Not correct but easier

I don't know. As has already been pointed out, "pocket money" is Brit English to the extent that it would likely get a completely blank stare from 95% of the 315 million denizens of the USA. This is not a reason not to teach it, of course, but is a reason to pause before teaching it as a "handy idiomatic phrase."

If I were teaching a course in (primarily) British English, though, I wouldn't hesitate to teach it for that reason alone. I would, however, hesitate to teach it as an example of "the kind of thing one is not likely to ask more than once in a human lifetime." I base this on the fact that I, as a native speaker, have never in my entire life, child or middle-aged adult, asked that particular question of anyone. Therefore, the question of whether to use the simple short form of "How much" + noun, or the much more natural-sounding "How much do you get?" is rendered immaterial. I call this kind of thing ENPP: English for No Particular Purpose.

Nutrax, that google project where staff help janitors with their English is a very nice idea which, I suspect, will benefit both sides by not only improving the janitors' understanding of English but by giving the Google employees a glance at how the less fortunate live and function. I'd say both parties must get a lot out of it.

That reminds me of English lessons on Korean tv.
They use phrases only, suitable for certain situations. A sort of quick fix to master English.
It seems like they understand nothing about the language structure and theEnglish grammar. They learn in all by heart. If you put the phrase differently they won't get it .

Ref 13.
When I first started learning Spanish, we learned set phrases, eg, '¿Qué vas a tomar?', What are you going to take (to drink)?
We went to a new Spanish tapas bar in the UK and our tutor asked the (Colombian) waitress to speak to our group in Spanish. She approached me first and said, '¿Qué quieres?'
I was lost.

Re #15: My understanding of Spanish was at a fairly low level when I met with a group of Argentine university students who were visiting Chicago, and one of them asked me "¿Qué sos vos?" When I failed to understand, she rephrased it: "¿A qué te dedicás?" Fortunately, one of them spoke English and intervened to act as translator.

The "knocked-off" example above reminds me of when, some years later, I moderated a conversation group for students studying English. One student was describing a situation in which he and a male friend had gotten into an argument over something that was still unresolved. "I'm mad about him," he said. "No," I said, "you're mad at him."

About "pocket money": It sounds to me like a somewhat old-fashioned term for a relatively small amount of cash that you happened to have on your person. "I never have much pocket money" would make sense to me, but "How much is your pocket money?" makes no sense at all.

About "pocket money": It sounds to me like a somewhat old-fashioned term for a relatively small amount of cash that you happened to have on your person. "I never have much pocket money" would make sense to me, but "How much is your pocket money?" makes no sense at all.

I agree. In American English it is "money for small personal expenses."

I had a co-worker whose first language was Spanish, second was French and third was English. His English was fluent, but he had his moments. The boss asked him if he had any items for the weekly report to the bigwigs. "No," he replied. "I have nothing on the ball." (I think he meant "no irons in the fire.")

[Not sure how familiar the idiom "on the ball" is to those for whom English isn't a first language. From the Phrase Finder
> "To be alert, clever, at one's best. This term was originally American and came from baseball, where it referred to a pitched ball with 'something' on it - that is, spin or a curve. A pitcher who was working well was said to have something on the ball, which in the early 1900s's was transferred to any individual who was doing something well.

To have nothing on the ball is to be stupid or incompetent.

There is a spurious etymology that associates it with the ball at Greenwich Observatory]

Edited by: Merriam Webster

"Pocket money" has the same meaning for me that it does for NA and nutrax. "Pocket change"mmight be a little more common.

I did not understand "How much is your pocket money?" I figured out what "How much pocket money do you get?" must mean but I hadn't heard "pocket money" = child's allowance before.

I agree completely with vinny: Phrases taught early stick in the head, and are then used as templates for constructing other phrases.

This is true at any age, and the younger the more so. (awk)

Teach it correctly, even if this means postponing the lesson, or have a separate category of useful idiomatic expressions taught as phrases which are set and not usually open to generalization.

Teach it correctly, even if this means postponing the lesson,

Amen.

She explained that they haven't done 'do' yet,

Upon rereading, this is a very strange assertion. Do+ is required to ask most questions or form any negative in the Present Simple, the first tense any student of English learns. While you might learn a few extremely basic phrases before learning +do+ (along the lines of "My name is...; I am from...") that's about all you could master before having to learn +do.

Just to take a slightly different tack - Vinny and Nutrax - do you have the term "pin money" in the US? (In the UK it is money that housewives make and use for "treats" or incidental expenses - usually not much. For instance the nice woman who walks my dog while I'm at work told me that she worked full-time until a few years ago but was made redundant and now she walks people's dogs (and is a "lollipop lady", helping schoolchildren cross the road safely) and that she regards the income from these as her pin money (probably explaining this because I was surprised at her reasonable fee).