This is a very small issue in comparison to many others, but I realized that many high school English learners in my classes struggle with the cultural issue of understanding cliches or sayings that life-long English speakers have heard their whole lives. Sayings like "playing devils advocate" or "let the cat out of the bag" have no meaning to some English learners and are flat out confusing. One way to help this situation in my class would be to avoid using these cliches altogether. However, I think it would be beneficial to use the sayings and then ask the class to explain what that saying means. This way, when English learners hear certain phrases outside of school they will be able to understand the meaning.
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