Each game is designed to consolidate and review language students have been learning, and takes from 5 to 15 minutes. The games are flexible enough for you to adapt them to different levels, age groups, and skills. Card games are easy to pre pare and can be used to practice anything — vocabulary, grammar, speaking skills, and so on.
Single words, phrases, pictures, or questions on cards can prompt students to use new language without realizing it as they are focused on the game itself. For this card game, you will need a set of cards with questions. Download the teaching notes and sample cards here. All you need is a ball a ball of paper will suffice and a set of questions or definitions. Combine all your traditional classroom games into one with this team game to review vocabulary.
Students roll the dice to find out what they need to do to help their team members guess the word. A quiz-style game played as a whole class in two teams, this game requires students to work together to answer questions and score points. A good solution to overcome some of the diffi culties mentioned above seems to be to involve pupils in preparing activities. They are full of ideas and enthusiasm. They can do some illustrations, they can prepare short stories and dialogues or riddles, and they can also make rhymes, chants, or short poems.
It gives them a real reason for using language; and gradually, they can create activities for each other. Before choosing an activity for use with a class, it is necessary to consider some criteria which should be helpful in making decisions whether to use the particular activity, to reject it or to adapt it. All these make sense and are meaningful to young learners. Next important criterion is to challenge the learners and make them think so that they are more engaged and so process the language more deeply.
There is sometimes a danger that activities are used because they work well or because learners enjoy them. What is important and should matter most is the language-learning value an activity has. Another very signifi cant point is providing activities which are enjoyable and interesting and which make children want to continue doing them so they get more practice, for example, creating monsters, guessing, and games with the winner or prize.
However, it is important that these all have a clear language-learning purpose so that children are practising and they are not done just to keep pupils amused. Additionally, it is noteworthy to select activities which create a need or pressure for children to use English, for when the game is very exciting, pupils tend to use the mother tongue. Because of the natural urge to win, they may cheat and use their fi rst language. Therefore, the activity should be designed so that it would require children to use English at some stages, for example, by recording their answers or getting them to report back to the class in English.
This increases exposure to and use of the language. Finally, it is meaningful to provide activities which allow children to be creative with the language and give them opportunity to experiment with it.
This will help the young learners to test out their hypotheses about the language and assist the development of their internal language system. It is necessary to remember that no activity can fulfi l all the criteria simultaneously. Therefore, it is always vital to decide what the priorities are before choosing the activity.
There are many ways of adjusting the language or the task to suit the level of the pupils and teaching situation. For example, we can either simplify the language or the task or make them more diffi cult and complicated. Moreover, we can use teaching materials from the textbook or prepare our own. It should be born in mind that language learning is a challenging task requiring constant effort especially for young learners.
Games encourage learners to direct their energy towards language learning by providing them with meaningful contexts Wright, Betteridge and Buckby, Therefore, it is important that teachers should not see games as time fillers or tools designed for fun only, but integrate them into their foreign language teaching programmes. It is possible to come up with many descriptions proposed by various researchers about the nature of games.
Rixon , p. One can simply say that games are enjoyable. However, in addition to being enjoyable, games refer to rules to be followed pointing at a serious instructional planning and delivery process. As expressed by Lee , p. Competition, which is associated with games, plays a crucial role as for the nature of games requires. Learners are excited by competition because the question of who will win or lose remains unanswered until the game is over.
In many games, learners are required to cooperate to achieve the goal and most learners enjoy cooperation and social interaction. It is believed that when cooperation and interaction are combined with fun, successful learning becomes more possible. To conclude, no matter how differently games are described, one cannot underestimate their pedagogical value both in teaching and learning a foreign language.
Games provide language teachers with many advantages when they are used in classroom. One of these advantages is that learners are motivated to learn the language when they are in a game. McCallum , p. In language classes, learners feel stressful because they think that they have to master the target language that is unknown to them.
Besides, learners become too anxious about being criticized and punished by their teachers when they make a mistake. Games are advantageous at this point because they reduce anxiety, increase positive feelings and improve self- confidence because learners do not afraid of punishment or criticism while practicing the target language freely Crookal, , p. Games are student-focused activities requiring active involvement of learners. As a result, games provide learners with a chance to direct their own learning.
From an instructional view point, creating a meaningful context for language use is another advantage that games present. Therefore, when they completely focus on a game as an activity, students acquire language in the same way that they acquire their mother tongue, that is, without being aware of it Cross, , p. Games bring real-life situations to the confinement of the classroom which provides learners with an opportunity to use the language. Celce-Murcia p.
In addition to these, McCallum explains that there are many advantages of games such as the fact that they 1. The review of the studies related to language games indicates that games are crucially important in foreign language teaching and learning in a variety of areas. The fact that games are the most suitable instructional activities for young learners is obvious because they are a natural part of their existence.
Teachers know that young learners like being physically active as they learn by doing. Moreover, they are imaginative and creative and they learn without being aware of it.
Therefore, the best way to direct this capacity in grammar teaching is using games. Bekiri , p. It should not be a complicated game, but a simple one because it is usually more effective as young learners find it difficult to understand a long list of rules.
Similarly, games should also include praise and encouragement because young learners always love to be the centre of attention. In addition to all these, it should be born in mind that games should be as short as possible because as mentioned before, young learners are able to pay their attention to the games just for a limited time.
Hong gives some suggestions to teachers about using games for teaching young learners by claiming that: a. When giving instructions to beginners, a few words in the mother tongue would be the quickest way to make everything clear.
More English exposure is needed at a later stage. Games are best set up by demonstration rather than by lengthy explanation. It is very important not to play a game for too long. Students will begin to lose interest. It is best to stop a game at its peak. This problematic issue is important because the teacher should come up with the most suitable activities and tasks to teach young learners.
However, it should be taken into consideration that as they are young learners, teaching them through games requires special effort from the teacher. Hence, two factors, namely, deciding which game to use and deciding the time to use games need to be explained. Which Game to Use Teachers should be careful about choosing games if they want to make them advantageous. First of all, the teacher should decide on the purpose of a game. A game may seem appropriate and useful.
Considering the level of the game is equally important while choosing games. The fact that games enable social interaction and participation is also important. Learners, especially the young ones, learn better when they interact with their peers. Some games may include both cooperation and competition together.
While students cooperate within a team, they, at the same time, compete against another team Rixon, , p. Hence, what teachers should consider while choosing a game is the fact that children learn best with games which require physical action, interaction, competition and participation.
In addition to all these, there are many other factors such as the size and the physical properties of the classroom, the equipment, materials and the time available for a game McCallum, , p. In conclusion, teachers should take all these factors into account while choosing a game because a game which seems to be most appropriate may turn into a complete failure in the end. When to Use the Games Games are mostly used when there is some time left at the end of the lesson to keep students quiet.
However, Lee , p. Rinvolucri clarifies that a game can be used in any of these three stages while using them as a part of grammar instruction: a before presenting a given structure, especially to find out diagnostically how much knowledge is already known by the learners; b after a grammar presentation to see how much the group have grasped; c as a revision of a grammar area p. Teachers should be well aware of their roles while using games in their classes.
Since it is rather difficult to find a game that meets all the needs of the learners, careful preparation of the teacher is necessary. McCallum , pp. The teacher may need some extra equipment or materials to play the game and most of the time these equipment and materials are not available in the classroom.
Before explaining the rules to the class, the teacher should first understand how the game is played. Especially when working with children, the teacher should always be prepared to adapt the game to the givens of the class. After choosing the game, the teacher should explain its rules to the learners in a direct and non-complicated way.
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