in the same way.
“Ta shi shei?” – “Who is he?”
“Ni qu zai nar?” – “Where are you going?”
“Ni shenme shihou you shijian?” – “When do you have time?”
“Weishenme ni tai shou le?” – “Why are you too thin?”
“Ni duo jiu keyi shuijiao?” – “How long can you sleep?”
“Ni hao ma?” – “How are you?”

4. Content & Language Objectives

5. Don’t worry, this will be a “piece of cake”
Reminder:
Idioms: an expression with a meaning that is not predictable from the usual meanings of the individual words.

6. It’s All Greek to Me! Review: Prepositional idioms: Figurative idioms:
arrive at (a specific location, a conclusion) – She will arrive at the library before 4pm. arrive in (a city, country) – I will arrive in three days.
part from (leave)—I parted from the group early this year.
part with (a possession)—I parted with the Rolls Royce reluctantly.
Figurative idioms:
“The cat’s out of the bag.” – “secret is revealed” or “the surprise is exposed”
“The ball is in your court” – “I will let it be your decision”

7. Interrogative Pronouns “Go out on a limb.”
Who – antecedent for a human
What – antecedent for nonhuman thing/object
Where – antecedent for a place
When – antecedent for a time
Why – antecedent for reason
How (much, many, long) – antecedent for quantity
Which – antecedent for particular types

8. Great Minds Think Alike
“Shui dao qu cheng”
“Where water flows, a channel is formed.”
Meaning: “When conditions are ready, success will come.”
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way”
Meaning: “If you want it, there’s a way to get it.
Let’s use it in a sentence!

9. It’s a small world! Let’s use it in a sentence!
“Chufei taiyang cong xibian chulai”
“Unless the sun would rise from the west.”
Meaning: Something that will never ever happen
“When pigs fly”
Meaning: That will never happen
Let’s use it in a sentence!

10. When it rains, it pours… Idioms that is!
“Da shui chong le long wang mao”
“The Dragon-King’s temple is flooded.”
Meaning: You can be harmed by the bad things you do.
“What goes around, comes around.”
Meaning: Your actions will be done to you
Let’s use it in a sentence!

11. Activity:
Students will then break up into groups of 7 and they will be given a list of English Interrogative Pronouns to observe and analyze the meanings.
They will make contexts in which to use these expressions.
Then the students will present their understanding of the idioms by acting out a few in class.

12. Why are Idioms so important?
A lot of English speakers use idioms… especially prepositional idioms.
Idioms enrich the language, present an image that would take too long to articulate in their literal meaning.
Ex: “Honeymoon is over!” What do you get from that when a teacher just assigned a big assignment?

13. Why are Interrogative Pronouns so important?
I don’t know…
Imagine not being able to ask a question. Imagine not being able inspire someone to wonder your meaning.