CC BY
0Образование
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF APHORISMS IN TEACHING FOREIGN
LANGUAGES Akhmedova Gulizebo Yakubovna, doctoral student (e-mail: gulizebo.ahmedova@bk.ru)
Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Abstract: A great range of methods can be used while teaching a foreign language. There are some methods that can be applied at all levels of education. The paper deals with the problem of methodological organization of aphorisms in teaching a foreign language. The aphorisms provide more opportunities for intellectual and creative development of foreign language learners through mastering their foreign language communicative competence. The effective use of aphorisms is a good practice for English speaking students. They help to develop students' communication competence on all levels of language: phonetic, lexical and grammatical. Various forms of activities are important for their learning and development. This paper will discuss various activities in teaching foreign language through aphorisms which could enhance their language skills.
Keywords: An aphorism, teaching foreign languages, didactic materials, language skills, activities, matching method.
Introduction. A language is a system consisting of a number of features, such as the creation, transmission and storage of information, which is carried out in the process of a certain speech activity. Teachers as well as researchers have made efforts to explore strategies and techniques for teaching foreign languages. When the teaching and learning process takes place, teachers may have problems of how to teach students to gain satisfying results.
In a teaching process, teachers have an important role in holding the activity. Teachers are the leader in the class management. Therefore, a good teacher should have a good method of teaching. According to Harmer, the success of a teaching method depends on good organization and on the students knowing exactly what they are to do [2].
A good teacher can prepare various and up-to-date techniques. Teachers need to be able to find the materials and make them interested and happy in the teaching and learning process in the classroom. They have become aware of the importance of didactic tools in the process of learning a foreign language. Due to this, learning through these tools is very useful for language proficiency. One of the richest didactic materials for teaching foreign languages in educational institutions is the use of aphorisms in classes. With the development of the methodology of teaching foreign languages, the attention of researchers turned to aphorisms, proverbs and winged expressions as one of the objects of teaching foreign languages.
Anyone who studies a foreign language is influenced by an already learned, intuitively or consciously mastered system of the native language. Experience shows that often the structures of a foreign language are automatically perceived in the image of the structure of the native language. At the same time, having their own ideas about the same (or similar) objects or phenomena of reality, each nation gives them their own assessments, and the student transfers these ideas and assessments to the foreign word being studied, if s/he is not warned about the difference in the picture of the world, fixed in the language and reflected in particular in the connotation words.
Aphorisms as a unit of language preserve and transmit the information about the most diverse aspects of people's life — their social structure, moral experience, crafts, healing, beliefs, nutrition, traditions, clothing, environmental views, metric system, children's games, historical events, etc.
Research methodology. Traditionally, teaching English language, in many cases, has focused on grammar of English learners. It is based on the assumption that knowing about the language would lead learners to use the language in real life situations. However, real life language use cannot be equated with the knowing on language usage. It is a complex process that needs integration of all language skills. It seems to us that the training of aphorisms can increase the language skills, enrich students' knowledge, replenish their lexical stock, and serve as illustrative material for previously studied materials. They also enrich the student's speech, make it completer and more expressive.
Linguists also claim that the use of aphorisms in the teaching foreign languages is important for the learners' ability to communicate effectively. Russian linguists Ye.Vereshchagin and B.Kostomarov consider aphorisms as the most valuable elements of the language as they contain a wealth of country-specific information, the possession of which is necessary for an adequate understanding and use of language units and communication [4].
Unlike proverbs and sayings, an aphorism has a specific author. If proverbs reflect the everyday wisdom of the people, clearly illustrate their way of life, traditions, culture, keep the accumulated socio-cultural layer for centuries, then the aphorism contains the treasures of human thought and experience, deep philosophical generalizations.
From the point of view of O. Tumanova, aphorisms have a great didactic potential in the formation of intercultural communicative competence of students. Therefore, it is so important to be able to analyze the aphorisms of the native and studied languages, to understand what events they are caused in the fate of the people, the peculiarities of the mentality [5].
According to A. Sadykova, M. Yashina and A. Sharafieva aphorisms in the classroom can perform a range of tasks.
Firstly, knowledge of the aphoristic fund facilitates memorization of complete grammatical and syntactical structures.
Secondly, aphorisms are the basis for the replenishment of vocabulary, and for mastering a variety of cliches and comparative turns of speech. For example: "Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body " (Seneca).
Thirdly, due to the special phonostylistic organization aphorisms are often performed in a poetic form. Memorization helps to improve their pronunciation skills, to intone phrases in English correctly and clearly, to form expressive skills, facing the audience speech. To cap it all, the study of aphorisms allows students to broaden their outlook and learn cultural values, priorities, history and habits of other people [1].
Results and their discussion. As a rule, teaching of aphorisms systematically is not provided in foreign language classes. Here everything depends on the teachers and their attitudes to this peculiar genre of human thought. It seems to us that, aphorisms can be used for various didactic purposes. The ways and methods of working with aphorisms can be different.
An aphorism is a full text and can serve as material for different kinds of work: individual, team, group, independent. According to linguists, even minimal literary text, which consists of a single sentence, is a three-dimensional field for discussion and reflection [3].
Before using aphorisms for teaching foreign languages all teachers can ask a question: "Where can we find aphorisms for one's teaching?". The supplies may be numerous, ranging from well-known dictionaries of aphorisms, literature, cinema scripts, TV programmes, songs, to internet resources.
A good aphorism can really stick in the mind. The best aphorisms are also applicable to all sorts of different situations, which further add to their memorable quality.
If a teacher decides to use aphorisms in class, s/he can use them at any stage of the lesson. For example, as a warm up activity, as a time filler, at the end of a lesson to reinforce or teach lexical items, grammatical structures, pronunciation, or as spring board a discussion.
While learning a foreign language the learners have some problems with pronunciation and practicing pronunciation can be very tedious. Aphorisms have the advantage of making teaching pronunciation a game like activity. Sentences with several words involving the same sound are good materials for practicing that sound.
Activity 1. Writing the phonetic symbols for the underlined sounds in the aphorisms.
1. Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. (Oscar Wilde)
2. Brevity is the soul of wit. (William Shakespeare)
3. Grilled sausage in the zoo; that's what humans are like. (Markus Angermeier)
4. There never was a good war or a bad peace. (Benjamin Franklin)
5. No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. (Abraham Lincoln)
Matching method is one of the cooperative learning methods that makes the students active in teaching and learning process. It has three procedures consisting of pre-teaching activities the activity done before teaching process, in whilst-teaching activities the teacher instructs and asks the students to do some activities, and post teaching activities is necessary as the follow up phase on what the students have studied.
Activity 2. Matching the first halves of the aphorisms with the second halves. They are Benjamin Franklin's and Oscar Wilde's aphorisms.
1.Well done is a) never found again.
2.Lost Time is b) rich enough to buy back his past.
3. A true Friend is c) better than well said.
4. No man is d) rarely pure and never simple.
5. The truth is e) the best Possession.
Listening is the most significant part of communication and it plays a vital role in learning foreign languages. The following activity helps learners to acquire pronunciation, word stress, vocabulary, the comprehension and at the same time to enrich their cognitive skills.
Activity 3. Listening to a story and finding out which one of the aphorisms the story illustrates.
The Farmer and The Hidden Treasure
Once a rich farmer lived in a village. He was very old. He had four sons. All of them were idlers. They wasted his money and did not work. The farmer was eager to show them the right path.
One day, the farmer fell ill. His condition took a turn for the worse. Feeling that his end was near, he called his sons to his bedside. He told them that he was about to die. He had a great treasure hidden in the field. But he did not know the exact place. He asked them to dig the field deep to take out the treasure after his death. The old farmer died. The sons went to the field to dig out the treasure as soon as the funeral rites were over. They dug up the entire field but there was no trace of any treasure. They became very sad and cursed their dead father.
A wise man advised them to sow wheat in the field. They did so. That year they reaped a rich harvest. Thus, they realized that hard work was the key to the treasure. From that day, they gave up their idleness and became hardworking farmers. They prepared and lived a happy life.
A) "Don't throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass."
B) "No gains without pains."
C) "Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults."
Activities which are given to teach English aphorisms enable students to enrich vocabulary; to develop all language skills; to master English intonation and pronunciation; activate some grammar rules. Working with aphorisms is an important developing and motivating factor as it has cognitive meaning and forms students' humanitarian culture and socio-cultural competence.
Conclusion. In conclusion we may say that, aphorisms increase interest in learning a foreign language, help to develop a linguistic intuition, and contribute
to the ability of understanding linguistic concepts. However, aphorisms used in foreign language classes should not only have a didactic influence, but also be simple in linguistic terms, understandable in meaning, and most importantly — stimulating to speaking, reasoning and expressing one's own position.
References
1. Aida G. Sadykova & Marianna E. Yashina & Alina D. Sharafieva, 2014. "Citation as a Stimulus to Boost Studentsa€™ Communication Skills at the English Lessons," English Language Teaching, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 7(12), pages 1-12, December.
2. Harmer, J. (1991). The Practice of English Language Teaching: New Edition. New York: Longman.
3. Yakubovna, A. G. (2023). Using aphorisms in developing speaking competences of economics students. The Journal of Economics, Finance and Innovation, 901-908. Retrieved from http://sbtsuejournals.uz/index.php/ EFI/article/view/154
4. Верещагин Е.М., Костомаров В.Г. Язык и культура: лингвостранове-дение в преподавании русского языка как иностранного. 4-е изд. М.: Русский язык, 1990. 246 с.
5. Туманова Е. О. Афоризм как речевой жанр: этапы становления и развития (на материале немецкого языка) // Филологические науки. Вопросы теории и практики. 2015. № 1-1(43). С. 175—179.
6. https://www.fi.edu/en/benjamin-franklin/famous-quotes
7. https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/oscar-wilde-quotes
Ахмедова Гулизебо Якубовна, докторант (e-mail: gulizebo.ahmedova@bk.ru)
Самаркандский государственный институт иностранных языков, Самарканд, Узбекистан
ЗНАЧЕНИЕ АФОРИЗМОВ В ОБУЧЕНИИ ИНОСТРАННЫМ ЯЗЫКАМ
Аннотация: При обучении иностранному языку может быть использован широкий спектр методов. Есть несколько методов, которые могут быть применены на всех уровнях образования. В статье рассматривается проблема методической организации афоризмов при обучении иностранному языку. Афоризмы предоставляют больше возможностей для интеллектуального и творческого развития изучающих иностранный язык посредством овладения их иноязычной коммуникативной компетенцией. Эффективное использование афоризмов - хорошая практика для студентов, говорящих по-английски. Они помогают развивать коммуникативную компетентность учащихся на всех уровнях языка: фонетическом, лексическом и грамматическом. Различные формы деятельности важны для их обучения и развития. В этой статье будут обсуждаться различные виды деятельности по обучению иностранному языку с помощью афоризмов, которые могли бы улучшить их языковые навыки.
Ключевые слова: афоризм, преподавание иностранных языков, дидактические материалы, языковые навыки, деятельность, метод сопоставления.
