Figurative, or non-literal language, can be confusing to some learners, but the use of metaphorical expressions can greatly enhance student writing. Also, being able to understand metaphoric language will expand understanding of the written word.
Teaching metaphoric language can be fun as well. Following are some activities to support the learning of simile, metaphor, personification, synechdoche, and metonymy, the types of figurative language readers will find in great works of literature.
NOTES: For junior high school aged students, focus on the first three types. Senior high school students can handle all five. With both groups, make sure the students understand that while a simile is a type of metaphor the two expressions are NOT the same thing.
Generally, a good way to begin teaching figures of speech is by giving the students definitions to the terms and some examples. Some instructors will make a handout for students with the definitions pre-printed while others will prefer to have students copy the definitions from an overhead projector or from a chalk or white board.
Definitions:
metaphor: a figure of speech by which a thing is spoken of as being that which is only resembles, as when a ferocious man is called a tiger (Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary)
simile: A metaphorical expression, or figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, the comparison being made explicit typically by the use of the introductory 'like' or 'as' (American Heritage Dictionary)
personfication: attribution of personality to an impersonal thing
synechdoche: understanding one thing with another; the use of a part for the whole, or the whole for the part. (A form of metonymy)
metonymy: substitution of one word for another which it suggests
Following the definitions, it is a good idea to give students several examples of each type of figure of speech to list in their notes. Some instructors will choose to follow this introduction with some poetry selections. Selections of poetry are an excellent source for figurative language, mainly due to the compressed nature of poetry...saying a lot in as few words as possible. Try reading some selections aloud and asking students to point out examples from the poems of simile, metaphor, personification. Students may have to be assisted in spotting samples of metonymy and synechdoche.
EXAMPLES:
Similes:
My love is like a red, red rose ... Robert Burns
She walks in beauty like the night... Byron
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun ... Shakespeare
Teaching metaphoric language can be fun as well. Following are some activities to support the learning of simile, metaphor, personification, synechdoche, and metonymy, the types of figurative language readers will find in great works of literature.
NOTES: For junior high school aged students, focus on the first three types. Senior high school students can handle all five. With both groups, make sure the students understand that while a simile is a type of metaphor the two expressions are NOT the same thing.
Generally, a good way to begin teaching figures of speech is by giving the students definitions to the terms and some examples. Some instructors will make a handout for students with the definitions pre-printed while others will prefer to have students copy the definitions from an overhead projector or from a chalk or white board.
Definitions:
metaphor: a figure of speech by which a thing is spoken of as being that which is only resembles, as when a ferocious man is called a tiger (Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary)
simile: A metaphorical expression, or figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, the comparison being made explicit typically by the use of the introductory 'like' or 'as' (American Heritage Dictionary)
personfication: attribution of personality to an impersonal thing
synechdoche: understanding one thing with another; the use of a part for the whole, or the whole for the part. (A form of metonymy)
metonymy: substitution of one word for another which it suggests
Following the definitions, it is a good idea to give students several examples of each type of figure of speech to list in their notes. Some instructors will choose to follow this introduction with some poetry selections. Selections of poetry are an excellent source for figurative language, mainly due to the compressed nature of poetry...saying a lot in as few words as possible. Try reading some selections aloud and asking students to point out examples from the poems of simile, metaphor, personification. Students may have to be assisted in spotting samples of metonymy and synechdoche.
Similes:
My love is like a red, red rose ... Robert Burns
She walks in beauty like the night... Byron
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun ... Shakespeare
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