The role of games in teaching foreign languages

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Introduction

Actuality of the theme: Games can be used at any stage of the lesson once the target language has been introduced and explained. They serve both as a memory aid and repetition drill, and as a chance to use freely and as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. They can also serve as a diagnostic tool for the teacher, who can note areas of difficulty and take appropriate remedial action.

Aims of the research work: to show the ways to develop pupils` reading, writing, speaking, listening skills by the game; and give clear examples for using them at each part of the lesson; to bring up children with the help of games which are suitable to their age.

Duty of the research work: to find the importance of different games in learning foreign language. to define the role of a game in learning foreign languages

Subject of the research work: foreign language lesson

Object of the research work: different types of game

Methods of the research work: researching, explaining, visualization, experiment

Practical value of the research work: The practical value of games in language learning at all levels has been well documented. Apart from their motivational value as an enjoyable form of activity, they provide a context in which the language is embedded. This context is `authentic' in the sense that the games create its own world: for the duration of the game, it replaces external reality.

Theoretical value of the research work: Games in the elementary school classroom work best when they are built upon the premise of relaxation and reward, but in reality are strengthening skills already learned. Once teacher finds out which game works best, the effective teacher can then utilize this game as a means to get students on task and focused.

News of the research work:

1. A game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun. There are two kinds of games: competitive games, in which players or teams race to be the first to reach the goal, and cooperative games, in which players or teams work together towards a common goal.

1. Teacher can use language games to introduce new material, to practice recently learnt language items, to introduce or practice certain themes, or to relax or energize the class.

2. One of the best ways to get children interested in a game is to have them participate actively in its creation. It means teachers and pupils should create new games during the lesson.

1. What is the game?

1.1 The definitions of the term “game”

game teaching foreign language

A game is a structured activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas. However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports/games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as Mahjong solitaire).

Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational or psychological role. According to Chris Crawford, the requirement for player interaction puts activities such as jigsaw puzzles and solitaire "games" into the category of puzzles rather than games.

Attested as early as 2600 BC, games are a universal part of human experience and present in all cultures. The Royal Game of Ur, Senet, and Mancala are some of the oldest known games.

Games can be used at any stage of the lesson once the target language has been introduced and explained. They serve both as a memory aid and repetition drill, and as a chance to use language freely and as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. They can also serve as a diagnostic tool for the teacher, who can note areas of difficulty and take appropriate remedial action.

The pedagogical value of games in language learning at all levels has been well documented. Apart from their motivational value as an enjoyable form of activity, they provide a context in which the language is embedded. This context is `authentic' in the sense that the games create its own world: for the duration of the game, it replaces external reality. Games also create the circumstances for meaningful repetition. Furthermore, the `same' game can be played many times yet never produce identical outcomes. Needless to say, games also ensure that the players interact with each other, and this interaction is usually played out in the language.

For younger learners games have even greater appeal. Children are curiously paradoxical. They can be both committed to co - operation and, at the same time, fiercely competitive. They love the security of routine and the predictability of rules, yet they are often amazingly unpredictable and creative. They love to have fun, yet they dedicate themselves with deadly seriousness to the activities they engage in. It is not surprising therefore that are so popular with children; games too involve both co - operation and competition, rules and unpredictability, enjoyment and serious commitment.

Games are fun and children like to play them. That in itself is a strong argument for incorporating them in the EFL classroom. Playing games is a vital and natural part of growing up and learning. Through games children experiment, discover, and interact with their environment. Not to include games in the classroom would be to withhold from the children an essential tool for understanding their world; a world which the language teacher seeks to enlarge through the experience of a foreign language.

Games add variation to a lesson and increase the motivation by providing a plausible incentive to use the target language. Remember that for many children between four and twelve years, especially the youngest, language learning will not be the key motivational factor. Language can provide the stimulus. The game context makes the foreign language immediately useful to the children. It brings the target language to life. The game makes the reasons for speaking plausible even to reluctant children.

Many experienced textbooks and methodology manuals writers have argued that games are not just time - filling activities but have a great educational value. W.R.Lee holds that most language games make learners use the language instead of thinking about learning the correct forms. He also say that games should be treated as central not peripheral to the foreign language teaching program. A similar opinion is expressed by Richard - Amato, who believes games to be fun but warns against overlooking their pedagogical value, particularly in foreign language teaching. There are many advantages of using the games. “Games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely” (Richard - Amato). They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings. They also enable learners to acquire new experience within a foreign language which are not always possible during a typical lesson. Furthermore, to quote Richard - Amato, they, “add diversion to the regular classroom activities,” break the ice, “but also they are used to introduce new ideas”. In the easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created by using games, students remember things faster and better. Further support comes from Zdybiewska, who believes games to be a good way of practicing language, for they provide a model of what learners will use the language for in real life in the future. Games encourage, entertain, and promote fluency. If not for any of these reasons, they should be used just because they help students see beauty in a foreign language and not just problems1(l. p 12).

Games are often used as short warm - up activities or when there is some time left at the end of the lesson. Yet, as Lee observes, a game “should not be regarded as a marginal activity filling in odd moments when the teacher and class have nothing better to do”. Games ought to be at the heart of teaching foreign languages. Rixon suggests that games be used at all stages of the lesson, provided that they are suitable and carefully chosen. At different stages of the lesson, the teachers' aims connected with a game may vary:

1. Presentation. Provide a good model making its meaning clear;

2. Controlled practice. Elicit good imitation of new language and appropriate responses;

3. Communicative practice. Give students a chance to use the language.

Games also lend themselves well to revision exercises helping learners recall material in a pleasant, entertaining way. All authors referred to in this article agree that even if games resulted only in noise and entertained students, they are still worth paying attention to and implementing in the classroom since they motivate learners, promote communicative competence, and generate fluency.

There are given many definitions of the word “game” by people who studied it. Ludwig Wittgenstein was probably the first academic philosopher to address the definition of the word game. In his Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein demonstrated that the elements of games, such as play, rules, and competition, all fail to adequately define what games are. He subsequently argued that the concept "game" could not be contained by any single definition, but that games must be looked at as a series of definitions that share a "family resemblance" to one another.

French sociologist Roger Caillois, in his book “Les jeux et les hommes” (Games and Men), defined a game as an activity that must have the following characteristics:

fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character

separate: it is circumscribed in time and place

uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable

non-productive: participation is not productive

governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everyday life

fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality2 (l. p. 21).

"A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome." (Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman)

"A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal." (Greg Costikyan)

"A game is an activity among two or more independent decision-makers seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context." (Clark C. Abt)

"At its most elementary level then we can define game as an exercise of voluntary control systems in which there is an opposition between forces, confined by a procedure and rules in order to produce a disequilibrial outcome." (Elliot Avedon and Brian Sutton-Smith)

"A game is a form of play with goals and structure." (Kevin Maroney)

“There is no valuable mental development without games. Game - is a large bright window, through which flow the life - giving stream of imagination and conception to the child's inner world.” V. A. Suhomlinskii

“The one of the most important ways of upbringing the children is the game. The grave and responsible game must take up a great position in the life of child's group. And all teachers are obliged to know how to play” A. S. Makarenko

“Game is a world, in which the little child grows up and develops.”

K. Sh. Ahiyarov

“If the child doesn't play and sing, how can he grow up?” A. Kunanbayev

“Children must to play as their world requires it.” S. Toraigurov

“The most intensive development of all children's functions will appear at 7 - 9 ages, and that's why the necessity of the game at these ages is very important, and the game turns into the type of activity, which is managed by the development. Game forms the child's personal characters, his attitude toward the reality, the people.” Sh. A. Amonashvili1(l. p.19).

Definitions of game on the Web:

· a contest with rules to determine a winner; "you need four people to play this game"

· a single play of a sport or other contest; "the game lasted two hours"

· an amusement or pastime; "they played word games"; "he thought of his painting as a game that filled his empty time"; "his life was all fun and games"

· animal hunted for food or sport

· (tennis) a division of play during which one player serves

· (games) the score at a particular point or the score needed to win; "the game is 6 all"; "he is serving for the game"

· the flesh of wild animals that is used for food

· plot: a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal); "they concocted a plot to discredit the governor"; "I saw through his little game from the start"

· the game equipment needed in order to play a particular game; "the child received several games for his birthday"

· your occupation or line of work; "he's in the plumbing game"; "she's in show biz"

· crippled: disabled in the feet or legs; "a crippled soldier"; "a game leg"

· bet on: place a bet on; "Which horse are you backing?"; "I'm betting on the new horse"

· frivolous or trifling behavior; "for actors, memorizing lines is no game"; "for him, life is all fun and games"

· willing to face danger3.

1.2 Games as a means of development the pupil's cognitive activity

Educational games are games that have been specifically designed to teach people about a certain subject, expand concepts, reinforce development, understand an historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they play. The objective of any educational game is achieving a didactic goal while maintaining the entertaining value any game is expected to provide.

Games in the elementary school classroom work best when they are built upon the premise of relaxation and reward, but in reality are strengthening skills already learned. Once teacher finds out which game works best, the effective teacher can then utilize this game as a means to get students on task and focused.

As long as the games are conducted in a fair environment, and full inclusion is achieved, the elementary students will reap many benefits from playing games during some of their unstructured class time. Games motivate a classroom to learn and memorize. Elementary children love the group competition in games. They will listen and cooperate to help their team win! There are many games a teacher can incorporate into the study and review of material to teach the students. Most students learn from visual aids. This is the reason for the history of the chalkboard in the classroom. But some students also learn by actually doing work with their hands (kinesthetic), while others learn from hearing (auditory). Teacher must consider incorporating some games to motivate and teach the class based on their ability to learn.

Discipline during a game. In all games it is best to use the game to discipline or motivate co-operation. The team players will not want their team to lose because they did not co-operate during the game. For example, an out is called in Baseball if someone on the batting team is out of order. If it is a student on the opposing team is out of order, an out is marked on the board to remind them they already have one out when their team is up to bat. Baseball batters can only make one base at a time as they are bumped forward as a batter makes a correct answer. If the batter misses an answer it is not an out unless the opposing seated team can raise their hand and get the answer correct. This motivates the opposing team to listen to all questions and answers. Any subject could be used in this game.

Many teachers use entertaining and didactic games on their lessons for increasing the pupil's activity, which is the most important way of acquiring solid knowledge, skills and abilities.

Didactic games are the one of the most important means of mental and moral education of children. The principal type of didactic “entertaining” are the games, which form stable interest for learning and which remove the tension. They form psychological qualities which are necessary for educational process as thinking, attention and memory. They also form the skills of educational work. Teachers make the condition for assimilation social roles in those circumstances in educational process, where they teach pupils. Generally, the didactic game is used not only for solving one task, but for the all set of tasks. Didactic games must be constructed in such way, where incompleteness of subject provides an easy transition from concernment for carrying out the school tasks, for example: the anecdotal games which are realizable on educational material. “The fabulous hero Chippolino comes and brings numbers. He asks you to make examples.” Summarizing and analyzing psychological - pedagogical and methodical literature of software tools of playing teaching material, teachers can make a conclusion that syllabus contains developmental character. All playing syllabus can be divided for:

1. educational games which depend on teaching material;

2. entertaining games, which characterize by puzzles, logical games, games for quickness of wit4(l. p.46);

The main advantage of educational didactic games consists of that teaching tasks come disguised. When the child plays, he obtains the knowledge, acquires the definite skills, and at the same time he doesn't realize that teacher teach him for something. The playing syllabus in the primary school is explained, first of all, by psychological - pedagogical peculiarities of children of younger ages. The particular significance of game contains its role as the means of adaptation children for learning. That's why it must become the essential part of the educational process in primary schools. The developmental playing sphere of cognitive character is used to develop logical thinking, imagination, and the quickness of wit. There are some entertaining games as puzzles, crosswords, enigmas, riddles, games with geometric figures, and others. In these games the main part is not speed, but the right solution. These games promote the development of constructive thinking, forming the skills of creative types, and the development of spatial thinking. As the experience of teachers' works of using the playing syllabus shows that if teachers organize the educational process of cognitive character in the form of game, they can quickly increase the effectiveness of teaching.

An elementary school classroom is a wonderful dynamic that needs to be continually cultivated. The lessons that these children learn will carry on with them for the rest of their academic careers, and into their adulthood. Games can be a viable strategy for teaching life specific lessons. A fantastic game to be played in the elementary classroom is called Tribes.

In the game of Tribes, the class is split up into different teams, and they are forced, through a series of tasks and challenges, to form bonds, and to learn to work together, creating a sense of community and an overall atmosphere of mutual respect. This game challenges players to become leaders or followers, and overall, the game will promote friendship and co-operation. The game is terrific, especially when played under the guise of fun instead of learning. This is a great game if teacher can find it, which should not be too difficult.

There are many great games that can be played in the elementary school classroom, it is just a matter of finding those few games that particular students thoroughly enjoy and actively participate in when played. Elementary students love games, as it seems as though it is a break from the mundane monotony of rudimentary learning, but this is merely a subterfuge. Many of the best games that are played are actually building upon concepts being studied. This is the benefit of playing games within the confines of the elementary school classroom. It is the job of the teacher to promote the games to the students.

A great elementary game to play with your students is a variation of Wheel of Fortune or Hangman. The game is fun and exciting, and can provide a great outlet for creativity if the students are allowed to choose the words or phrases. This is also a great game for building vocabulary and reading skills. All students can learn from this style of game, whether or not they are an auditory learner (hearing the letters guessed appeals to their strengths, as does unscrambling words), a visual learner (actually seeing the words being formed), or kinesthetic learner (physically guessing the letters, writing them in, participating in the game). This gives the teacher the chance to appeal to all of the diverse learning styles, and incorporate a style of teaching that helps each and every student within the classroom.

Another tried and true game to play with the elementary school classroom is Jeopardy, which gives the students the chance to participate in a question and answer style game that can reinforce all of the material that is going to be on an upcoming quiz, or to just reiterate important points from the latest lesson. Since Jeopardy is so well-known, and the chance to be the center of attention is present, this game can be rather beneficial to the student body. The beauty of playing games is that the students perceive it as a reward, even though they are merely reviewing material that has been recently studied.

Along the same lines as Jeopardy, Baseball Review can be a great game for the elementary classroom. The concept of Baseball Review is to break the students into two teams, and form a straight line, one behind the other. The first 'batter' is given a question based on their choice of going for a single, double, triple, or homerun. The questions are obviously harder when the player goes for the extra bases. If he/she gets the answer correct, she physically moves to a different location in the room, and advance accordingly based on the results of the next batters. This game gets the class moving around, appealing to the students. The game also breaks the ennui of studying, and gets the blood flowing to the brain. The team that scores the most runs before they acquire three outs for incorrect answers. Depending on the teacher, the game can go as many innings as they feel warrant the studying of the material.

Spelling Bees are always a great idea for a game in the elementary school classroom. Spelling Bees appeal to students because it is a chance to showcase their intellect. The game also helps students to spell, and increases their vocabulary. With each word that a student is given to spell by the teacher, a definition of the word, followed by a sentence using the word should be given. This game will help students immensely to earn an appreciation of the language.

A game such as Survivor can be great to play, but teacher must be wary of the rules of play, because she does not want students to be eliminated for reasons more social than academic. The game would be similar to Tribes, but on a more popular scope. The concept could work, however, and could force students from all walks of life to learn to get along with others, which will build a sense of community in the classroom. This game could foster a culture of mutual self-respect and admiration for others, all the while adding humility and compassion to their character.

Silent Ball. Children (8 - 40) stand in a circle. They have a ball and must pass it around. If you drop the ball you must sit down. If you make a sound you must sit down. As the 'leader' you can give extra instructions. Throw with your right hand only. Stand on one foot, scratch behind your ear etc. The kids love it. For classes with behavioral issues start a second game with the children that are out about half way through. This gives them a second chance and less waiting time.

This game develops motor skills: throwing and catching. It also develops children's coordination, listening skills, ability to follow rules (they are very easy and yet so hard to do!) and best of all it gives the teacher about 5 minutes of blissful silence. At the end of the game there seems to be an extreme need to do something loudly - so it is great just before play, lunch, or home-time or to get them listening before you explain rules to a new game you are playing outside.

Once the children know how to play this game they will request it frequently and you even see them playing it amongst themselves in the playground. They seem to really like the idea of trying to stay quiet. Some find it more challenging than others.

2. A game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun

2.1 Types of games and their classification

A game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun. There are two kinds of games: competitive games, in which players or teams race to be the first to reach the goal, and cooperative games, in which players or teams work together towards a common goal.

Language games can be divided into two further categories: linguistic games and communicative games. In linguistic games, the goal of the game is linguistic accuracy: in the case of these grammar games, using the correct grammatical forms. Communicative games have a goal or aim that is not linguistic: successful completion of the game involves carrying out a task such as exchanging information, filling in a picture or chart, or finding two matching cards, rather than the correct production of language. However, in order to carry out this task it will be necessary to use language and, by careful construction of the task, it is possible to specify in advance what language will be required.

Language games are fun. But all activities in a primary classroom should be. Games are also task based: English is a tool for the children to reach a goal which is not directly language related. Craft activities in the target language are also an example of this, as are songs. But that doesn't make them games. A stricter definition is necessary for the purpose of a language games book.

What differentiates language games from other activities in the EFL classroom is the presence of a visible set of rules which guide the children's actions, and an element of strategy - children must successfully apply their language and other skills. Games can be competitive, but this is not a precondition. Children can also employ their language skills strategically in co - operative games, where a group works together to achieve certain goals.

Language games are a healthy challenge to a child's analytical thought. The rules of the game set clear limits within which the children's natural decision - making processes must function. With beginners, some games can resemble `fun' drills, with the decision making reduced to substitution of a single word in a phrase. However, even in such cases, children are required to make individual choices based on specific language criteria which form part of the rules of the game. The key to a successful language game is that these rules are clear and the ultimate goal is well defined. Of course, the game must be fun, whether played in English or the children's mother tongue.

Choosing appropriate games. There are many factors to consider while discussing games, one of which is appropriacy. Teachers should be very careful about choosing games if they make them profitable for the learning process. If games are to bring desired results, they must correspond to either student's level, or age, or to the material that is to be introduced or practiced. Not all games are appropriate for all students irrespective of their age. Different age groups require various topics, materials, and modes of games. For example, children benefit most from games which require moving around, imitating a model, competing between groups and the like. Furthermore, structural games that prior knowledge. Games become difficult when the task or the topic is unsuitable or outside the student's experience. Another factor influencing to the choice of a game is its length and the time necessary for its completion. Many games have a time limit, but according to Siek-Piscozub, the teacher can either allocate more or less time depending on the student's level, the number of people in a group, or the knowledge of the rules of a game etc.

Rogova distinguishes the various types of games. She divided the language games into phonetic, orthographical, lexical and games for the work with alphabet. Language games intend for forming the pronouncing, lexical and grammatical skills and for practicing the usage target language in preparatory, precommunicative stages of mastering the foreign language.

Phonetic games.

I hear - I don't hear. The aim: to form the skills of phonemic hearing.

The course of game: the learners divide into groups. The teacher pronounces a word. If he or she names the word, which has long vowel sound or …, learners raise the left hands. If there are also consonant sounds or ... in the word, the learners raise two hands. Teacher writes the mistakes on the blackboard. The team, which made fewer mistakes, will win.

True or false. The aim: to form right, quick skills for distortion of the phonemic hearing.

The course of game: teacher names the words or the words in the sentences, in phrases. Learners raise their hands when teacher reads the emphasis sounds in sound patterns. Then teacher asks learners to read definite sound patterns, words, phrases and sentences. If learner reads right, others raise their hands with green cards, if it's wrong - with red cards. The team which after counting the points will evaluate correctly the presence and absence of mistakes will win.

Which word sounds? The aim: forming the skills of determining adequate sound - letter correspondence.

The course of game: the learners are given 10 - 20 words. The teacher begins to read the word with definite speed in voluntary sequence. The learners will do the following actions:

1. To find the words in the list which teacher pronounces and put ordinal numbers near the words.

2. To click only those words which teacher reads.

3. To write down aurally the words, which are not in list, and try to find them in dictionaries, if learner doesn't know them, he must extract, and find any orthographical mistakes.

Orthographical games.

The scattered letters. The aim: to form the skills of combination the letters in the word

The course of game: teacher writes the word on the paper with large letters, and doesn't show it to others, then he cuts it. Then he says: “I had a word. It scattered for the letters.” Then he shows the letters and put them on the table: “Who will find this word first?” The pupil, who will write the word correctly, will win. The winner will invent the new word, and cut it, and then he will scatter all letters. All the actions will repeat.

The pairs of words. The aim: to develop orthographical skills.

The course of game: teacher tells players that this game was invented by Lewis Carrol, the author of the book “Alice in wonderful land”. Teacher writes a word on the paper. Pupil must write another word below which contains the same quantity of letters. The players must step - by - step turn the word above to the word below. For that they must think another word, which writes in the same way as the first, except for one or two letters, and write it under the first word. Then this word will be turned to another. At every time they can change only one or two letters. They must continue while they make a word, which can be changed only with one letter and turn to the word below.

For example: score spell

scare spoil

scale Spain

whale train

while grain

smile grape

smell graze

The picture. The aim: to check up the mastering of the orthography of the learned lexical material.

The course of game: every participant is given the pictures of animals, objects. The teacher divides pupils into two groups, and every representative of groups comes to the blackboard and writes all the objects in the pictures. After that he must read the words and show the picture. The group, which will write all the word quickly and without any mistakes, will win.

Games for the work with alphabet.

5 cards. The aim: to control the learning of alphabet.

The course of game: teacher shows for every pupil 5 cards with letters of foreign alphabet. The pupil, who will name the letters rightly and without pauses, will win.

The first letter. The aim: training, directed to learning the alphabet.

The course of game: teacher divides pupils into two teams. Teacher names three words one after another to every team. The participants must name the first letters of these words quickly. The team, which carries out the task correctly, will win.

Letters - cards. The aim: forming the skills of correlation orthographical signs with lexical meanings.

The course of game: the learners are given 3 - 4 cards with capital and small letters.

Variant 1 The teacher shows the pictures and names the objects in the pictures in the foreign language, the learners raise cards with the first letters of the named words. Teacher collects the cards with correct variants. The learner, who won't have any cards, will win. Teacher can complicate the game: teacher shows cards in silent and the learners name them aloud, and then raise the necessary cards with letters.

Variant 2 The learners are given 3 - 4 cards with pictures, in which there are well - known words. Teacher shows the letter and pronounces the sound, and the learners must show the cards, in which there are the objects, which begin with this letter and name these objects in the foreign language.

Variant 3 Teacher can show letters in silent or name them aloud, and doesn't show the, which will complicate the game. For every correct answer teacher will give points. The team, which gains more points, will win.

Lexical games.

The numerals. The aim: to consolidate the cardinal and ordinal numbers.

The course of the game: teacher divides pupils into two teams. She or he names cardinal or ordinal numbers. The first team must name the previous and the second one - the following (according to the cardinal or ordinal numbers). The team will get the penal points for every mistake. The team, which gets the less penal points, will win.

Auding the pictures. The aim: activation the vocabulary of learned theme, development the skills of dialogical speech.

The course of the game: the participants are divided into the pairs. Every pair is given the pictures with the cards of cues. With the help of these cards pupils must aud the pictures. The pair, which will prepare the dialogue first and aud it correctly, will win.

Teakettle. (English game) The aim: to form and develop the contextual guess.

The course of the game: the leader goes out the room. At this time pupils must choose several homonyms and think the sentence. When leader enters the room, pupils pronounce the sentence one by one, which includes the word “teakettle” in place of homonyms.

For example: I said good teakettle when I went to the little store teakettle the bank to teakettle some meat. The word “teakettle” must be replaced by “bye, by, buy”. The leader must find out the meaning of the phrase : I said good bye when I went to the little store by the bank to buy some meat.

Grammatical games.

Description of the action. The aim: automation the using verbs in spoken language.

The course of the game: the players make the pairs. One of the players express the action (mimic and pantomimic), another player must comment in using the learned verbs.

Game with ball. The aim: automation the using of the forms of verbs in spoken language.

The course of the game: teacher divides pupils into two groups. The participant of the first group makes a sentence with the definite verb. He throws the ball to the participant of another group, and tells his sentence omitting the verb. The player, who catches the ball, repeats the sentence and inserts the verb. All the actions will repeat.

Presents. The aim: to consolidate the vocabulary of the theme, to automotize the using of learned verbs in the future simple in spoken language.

The course of game: Teacher divides participant into two groups. She writes two lines of words: 1) names of animals;2) the list of verbs. The participants must say what they will do with presents using the verbs from the list. Every player must make one sentence. The team, which will do the task quickly and make the sentence, will win.

Alan Maley also distinguishes games into types in his book “Games for children”. All the games in his book are arranged according to areas which are central to a young child's experience: themes with which they can immediately identify regardless of language. The order of themes is not random but grows from a central point: the children themselves. Each wider theme contains the information from the theme before, used in a different, exciting way. Thus, although `colors' as a theme appears early on in the book, the reader will find games with colors in many other areas as well.

It is important to know what types of game are available in order to plan a lesson with a balanced rhythm. There are many different types of games: cards games, board games, games with music, to name but a few. However, many games are difficult to label. Therefore, Alan Maley has assigned an each game a type based on its most outstanding feature - for example, although a board game includes dice rolling, the board itself is the primary focus.

Movement games. In these games, the children are physically active. Movement games are generally “rousers” and need to be closely monitored.

Card games. Children collect, give away, exchange, sort, and count cards. The cards can have a meaning or value in a game, or simply serve as symbols for object or actions. Cards are often components of other game types as well.

Board games. Any games which mainly involve moving markers along a path. Board games can be made by the children as a fun craft activity.

Dice games. Dice games are incredibly versatile. Teacher must remember that the dice need not only have numbers on the faces. They can have numbers, colors, letters of the alphabet. Dice need not be six - sided either. In specialty shops teacher can find 12 - sided dice or even round dice with a weighted ball in the middle. Little children might only roll one dice, while older children can play games with three or four dice at the same tome.

Drawing games. Drawing games are special because they span a gap between key functions of the brain. On the one hand, drawing requires creativity and sensitivity towards the world. On the other hand, the children must be able to understand instructions and describe their art. Drawing games are particularly helpful with shy children who are reluctant to talk. A picture is a very personal thing and although children may not be ready to describe their picture, they will certainly respond to the questions with yes or no answers.

Guessing games. In guessing games, the aim is to guess the answer to a question of some kind.

Role - play games. Role - play games can be seen as simple, guided drama activities. The language input can be quite rigidly prescribed or very open depending on the language level, curiosity, and confidence of class. Role plays stimulate a child's imagination and are tests of true communication.

Singing and chanting games. Singing and chanting games often involve movement, but we decided to list them separately since music plays such an important role in early childhood learning.

Team games. Team games can belong to the other categories, but also require cooperative team work.

Word games. These games utilize children's enjoyment of playing with words. They are mostly for older children as they involve spelling and writing.

Jill Hadfield wrote some books for games, with the help of them teachers can develop pupils' grammatical, vocabulary skills. “Elementary vocabulary games” is a resource book of practice activities for vocabulary: the games have been designed to practice, not to introduce, new vocabulary. The vocabulary items have been arranged in lexical sets following topics used in most textbooks and courses at this level. The topic area, vocabulary focus, structures and any additional vocabulary that the students will need are all listed at the beginning of each game. The structures have been kept to an elementary level and are for each game what a student at this stage could reasonably be expected to know.

Each game has three stages: memorizing, personalizing and communicating, taking the student through the three described above, though the three stages are self - contained so that the teacher is free to select or discard any stage, according to what she feels her students need. The games make use of a variety of techniques. Variety is important in language teaching, and a succession of games based on the same principles, though exciting and novel at first, would soon pall. Techniques used include information gap, guessing, search, matching, exchanging, collecting, combining, arranging, and card games, board games, puzzles and role - play.

The three games in each unit are all different in nature and make use of different techniques.

The first game in each unit is a memorization game, designed to fix the meaning of the word in the student's mind. These games are linguistic games as distinct from the other two activities in the unit which focus on communication; their focus is on accuracy rather than fluency and for the most part they only require the student to produce single words rather than sentences. The games used in this stage are very simple versions of matching (including lotto and bingo games), sorting, ordering, guessing (including mime games), arranging and collecting. In each case, the aim of the game is to get the students to remember and produce the right word (matching words to pictures for example, or guessing which word is being mimed or sorting words into two lexical sets).

The activities in the second stage (personalizing) are not really games. But humanistic activities designed to get the students to relate the new words to their personal experience. They fall into two stages: a reflective phase, where students are asked to visualize something or associate the words with their personal life and preferences, and a communicative phase where they are asked to share what they have thought or written with others. The language in this stage is also fairly controlled (sentence patterns and frames are often given), though the students will now need to produce whole utterance not single words.

The activities in the third stage are communication games where the focus is on successful completion of a goal such as finding a person, solving a puzzle or completing a drawing, rather than on correct production of lexis and structures. In this stage, language is less controlled and there is more flexibility and creativity required of the students. Games in this section include the whole range of communicative games: matching, searching, information gap, puzzle solving, role - play, arranging and ordering and exchanging and collecting games.

There are some teachers' notes for different themes such as clothes, food and drinks, family members, fruit and vegetables, rooms in a house.

Clothes. Topic area: clothes.

Vocabulary focus: anorak, blouse, bra, coat, dress, dressing gown, gloves, jacket, jeans, jumper, leggings, pants, pyjamas, scarf, shirt, shoes, shorts, skirt, slippers, socks, suit, swimsuit, tie, tights, tracksuit, trainers, trousers, T - shirt, vest, wooly hat.

Extra vocabulary: find, favourite, wear.

Structures: be, have got, like + -ing (I like/don't like wearing…), can't (I can't find my …)

Materials and preparation.

Game1. Copy the body outline from unit5 Parts of the body and the clothes cards from here. Don't forget to copy the clothes cards on both sides. You will need one body outline and one set of clothes cards per pair.

Game2. No materials.

Game3. Copy and cut up the washing lines and rows 1-4 of the clothes cards. (You don't need the words on the back this time). You will need one washing line card and its corresponding row of clothes for each student in the class.

Note: if you don't feel your students need to learn all the words, simply select the cards you feel most appropriate for their level/culture.

To limit the vocabulary in Game3, either use fewer washing lines, or make one photocopy as a master and tippex out the items of clothes you don't want to practise, before following the instructions above.

How to use the games.

Game1 Memorizing

Pairwork sorting and matching games

· Divide the student into pairs.

· Give each pair a body outline and a set of clothes cards.

· Ask them to turn the clothes cards word - side up and spread them out on the table.

· They should take it in turns to place them on the body outline in the appropriate place (e.g. hat on the head, socks on the feet etc.).

· The object of the game is to place all the cards in the correct places.

· When they have finished, they can turn the cards over to see the pictures and check if they were right.

· When all the cards are picture - side up, they can see if they can they remember the names of the clothes.

Game2 Personalizing

Pairwork discussion

· Write up the following sentence frames: I like wearing …, I don't like wearing…, My favourite clothes are….

· Ask the students to complete the sentences for themselves.

· Then put the students in pair to compare their preferences.

Game3 Communicating

Whole class search game

The washing line game

· Give each student a washing line card and five clothes cards taken from rows 1-4 of the clothes card page. The clothes cards you give each student should not correspond to the items on their washing line.

· Tell the students that it's a very windy day. The washing has blown off their washing line into someone else's garden. The wind has also blown someone else's washing into their garden.

· The object of the game is for each student to recover their lost washing.

· To do this, they will have to get up and move around the class asking if anyone has their lost clothes e.g. “I can't find my skirt. Have you got it?”

Note: This game can also be played in groups of four. Give each player a different washing line card and deal out the clothes cards. Each player must then find the items of clothing on the washing line, by asking the other players. The first player to find all the items is the winner.

Food and drink. Topic area: food and drink

Vocabulary focus:

Drink: beer, coffee, milk, orange juice, soup, tea, wine.

Food: bacon, beef, biscuits, bread, butter, cake, cheese, chicken, cooking oil, eggs, fish, flour, ham, ice cream, jam, lamb, pork, rice, spaghetti, sugar.

Structures: be, have got, would like.

Materials and preparation

Game1 Copy the food pictures and the word cards separately. You will need one set of picture cards and one set of word cards per pair of students.

Game2 One set of food picture cards per pair of students.

Game3 Mentally divide your class in half. You will need five food picture cards and five word cards each for this number of students (e.g. for a class of 20 you will need 10x5 food picture cards). Copy and cut up picture cards and the word cards, making sure that for each picture you copy a corresponding word card.

Note: If you don't feel your students need to learn all the words, simply select the cards you feel most appropriate for their level/culture. Beef, ham, pork, bacon, beer, wine are sensitive items in some cultures. You may have some staple culture you are teaching in. You can easily add these in by making a picture card and a word card for each item and then copying as in the instructions.

How to use the games

Game1 Memorizing

Pairwork matching game

· Divide the students into pairs.

· Give each pair a set of word cards and a set of food picture cards.

· Ask them to spread the picture cards out on the table and to put the word cards face down in a pile.

· They should take it in turns to take the top card from the pile and turn it up.

· The object of the game is to match words and pictures.

· The first one to find the matching picture can keep the two cards.

· The player with most cards at the end is the winner.

Game2 Personalizing

Pairwork discussion

· Students should spread the food picture cards out on the table and look at them.

· They should decide on a meal they would like to have and write down all the ingredients.

· Then they should work with a partner and discuss what they have chosen to eat.

Game3 Communicating

Whole class search game

The high street

· Divide the class in half.

· Give the students in one half five word cards each. They are the shoppers.

· Give the students in the other half five food picture cards each. They are the shopkeepers.

· The shopkeepers should remain at their desks, while the shoppers stand up and move around.

· The object of the game is for the shoppers to try and find the items on their `lists'.

· To do this, they will have to go from `shop' to `shop', asking for their items. If a `shopkeeper' has a picture of one of the items, he should give it to the shopper.

· When the shoppers have found their items, they should sit down.

There are also many games which can be conducted in the classroom. These games are proposed by alphabet order. So we can call them “Games A-Z”.

Action Race: This is a fun game using actions. Teacher can use actions like jump, hop, clap, run etc. She must have the class split into two teams and sit in lines with a chair by each team and one chair at the other end of the room. One pupil from each team stands next to their chair and teacher calls an action, e.g. "Jump". Every participant must jump to the chair on the other side of the room and back, sitting down in their chair he says "I can jump". First one to do it gets their team a point. (Submitted by Gareth Thomas).

Attention: Call out commands such as: Attention, salute, march in place...stop, sit down, stand up, walk in a circle, clap your hands...stop, run in place...stop, jumping jacks...stop, swim in place....stop, etc. At first students will copy teachers' actions but later they should be able to do the commands without her. (Submitted by Tania Bibbo).

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