The Use Of Proverbs And Sayings In Learning Language

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The main point of the modern methodology is the maximum adequacy of the conditions conducive to the formation of communication skills in a foreign language, the condition for the use of speech means of a foreign language in communication. Learning a language from the very beginning should go in conditions of real communication or imitate these conditions as accurately as possible.

Therefore, one cannot underestimate the enormous methodological and practical value of using proverbs and sayings in the process of teaching a foreign language in high school.Proverbs and sayings are fertile material for teaching how one and the same thought can be expressed in different words. They are indispensable in teaching monologic and dialogical speech, making the speech lively, colorful, so the chosen topic seems relevant.Proverbs and sayings - a widespread genre of oral folk art. The time of the origin of proverbs and sayings is unknown, but one thing is undeniable: both proverbs and sayings arose in distant antiquity, since then people have been accompanying the people throughout its history.

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Noteworthy are those expressive means by which persistence or memorization of proverbs and sayings is achieved. One of these means is an exact or assonance rhyme: Little strokes fell great oaks A stitch in time saves nine. A simple balanced form of proverbs and sayings is the most commonly used technique, for example:More haste, less speedEasy come, easy goLike father, like son.Conciseness is an essential aspect of memorized utterances. Only very few proverbs and sayings are verbose, most of them contain no more than five words: Boys will be boys. Dead men tell no tales. Better late than never. Practice makes perfect.

The science of language has not yet developed a generally accepted view of proverbs and sayings.Most often, proverbs and sayings were understoodas a well-shaped figurative dictum (usually a household word), typifying the most diverse phenomena of life and having the form of a complete sentence. A proverb expresses a complete judgment [1].A proverb is a short figurative saying that differs from a proverb by the incompleteness of inference [1]. A similar definition can be found in all explanatory dictionaries, as well as in many special articles and studies.In separate works on phraseology, the main difference between a proverb and a proverb is seen in the fact that the proverb expresses a general judgment, and the proverb is a partial judgment.

According to these linguists, not only proverbs, but sayings can take the form of a complete sentence.A proverb is a steady sentence of the same structure as a proverb, but devoid of didactic content.Usually, phrases such as:When pigs can fly.The Dutch have taken Holland!When two Sundays come together.When hell freezes over.Proverbs and sayings should be considered those statements that are popular in society. It follows that usually these are old sayings, because in a short time they could not become part of public consciousness. Of course, there are exceptions, and some proverbs and sayings break into the popular consciousness with extraordinary speed, but you should exclude them from the number of one-day phrases such as “I couldn't care less” or “What's the odds?”

Sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish a proverb from a proverb or draw a clear line between these genres. A proverb borders on a proverb, and if one word is added to it or the word order is changed, the proverb becomes a proverb. In oral speech, sayings often become proverbs, and proverbs become proverbs [4].Materials and methodsThe sources of proverbs and sayings are very diverse. To become a proverb, the utterance must be perceived and acquired by ordinary people. In this case, the source of the utterance is often forgotten. Having become a proverb, it becomes part of public consciousness; the proverb does not matter who invented it. It can be infallibly assumed that a certain person in certain circumstances created any proverb,however, for so many old proverbs the source of their origin is completely lost.

Therefore, it would be more correct to say that proverbs and sayings are of folk origin that their primary source is in the collective mind of the people. In a multitude of utterances summarizing everyday experience, the meaning of words seems to have grown into a proverbial form gradually, without any explicit announcement. The phrase 'Make hay while the sun shines', taking its origin from the practice of field work, is an example of such a proverb. Any farmer feels the correctness of this thought, not necessarily expressed precisely by these words. But after many hundreds of people expressed this idea in many different ways, after many trial and error, this thought finally acquired its memorable form and began its life as a proverb. Similarly, the phrase “Don't put all your eggs in one basket” came about as a result of practical experience in a trading relationship.On the other hand, it is also obvious that well-defined intelligent people created many proverbs.

If this happened to smart people in the oral version, then, of course, there was no evidence left, but if this happened to a smart person who was in the habit of writing down his thoughts, then in some cases you can find the source of the proverb. In general, it is fair to speculate that most abstract proverbs began their life in this way. For example, “The end justifies the means”,stemming from the theological doctrine of the seventeenth century, or the golden thought “The wish is father to the thought”, which was first expressed by Julius Caesar, or the saying “A soft answer turnethaway wrath' [2], undoubtedly borrowed in its completed form from the Bible.However, who can say that these proverbs did not become part of the oral tradition long before they took on their written form. The use of proverbs reached its peak during the time of Shakespeare, and it is more than likely that many of them attributed to Shakespeare existed before, albeit in a less memorable form. The same with the Bible. The wisdom of her proverbs is probably not original.In any case, both sources, both folk and literary, are merged together. Thanks to the spread of the printed word, the statements of smart people more often began to fall to ordinary people who, if they liked their thoughts, turned them into proverbs.Another important source of English proverbs is proverbs and sayings in other languages. Here again, it is difficult to be sure of the source. If the proverb, before becoming English, existed in Latin, French or Spanish, then there is no certainty that it had not been borrowed from any other language before.

It ispossible that she was originally English, but was notrecorded.Some of our borrowed proverbs were completely assimilated in England, but many of them failed to do so. We don’t have to think much about which Latin proverb formed the basis of our “He gives twice who gives quickly”, however the proverb “Through hardship to the stars” sounds somehow alien and less like a proverb than the Latin “Per aspera ad astra '. A large number of borrowed proverbs remain in the original. Among them:Noblesse oblige.In vino veritas.Proverbs taken from the Bible are another type of borrowing, since the Bible is translated from Hebrew and its wise sayings reflect the consciousness of Hebrew society.In the old days, the Bible was read very widely, so many of its statements became part of public consciousness to such an extent that only a few now are aware of the biblical origin of certain proverbs. However, many English proverbs are taken entirely from scripture, for example:You cannot serve God and mammon.The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Even more proverbs originate in scripture, although some words are changed:Spare the rod and spoil the child.You cannon make bricks without straw.Shakespeare certainly ranks second after the Bible in the number of quotes used as English proverbs. No one, however, can be sure which of the proverbs attributed to Shakespeare are really his creations, and which are taken in one form or another from the oral tradition. Scientists still continue to find proverbs that existed before Shakespeare, which later became the lines of his works.

]Many Shakespearean proverbs in the English language have retained their original form, for example: Brevity is the soul of wit.Sweet are the uses of adversity.Others are adaptations of his statements, for example:A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.Many statements from literary works are used from time to time as proverbs, but they never become, or remain halfway between the quote and the proverb. These include, for example, the following:The wages of sin is death (Romans).No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money (Samuel Johnson).Thus, proverbs have mobility and are in constant motion. To them are constantly added obsolete.Frequently used ideomatic revolutions similar to proverbs should be separated from the proverbs themselves. 'To cry for the moon' is one such spin. It alone does not give any advice and does not contain a warning, therefore it is not a proverb. But it can easily be turned into a proverb, giving the form of advice, for example: 'Don't cry for the moon' or 'Only fools cry for the moon'. [3]

Proverbs and sayings are fertile material used in teaching. It is difficult to find an English course that would do without their help. It is known that as early as the tenth century, proverbs were used in England as one of the means of teaching Latin.Proverbs and sayings, as a whole, cover a large part of human experience. Due to the generalized nature of proverbs and sayings, they can be used in all classes, teaching the art of allegory, namely to illustrate your thought and summarize it in a short form.The use of proverbs and sayings in the practice of an English teacher will undoubtedly contribute to a better mastery of this subject, expanding knowledge of the language, vocabulary and features of its functioning. On the other hand, their study is an additional source of regional knowledge.The formation of pronunciation skills from the first lessons should go in conditions of real communication or imitate these conditions as accurately as possible. In other words, students should 'not prepare for speech, as provided for by oral introductory courses, but begin learning immediately.'

Proverbs and sayings will help to create a real atmosphere in the lesson, to introduce an element of the game into the process of mastering the sound side of foreign language speech. In addition, proverbs and sayings are firmly rooted in memory. Their memorization is facilitated by different harmonies, rhymes, rhythms. Proverbs and sayings can be usedwhen introducing a new phonetic phenomenon, when performing exercises to consolidate a new phonetic material and when repeating it, during phonetic exercises.The experience of teachers shows that one of the effective methods of ensuring children's interest in learning, their activity and performance is the use of proverbs and sayings in English lessons at different stages of education.At the initial stage, one can turn to proverbs and sayings for processing the sound side of speech. They help put the pronunciation of individual difficult consonants, especially those that are not in the Russian language. Instead of individual words and phrases containing one or another sound, you can offer the class specially selected proverbs and sayings.

Then, during two or three lessons, the proverb or proverb is repeated, the pronunciation of the sound is adjusted. This type of work can be included in the lesson at its various stages; it serves as a kind of discharge for children. You need to select a proverb or a proverb depending on what kind of sound is being worked out. You can offer, for example, such proverbs and sayings for sound processing [w]:Where there is a will there is a way.Watch which way the cat jumps.Which way the wind blows;sound [m]:So many men, so many minds.To make a mountain out of a molehill.One man's meat is another man's poison;sound [h]:To run with the hare, and hunt with the hounds.Handsome is as handsome does;sound [b]:Don't burn your bridges behind you;Business before pleasure;combination of sounds [t] and [r]:Don't trouble until trouble troubles you.Treat others, as you want to be treated yourself.Proverbs and sayings can be used not only at the initial stage of learning English, when children develop pronunciation skills, but also at the middle stage of training, when their use not only helps to maintain and improve the pronunciation skills of students, but also stimulates speech activity.

Very often, at the senior levels of education, enthusiasm for the accumulation of vocabulary leads to irregularities in the articulation of sounds. Experience has shown that in high school, students enthusiastically work on pronunciation, repeating sounds, if they are presented in proverbs and sayings. Learning them is not difficult, they are remembered by students easily and quickly.The use of proverbs and sayings is all the morejustified, because it ideally combines the improvement of auditory-pronunciation and rhythmic-intonation skills. On the one hand, pronunciation skills are automated, and on the other, students learn to divide sentences into syntagmas, determine logical stress, etc. Therefore, the use of proverbs and sayings in teaching pronunciation is extremely appropriate and effective.Proverbs and sayings can also be used in teaching grammar.The communicative technique involves teaching grammar on a functional and interactive basis.

This means that grammatical phenomena are studied not as 'forms' and 'structures', but as a means of expressing certain thoughts, relationships, communicative intentions. [5]Proponents of direct methods hold the position of an implicit approach to learning grammar, believing that repeated repetition of the same phrases in appropriate situations ultimately develops the ability not to make grammatical errors in speech. Therefore, being on the one hand a means of expressing thoughts, and on the other hand, realizing the studied forms or constructions in speech, proverbs and sayings contribute to the best way possible automation and activation of these grammatical forms and constructions. So, the imperative mood performs an incentive function in communication, and with its help one can express a request, advice, suggestions, wishes, permissions, prohibitions, warnings, which are proverbs. [7] For example:Don't burn your bridges behind you.Don't throw out your dirty water before you get in fresh.Newer say die.Do as you would be done by.Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs.You can also use proverbs and sayings when learning irregular English verbs. These include the following proverbs:What is done can't be undone.One link broken, the whole chain is broken.If one claw is caught, the bird is lost.Ill gotten, ill spent.Practice shows that the process of mastering the degrees of comparison of adjectives is not difficult if the material is offered as much as possible in the form of proverbs and sayings.

For instance: Better late than never. The best fish swim in the bottom. The least said, the soonest mended. You can also use proverbs and sayings in the study of modal verbs:Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.When pigs can fly.You can't eat your cake and have it;An apple a day keeps a doctor away.A man can die but once.A friend in need is a friend indeed.The devil is not so black as he is painted.A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will.It is hardly possible to build grammar training entirely on the material of proverbs and sayings, but it seems appropriate to use them to illustrate grammatical phenomena and consolidate them in speech. The lexical and grammatical richness of proverbs and sayings allows you to use them not only in explaining and activating many grammatical phenomena, but also for enriching the lexical stock. Proverbs and sayings can be used in exercises for the development of speech, in which they are used as a stimulus. The same proverb or saying can be interpreted in different ways. Therefore, based on this proverb or proverb, students learn to express their own thoughts, feelings, experiences, i.e. demonstrate different ways of placing them in speech.

Therefore, the use of proverbs and sayings in foreign language lessons develops students' creative initiative through prepared and unprepared speech.Knowledge of English proverbs and sayings enriches the vocabulary of students, helps them learn the figurative system of the language, develops memory, and introduces them to folk wisdom. In some figurative sentences containing a complete thought, it is usually easier to remember new words.For example, it is possible to facilitate the work of memorizing numbers, which usually causes difficulty for the student, calling proverbs and sayings that include numbers to help:A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.Two is company, three is none.If two man ride on a horse, one must ride behind.Rain before seven, fine before eleven.A cat has nine lives.Custom is a second nature.Two heads are better than one. [6]Learning proverbs and sayings not only develops the student’s memory, but also allows you to learn how to adequately select lexical units and develops emotional expressiveness of speech.The need for search tools for the equivalent translation of expressions into the mother tongue develops translation skills.

In addition, working with proverbs and sayings stimulates students' interest in working with the dictionary.ConclusionsProverbs and sayings - a widespread genre of oral folk art. They have been accompanying people since ancient times. Such expressive means as exact rhyme, simple form, brevity, made proverbs and sayings persistent, memorable and necessary in speech.

  • Proverbs and sayings - an ancient genre of folk art. They arose in the distant time, and have their roots deep into the ages. Many of them appeared even when there was no written language. Therefore, the question of the source is still open. We can distinguish the main sources of English proverbs and sayings: folk, literary, biblical origin, borrowing and using Shakespeare quotes as proverbs and sayings.
  • Proverbs should be distinguished from proverbs. The main feature of the proverb is its completeness and didactic content. The saying is distinguished by incomplete conclusions, the absence of an instructive character.
  • The functionality of proverbs and sayings allows you to use them in the practice of teaching English. The use of proverbs and sayings helps students in an easy playful way to work out the pronunciation of individual sounds, improve rhythmic and intonation skills.
  • The use of proverbs and sayings contributes to the automation and activation of many grammatical phenomena.Proverbs and sayings develop creative initiative, enrich the vocabulary of students, and help to learn the structure of the language, develop memory and emotional expressiveness of speech.
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The Use Of Proverbs And Sayings In Learning Language. (2022, February 24). Edubirdie. Retrieved December 25, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/the-use-of-proverbs-and-sayings-in-learning-language/
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