How to Use Games in Primary English Teaching(2)

教育游戏在小学英语中的应用

As English becomes more and more accepted as an international language, interest

in the English teaching to younger learners has been steadily growing in recent years.

Accompanied with the carrying out of the new English Curriculum Standard by the

Ministry of Education of Chinese government, there are a lot of new problems arising

from the field of English teaching in the primary schools. This thesis holds the

hypothesis that game-teaching approach should be adopted in children’s English

teaching, and also probes into the reliability and pros and cons of using games in the

teaching process.

Overview of the Teaching Game

Games are a different kind of play activity. They are highly structured and include

specific rules to be followed (Spodek Bernard and Saracho Olivia, 1994, p.132).

Specially, teaching game is one of the kinds of the games. Byrne (1995) gave the

definition to games as a form of play governed by rules. He suggested:“Games

should be enjoyed and fun. They are not just a diversion, a break from routine

activities, but a way of getting the learner to use the language in the course of the

game.”(Byrne, 1995, p. 32).

From the above, we can safely drawn a conclusion that “game” in language

teaching (teaching game) can be defined as an organized activity that usually has the

following properties: A. a particular task or objective; B. a set of rules; C. competition

between players; D. communication between players by spoken or written language.

There is a widely-held lay belief that younger second language learners generally

do better than older learners. Children exercise a good deal of both cognitive and

affective effort in order to internalize both native and second languages. Moreover,

one of most essential thing that teachers teaching children’s English should make all

means to motivate their spirit and sustain their interest in learning English. Therefore,

most of those teachers chose the method by using games in the teaching process,

because games using is closely related to characteristics of children for their age and

their features of psychology. However, just as we know, language learning is not easy

work. In a word, games can help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest

and they play an important role in language teaching:

It has been found that one appropriate strategy to encourage language acquisition is

using language games. Children have a greater need to be motivated by the teacher or

the material, and they are easier to be motivated.Many scholars agree that games in

the language classroom have been considered a better way to arouse the interest of

children, John Dewey claimed games were integral to schooling since they provided

active and position learning experience. Games are also listed in the language skills

for the learning stage of primary school in the New English Curriculum Standard.

When using games in the classroom, it is beneficial for teachers to have a complete

understanding of the definitions of games: a form of play concerning rules,

competition, and an element of fun. Teachers should also consider the advantages of

games: the ability to capture students’ attention; lower students’ stress; and give

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