Abstract
This article examines the theoretical foundations and practical effectiveness of teaching Abai’s works through a cognitive-conceptual approach. The multilayered cognitive structure of Abai’s texts, the complexity of their conceptual system, and the richness of their symbolic and semantic fields clearly require learners to possess epistemological preparedness, deep reflective thinking, and advanced interpretive skills. The study compares the outcomes of analyzing Abai’s works using traditional and cognitive methods. While, under traditional instruction, students grasped the poem “Zhigitter, oyun arzan, külki kymbat” only at a general thematic level, the cognitive approach enabled them to identify key lexical markers, construct semantic fields, and model structural relations, thereby gaining deeper insight into the text’s internal organization. In exploring multilayered concepts such as “soul,” “body,” and “red,” students reconstructed the textual world and developed a more profound understanding of its philosophical and ethical dimensions. The findings demonstrate that cognitive-conceptual methods are particularly effective in revealing the essence of Abai’s poetry and in enhancing students’ analytical, conceptual, and metacognitive abilities.