Article deals with the usage of Magtymguly Pyragy’s poems to achieve different aims in English lessons. Magtymguly Pyragy’s poems are of great importance in educating the young people and find their worthy place in English classes as well. His poems can be used in different aspects of English classes as different activities. In order to organize the lesson a collection of Magtymguly’s poems in the native and in English languages should be used. Poet’s treasury of wisdom can be introduсed as warm-up activities or phonetic drill connected with the theme of the lesson or analyzing different aspects of Linguistics. In general, Magtymguly’s multifaceted poems helps to achieve the lesson’s aim effectively in English classes with deep moral.
Keywords: poetry, poem, usage, English classes, activity, aspect.
One everlasting purpose of poetry in language classroom is to teach vocabulary, to improve language skills. The repertoire of vocabulary words in a poem provides students with a first-grasp of new words, their definitions, and pronunciations. Such exposure can provide learners with comprehension, which is an integral part of language learning. When teaching English, it comes to improve skills of speaking, writing and practical skills are in purpose. [1, 32]. However, learning poems or using poems in language classes are not for young learners, but also for elders as well, which are source of inspiration and eloquence. According to G. Nepesov, Turkmen linguist “Magtymguly is an exemplary poet, who in the 18th century created the social life of the Turkmen people through artistic language, which is different from all Turkmen master of words and Eastern thinkers [2, 93]. Thus, using such great poet’s poems are valuable at the same time.
What can we do with Magtymguly Pyragy’s poems in English lesson?
First of all, wise poet, philosopher thought about many aspects of life, life, human behavior in his work. Magtymguly Pyragy is a poet who made a great contribution to the improvement of the genre of the classical literature and the development of the Turkmen literary language. In this article we wanted to discuss the usage of his poems as different activities with English translations by Paul Michael Taylor, a research anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The fact is that the collection of poems of Magtymguly Pyragy was published with the help of him. This book’s publication coincided with celebration, in 2014, of the 290 th anniversary of Magtymguly Pyragy’s birth. Nowadays this book is useful in our English classes to set activities.
Moreover, Magtymguly Pyragy’s poetry is rich in language items, which can be used in different aspects of English classes when different tasks are settled. Let us observe following tasks, activities as we use in our English classes.
1) Use as phonetic drill. There are also audio recordings of the poem, which can be listened and used as a drill exercise and choral repetition. Drill exercises plays an important role when doing things that are meant to be repeated. It is advisable to memorize poems, small dialogues, short stories in foreign language in the phonetic training [1, 88];
2) Improve Speaking. Well-chosen piece of poetry provides opportunities for students discuss its meaning and moral to use oral language each time. Thus, it improves speaking skills to talk about the poem’s moral, which is also important in upbringing youth with high moral qualities. Poetry is a wonderful way for students to share information they learned through class or independent study. Teachers can bring life to otherwise dry and lifeless facts in an EFL classroom. Using Magtymguly’s poems at the conversational lessons improves students’ habits and skills of speaking both in the Turkmen and English languages. Magtymguly was a Turkmen spiritual leader, a philosophical poet. Word chain exercises with Magtymguly’s poems create very joyful atmosphere in the classroom. Because Magtymguly is the most famous figure in Turkmen literary history and for students it is known to discuss Magtymguly’s poetry as it is taught from kindergarten. In this activity, students will have to think quickly and creatively. Start the class by giving them a word which fits your chosen theme. For example: Magtymguly’s poems about hospitality, Restrict them to only certain words, vocabulary, such as guest, host, table, visit. For an extra challenging session, limit the words to certain phrases and word combination;
3) Use as stylistic exercise. Stylistic and poetic devices can be analysed as the pomes are overloaded with them. For example finding similes, epithets, litotes, hyperbole, parallel constructions, personification, metaphors etc. Underlining or finding special type of stylistic device in the lines of poems is also another activity, which can be used in English stylistic classes:
Sample exercise 1: Underline hyperbole in the given lines of the poem:
If only Turkmen become united and serve one common goal,
They could dry out the Red Sea, as well as the river Nile,
So let the tribes Teke, Yomut, Goklen, Yazir, and Alili,
All five unite and serve one ruler as one nation. [3, 22]
As seen from the above examples, it is used in Magtymguly Pyragy’s poems to increase the vocabulary of many poems’ stylistic devices when translated into English and it comes without losing its meaning. By reading poems rich in artistic means, the effect on readers is heightened, as they read the poem they see the meaning more clearly. Another activity according to meaning right element can be selected in the following way:
Sample exercise 2: Choose the appropriate word to form similes according to meaning:
And her voice is like the song of a ___________ nightingale/ sparrow.
Or other lines of his poetry:
My tongue speaks like a _________ eagle/ parrot today.
4) Practice selective reading comprehension. Development of reading skills with right vocabulary in the stanzas. Moreover, reading poems according to the plan of the lesson question and answer session can be held to understand intentions, attributes, and moral qualities that poem possess. Question and answer session can be lead at the lesson reading piece of his poetry.
5) Improve translation skills. Translating poems from Turkmen into English can improve their translation skills. By way of Magtymguly’s poetry is deep in meaning with fewer words it creates opportunity to improve creative thinking in both target and source languages. When rendering the stylistic devices used in Magtymguly Pyragy’s works in English comparing the stylistics of the Turkmen and English languages gives an opportunity to identify commonalities and peculiarities of both languages.
6) Dictate a poem, use a poem for gap-fill, cloze, or for correction. It leads students animated to work efficiently in English lessons. Leaving some of the words while dictating students try to guess the meaning, which improves their creative thinking and makes students to find right word to fill the gaps. This task should be set according to the theme of the lesson. For example, when the theme is about Geography r geographical terms poems are selected to be read at the lesson with missing words. Students write down to complete the poem to get points at the lesson: for example such lines from Magtymguly’s poetry: “ Like mountains it won’t shake, like a river it won’t go back” [3, 30]; “Bloody tears were flowing like a flood from my eyes” [3, 48]; “The mudflow will rush like an ocean , overflowing the whole world” [3, 50]. Words in bold are missed while lines are being read by teacher to make students find appropriate word according to active vocabulary of the lesson.
7) Practice pronunciation, intonation, and stress. It helps students easily learn with the supra-segmental aspect of the target language, such as stress, pitch, intonation. According to A. Gurbanov, the teacher should direct the phonetic training of each lesson to a specific goal. Asking questions with students about familiar topics based on previously learned language information, lists, working on the pronunciation skills of the sounds in the songs and poems, establishing the correct use of speech intonation should be the main goal of the phonetic training of the English language teacher [1, 91]. Interrogative sentences are said with different intonations in English. Thus, poem “What Should I Do, Now I am Wretched?” can be used as an example:
I was a khan in my motherland,
I could deliver orders to khans,
I was remedy for sickness,
I was a source of life for the lifeless,
What should I do now I am wretched? [3, 62]/
8) Teach vocabulary. Vocabulary of students accelerates using poems in the English lesson. There are many culture-bound words as there are new ones to be learned by students. When the lesson’s theme is about vocabulary of character, personality or visual appearance description, once more we can emphasize that Magtymguly’s poems are rich in human characters description, which can be used as example. For example in the Poem “The land of Turkmen”:
“A Turkmen, the son of a lion , won’t be caught alive” [3, 15].
Here “the son of lion” means “brave”. A wise poet is good in his moral advice whose behavior and noble moral qualities are not approved by the public, it is intended to influence even the inacceptable behavior. Advices good manners, mutual respect among people. In the poem “Be a Slave” is dedicated to personality and advice of good manners. “ Like sheep , be on friendly terms with those on all four sides of you” [3, 168]. Thus, through character analyse one character is expressed with the help of simile “like sheep” which means polite man in the poem, and with the help of adjective “friendly”.
9) Use as warm-up activity. This is also another usage of poetry that students provoke vocabulary and their frame of mind. Multifaceted poetry of Magtymguly at the beginning of lesson specifically intended to prepare students for beginning new topic. If the theme is nature or ecology. In the poems of the poet Magtymguly nature and natural phenomena play a very important role. In his poems, he describes Turkmen nature as the source of inspiration and full of life. For example poems such as, “The Land of Turkmen”, “Sonu Dag”, “Gurgen”, “The Hasar Mountains”, “I’d like the Feel the Wind of Dawn” and etc. His poems are rich in facts about flora, especially their scientific relevance delivering lines to students during English class it becomes very effective and memorable because of the poet praising the beautiful Turkmen nature. As an example from the poem “Turkmen”:
Between the Jeyhun River and the Hazar sea,
The wind of the Turkmen land rises above its deserts,
Its blossoming flowers are as precious as the apples of my black eyes,
Torrents rush from the slopes of its tall black mountains. [3, 15]
What is more great poet’s literary heritage is useful in bringing up with love for the motherland, nature enables continuous learning in other subjects as well;
If we look at this list above carefully, we can see that all four skills (speaking, reading, listening, and writing) can be very well and equally practiced using Magtymguly’s poems. The principle condition of working with poem depends on listening, which represents here the main medium of receiving information. A lesson with a poem is based closely on reading and listening.
All in all poetry, like the other literary genres, can be effectively used as a model of language for achieving to improve the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
References:
- Gurbanow A., Gurbanowa L., Töräýewa M. Iňlis dilini okatmagyň usulyýeti. Mugallymçylyk mekdepleri üçin synag okuw kitaby. — A.: TDNG, 2010.
- Nepesow G. Magtymgulynyň çeper dili. — Aşgabat: Ylym, 2014.
- Magtymguly. Poems from Turkmenistan. Asian Cultural History Program, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 2014.
- Гальперин И. Р. Стилистика английского языка. — Москва: Высшая школа, 1998.
