'OUR DAILY BREAD' - FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING THROUGH PROVERBS AND IDIOMS

Abstract

The topic of this paper is an exploration of Romanian and English proverbs and phraseological expressions from the lexical domains of health and food. In terms of linguistic richness, these lexical units are unique cultural expressions conceptualizing peoples' socio-cultural mentalities, while also contributing to the development of sociolinguistic competence. The paper focuses on using paremiology in foreign language classes and also explores suitable teaching strategies and types of activities that may be adapted according to the level of study and the learners' interests. Therefore, the relevance of specialized language courses - including such terminology - in higher education is an attractive educational tool which has the potential to bring learners from different countries together in intercultural environments. Thanks to the simple manner in which proverbs render deeper cognitive aspects of reality, these are also unique tools of expressing socio-cultural and linguistic specificities, while also enriching the cultural experiences the students share with other learning co-participants.

Keywords

• proverbs
• phrases
• intercultural dialogue
• foreign language teaching & learning