How to teach figurative language through gamification
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Figurative language is where someone plays with the meanings of words for a desired effect. It could be to make a joke, to simplify something technical, to more interestingly illustrate a point, to lean on the cultural shorthand of a cliche, or possibly for the satisfaction of expressing something in an original manner.
Being able to use figurative language, and understanding when other people are using it, is an important element of communication. Given that language is the framework which facilitates all of society’s interactions, grasping its finer points and nuances are essential – both for students learning as children, and students learning as adults as a second language.
The obvious challenge to teaching figurative language lies in that it is, quite literally, the opposite of literal language. You teach someone the rules of a language, and then you start to play with those rules. Fortunately, gamification, the application of game-like mechanics to tasks we don’t typically associate with games, can be a very effective method for education. Given the playful, creative nature of figurative language, it’s a subject that’s especially suited to being taught through learning games.
What are the 5 types of figurative language?
While there are many ways you can use figurative language, there are five types that are most common.
1. Simile
A simile uses “like” or “as” to compare two things. For example: “Lieutenant O’Hare was standing behind me, lean as a young wolf, as full of hatred as a rattlesnake.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Mothernight. Vonnegut uses comparisons to archetypally lean and spiteful animals to convey a character’s appearance and demeanour. Even though we know snakes aren’t actually “full of hatred” and wolves aren’t exclusively “lean,” the context paints a vivid picture.
2. Metaphor
Metaphors and similes are very similar, except metaphors use neither “as” nor “like” when making comparisons. For example:
All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players. – William Shakespeare, As You Like It.
By utilising neither “as” nor “like,” a metaphor doesn’t signpost that it’s making a comparison, so with this type of figurative language, it would be easy for a more literal-minded student to become confused.
3. Hyperbole
Hyperbole is when someone makes an unrealistic exaggeration to emphasise a point. For example, when someone says they have a million things to do, or claims they were waiting forever, they are making impossible statements to convey that they were extremely busy, or that they waited for an unacceptable amount of time.
4. Idioms
Idioms are phrases with figurative meanings – they cannot be understood or interpreted literally. For example, if you told someone to: “Break a leg,” it could literally be perceived as a threat, where in fact, it’s a way of wishing someone good luck. Idioms can often be overused to the point that they become cliches.
5. Personification
Personification is to assign human characteristics, actions or intentions, to non-human entities, such as animals or inanimate objects. Examples would include people describing light as dancing on water, or referring to a river being angry. None of those entities are literally capable of the actions or emotions they are being described as performing or embodying, yet reading those personified descriptions paints a clear picture through connotations.
Teach figurative language effectively with games
The playful nature of figurative language makes it a very applicable element of language to turn into a game. It’s an innately fun topic, and it should be taught in a fun way, such as through engaging activities and play. This isn’t a boring or largely uninspiring subject where gamification is required to make it interesting; this is an engaging topic that to teach in a boring or listless way would be, figuratively speaking, a crime. Learning games can give students the opportunity to immerse themselves in examples of figurative language, and broaden their understanding of it through game-play. This works really well for younger students, but can also be applied through games for adult learners who might be learning English as a second language, or getting a required English qualification for a job or higher education course.
As a teacher, you could use the Drimify platform to create effective educational games to help your students. One easy way to help students get comfortable with figurative language would be to customise an Interactive Quiz. At the simplest level, you could display an example of figurative language, and have multiple choice answers indicating the example’s actual meaning. At the more complex level, you could use the same format and ask your students to answer whether the example is using personification, a simile, a metaphor, or an idiom.
The possibilities aren’t limited to the quiz format. You could also consider creating a Crossword and Wordsearch Game, but write the hints and clues in figurative language. This would add an extra element, in that you would be building your students’ confidence in figurative language without that seeming to be the focal point of the game. To take the whole thing a step further, you could create a Dynamic Path™ game, which would allow you to create multiple levels and interactive modules using all of the games on the Drimify platform. This would allow you to build a completely customised course of gamified learning around figurative language. Some levels could take the form of informative videos, pictures or text, for reading and studying, which would be broken up by the interactive elements featuring game-play. Because figurative language is linked to critical thinking – being able to think outside of literal and traditional constraints – it can be an option to tie in critical thinking exercises to figurative language games.
Work with the experts to bring your figurative language learning games to life
Our team of gamification experts can advise you on all aspects of creating your own effective learning games, from concept to creation, and our easy to use platform makes the process simple and fast.
The games on the Drimify platform are fully customisable, so you can tailor your figurative language games to your exact teaching needs and specifications. You can use your own text, and even your own images. As the nature of figurative language is heavily based on conjuring images in people’s minds, this aspect of our platform gives you even more freedom to give your students a really comprehensive grounding in this important nuance of English language learning.
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