Interactive Activities for Teaching Figurative Language

Saida Akbarova, Uzbekistan

Saida Akbarova (PhD in Linguistics, the Uzbek State World Languages University) is a senior lecturer at Westminster International University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She is teaching Academic English. Her research interests include Second Language Acquisition, Discourse Analysis, Material Development and Blended Learning. E-mail: sakbarova@wiut.uz

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Introduction
Activities
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Both teachers and students of stylistics and text interpretation find it extremely difficult to analyze and interpret poetry and fiction. They fail to get a poem and a story into focus as writers use figurative language which is frequently too elliptical and concise to be easily decoded. In order to help students to understand figurative language, teachers should teach them to look at a poem and a story from various angles in search for the unity of the form and subject matter, which is attained by means of figures of speech (FS) and stylistic devices (SD) (Kallaus & Kleparski, 2003, p29). The aim of this paper is to introduce effective activities, given by different English teachers, which might assist students to interpret poetry and fiction and to apply figurative language into their writing.

Activities

According to Susan Hyde (2008), poetry is a celebration of sound, and students who understand how sound evoke feelings will find new meaning in the poetry they read. S. Hyde presents an activity in which students use alliteration and consonants to create poetry using words cut out magazines and to write original fairy tale story titles. The following materials will be needed for Activities 1-3: examples of poetry with alliteration and/or consonance, magazines for cutting, scissors, glue sticks, construction paper, dictionary and thesaurus.

Activity 1 Alliteration and Consonance in Poetry

Begin this activity by writing definitions for alliteration, the repetition of beginning consonant sounds, and consonance, the repetition of consonant sounds in stressed syllables but proceeded by unlike vowel sounds. Break students into small groups or pairs. Provide each group with a different poem that contains either alliteration or consonance. Ask each group to find examples of repeated consonant sounds within their specific poem. Did they find examples of alliteration? Consonance? Both? Ask students to discuss the effect of various repeated sounds. How do soft sounds like /s/ and /sh/ differ from harder sounds like /k/ or /p/? Allow each group to share their poems and to provide examples of repeated consonants within their assigned poem (Hyde, 2008, para.3).

Activity 2 Alliterative Fairy Tale Title

Now, working as a class, ask students to come up with a new alliterative title for The Three Little Pigs. Examples: "Hogs Hinder Huge Hungry Homicidal Hitman" or "Portly Porkers Poach Predator." Ask students to come up with three individual alliterative fairy tale titles of their own. Students may want to use a dictionary or thesaurus to identify alliterative words that fit their own personal title. Allow students to share their alliterative fairy tale titles (Hyde, 2008, para.4).

Activity 3 Writing Poetry with Alliteration and Consonance

Divide students into pairs. Provide each pair-group with construction paper, multiple magazines, a glue stick and scissors. Ask students to cut out letters and words from the magazine in order to create poetry that contains alliteration and consonance. Teachers might want to provide guidelines for length or ask your students to write in the style of a particular poet. Share poetry on the bulletin board or a poster (Hyde, 2008, para.5).

Activity 4 Comparing Things with Simile and Metaphors

This activity is suggested by DeLene Sholes who believes that students who can recognize and distinguish between similes and metaphors will begin to use to enhance their own writing (Sholes, 2009, para.2). DeLene Sholes and Susan Whelan present activities to practice similes and metaphors. Teachers should prepare cards, where students write examples of similes and metaphors, in advance.

Begin the activities by introducing similes and metaphors. Tell students that similes are words that tell how one thing is like another thing. Usually one of the words like or as will be found in a sentence that compares two things; suggested animal simile examples: as smart as a fox, as strong as an ox, as busy as a bee, as blind as a bat, as wise as an owl, as slippery as an eel, as quiet as a mouse, as gentle as a lamb, swims like a fish, walks like a duck, fly like a bird, etc. Write the following examples on the board: The bird was like a plane flying up into the sky. He ran as fast as a gazelle (Whelan, 2008, para.3).

1. Ask students to write their own similes using both of the common formats: “verb + like + noun” and “as + adjective + as + noun”.
2. Ask students to create similes for colors, for example “as red as .....” or “as yellow as...”.
3. Provide students with the first part of a simile and ask them to complete it in either common format. Adjective suggestions: tall, round, spiky, hard, soft, loud, crazy, happy. Verb suggestions: jump, run, laugh, sing, think, shiver, grow.
4. Ask students to provide a suitable adjective for a simile phrase. Noun suggestions: car, child, stairs, cloud, book, trumpet, bus, rainbow, fountain, rain, flower. (For example: as ...... as a rainbow) (Whelan, 2008, para. 5).

Tell students that metaphors are another way that writers use to paint word pictures for their readers. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used to describe an object or action with which it does not normally have an association in order to imply a connection (Whelan, 2008, para.3). Metaphors are different than similes because instead of saying that one thing is like another, a metaphor says that one thing is or was another. Here are some examples of metaphors: the apple of my eye, a heart of stone, the heart of a lion, time is money, a blanket of snow, etc. Write these examples on the board. In her book The Everglades: River of Grass [Rinehart & Company,1947], Marjorie Stonewall Douglass wrote this about the Everglades, “It is a river of grass.” Say: Notice that the author didn’t say that the Everglades is like a river of grass. She wrote that the Everglades is a river of grass. That is how a metaphor is different than a simile (Sholes, 2009, para.7). Write another example of a metaphor: Sam threw another strike. He was a human pitching machine.

1. Ask for student examples. Write them on the board. Discuss whether each response is an example of simile or metaphor.
2. Ask students to count off by twos Give each child two index cards.
3. Ask all of the ones to write the word “simile” on one side of each card and an example of a simile on the other side. Have all of the twos write “metaphor” on one side of each card and an example of a metaphor on the other side. Have students write their names on each card. Collect the cards and mix them up.
4. Give each student two cards and ask them to decide if each card has a correctly identified simile or metaphor. Have the students who checked write their names under the original student’s name. Check the cards to see that their examples are correct.
5. Have the students form a circle. Choose a starter to begin a game of similes and metaphors. The starter stands beside one person in the circle. Explain that the starter and the person he stands by should try to be first to correctly identify the example as a simile or metaphor. Hold up one of the cards showing an example of a simile or metaphor. Read the example aloud. If the starter is first to identify the example correctly as a simile or metaphor, he moves to the next person in the circle. He can continue around the circle until someone that he stands beside answers correctly first. If the person in the circle answers correctly first, the starter sits down and the person who answered correctly is the new starter. The game continues until everyone is seated except the winner (Sholes, 2009, para.10).

Activity 5 Stylistic Devices in the Songs

Janice Kesel suggests technology-enhanced approach in teaching figures of speech. J. Kesel believes that the students’ learning will improve when they are actively engaged in the teaching and when using technology and music as the medium. This allows them to apply their knowledge of the stylistic devices to the format with which they are most familiar (Kesel, para. Sequence of activities). Tell students to work in pairs. Ask students to sign-up to teach two-three stylistic devices, to write the definition and to include two original examples for each SD. Ask pairs to select a song that illustrates each of the assigned terms, to copy the lyrics or section of lyrics that exemplifies the SD they are demonstrating and to present it to class. Students should bring a tape or CD of the song to class and teach the concept using the song. In class, students may try rewriting songs improving them by adding FS.

Conclusion

In conclusion, presented activities serve to develop students’ ability to recognize figurative language, to make use of figures of speech to enrich and enhance students’ reading and writing, to help students to interpret poetry and fiction effectively through the usage of the FSs and SDs. In addition, students will master communicative skills which will keep their language original and express their own ideas through their own choice of words.

References

Hyde, S. (2008). Alliteration and consonance in poetry. Available from http://www.suite101.com/content/alliteration-activities-a42515 [Accessed January 4, 2011]. Kallaus, A. & Kleparski, G. (2003). Teaching interpretation necessitates teaching stylistic devices – as illustrated by the example of “The thought-fox” by Ted Hughes. The do’s and don’ts of teaching English at the college/university level. Papers from the 3d Chelm Symposium held in April 2003. Chelm: NKJO-CHELM publishers. pp. 29-37. Kesel, J. (n.d.). Music to my ears: figures of speech and stylistic devices assignment. Michigan Department of Education. Available from http://www.michigandepofed.tech-enchdlesson.teen12ct01 [Accessed January 4, 2011]. Sholes, D. (2009). Metaphor: a plane is a bird. Available from http://www.suite101.com/content/figurative-language-lesson-plan-a101797 [Accessed January 4, 2011]. Whelan, S. (2008). As wise as an ...? Available from http://www.suite101.com/content/similes-metaphors-and-proverbs-a47257 [Accessed January 4, 2011].

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