A Brief Analysis of Application of Games in Primary School English Teaching
英语组 刘阳
摘要：随着经济全球化的深入发展，英语作为交流工具越来越重要，英语学习在中国也越来越低龄化，各个小学已把英语作为学习科目之一，三年级便开始教授英语。中国传统的英语教学主要为背单词、记语法、背诵课文等，使不少学生感到枯燥不堪。在这样的背景下，探究一种适合儿童性格和认知能力的英语教学方法是很必要的。小学英语教学大纲指出：“兴趣是学生学习英语最好的老师，小学英语老师的首要任务就是培养学生对英语学习的兴趣”。
本文希望通过阐述说明游戏既有趣又有激发性，能帮助学生培养对外语的学习兴趣，激发学习的欲望，是一种适合儿童学习英语的好方法。本文的第一部分为简介，第二部分为中国儿童英语教育现状的简析，第三部分为小学英语教学中游戏的简介，第四部分为小学英语教学中使用游戏策略的简析，第五部分为小学英语教学中游戏的有效性的分析，最后一部分为本文的总结。
With the development of globalization, the phenomenon that English learners become younger and younger is pretty common. Primary schools have taken English as one of required subjects and children begin to learn English at Grade three. Chinese traditional methods to learn English are usually remembering vocabulary, learning grammar, reciting text books and so on, which make students rather boring. Under such circumstances, it is necessary to explore a useful English teaching method which is suitable for children’s characteristics and cognitive development. Primary English Teaching Syllabus points out that “interest is a good teacher for pupils to learn a foreign language. And it is an important task for primary school English teacher to arouse students’ interest at present.”
This thesis aims to explain that game-teaching, which is not only interesting but also inspiring, is a good method for pupils to learn English. Game-teaching can help students cultivate the interest to learn a foreign language and create a desire to learn it further more.
The first part of this thesis is introduction; the second part of this thesis is a brief analysis of the present situation in primary school English teaching; the third part of this thesis is a brief introduction to games in primary school English teaching, the forth part of this thesis is a detail analysis of the strategies of game in primary school English teaching, the fifth part of this thesis is a brief analysis of the effectiveness of games in primary school English teaching, the last part of the thesis is conclusion.
Key words: game; teaching; method; interest
Acknowledgements
In the process of my thesis, I would like to give my sincere thanks to many teachers and friends who have gave me a lot of support and guidance. Without them, the thesis can not be complete.
First and foremost,my greatest thanks are extended to my supervisor, Lecturer Su Yanan, for her infinite patience, insightful advice and invaluable guidance in my writing and completion of this thesis. She labored through drafts of this thesis and pointed out defects in my theorizing.
At the meantime, I also want to express my deepest appreciation to all the other teachers in English Language Institute, for introducing me, in their classes, to academic research in the areas of English Teaching Methodology. Among them, I wish to convey my special and sincere thanks to Lecturer Zhang Bo, who taught me Intensive English. Also I would like to thank Lecture Feng Lina, who were kind enough to have offered me plenty of valuable suggestion about my thesis, and Professor Xue Dongquan, who taught me Linguistics and lecturer Zheng Dong, who taught me English Teaching Methodology and stimulated my interest in English teaching.
I am also grateful to my friends and classmates for their friendship and cordial assistance. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family for their persistent encouragement and tender care. Without them, this thesis would not have ever been completed.
English has become a required lesson in primary schools since 2001.With the trend of more and more pupils learning English, it is urgent and necessary to find an appropriate method which is suitable for pupils’ characteristics and cognitive development. The Primary School English Outline points out:“Interest is a good teacher for language learning. It is teachers’ main task to provoke students’ interest in English study.”1The fundamental goals of teaching English at primary school are to arise pupils’ learning interest and motivation, to help students’ form good learning habits and master useful skills for secondary language learning.
However, as the traditional ways of teaching English in our country are always to remember vocabulary, to learn grammar, to recite text books, students’ interest in English is continuously decreasing. The traditional English class is a teacher-centered class and it ignores the importance of cultivating students’ abilities to speak and express their ideas. Under the influence of such a teaching method, many students are afraid to open their mouth in English classes and some even hate English classes. In such a class, the learning atmosphere is boring and stiff. There is no doubt that it prevents finishing the goals of teaching English in primary school and leads to the failure of teaching quality.
The famous American psychologist Bruner has said:“The best way to stimulate students is their interests.”2And many researchers have found out that pupils are easy to be motivated by games. Game is a kind of common activity and it has properties of freedom, experience and interest. An English proverb says: “Education must be fun.”3Concerning the essential spirit of games, teaching also can be a game. It is commonly agreed that games is a better way to create a pleasant, easy and funny surroundings for pupils to learn a foreign language, to help them to develop a positive attitude to learn a foreign language, to make them eager to continue with a foreign language learning.This thesis aims to explain that game-teaching in primary school English teaching is an ideal method by analyzing the present situation of primary school English teaching and introducing applications, advantages and effectiveness of games in English teaching.
I. The Present Situation of Primary School English Teaching in
Since
The importance of English in our country is self-evident. But the study of English teaching methodology comes late and there is only one-hundred-year history in
First and most important, teachers’ role in English class is not fully played. It is known to all that teacher is the most important factor in English class. They are the guide and pupils get knowledge and interest of English from them. The ability to teach, the sense of responsibility and the professional knowledge a teacher has directly influence students’ learning.
A survey shows that among 438 primary English teachers, about 149 of them graduate as English majors and only nearly 49 of them have a bachelor degree5. Some of them admit that they do not know much about the theories and strategies to teach pupils. They just follow the traditional way that their teachers once teach them when they are students in high school or even in college to teach pupils and tell the students what the textbook wants to tell them. They explain the grammar and new word one by one for pupils, which make class rather boring. Also, only a few of them have learnt about children psychology and they know little about children’s mentality. So they can hardly know what pupils like, not alone catch their interests. What’s more, they do not care much about pupils’ personality. Although realizing their weakness in primary English teaching, some of them are still not willing to have some further learning, thinking that the knowledge they hold is much more enough to teach pupils.
Second in order, the traditional teaching methods ignore to cultivate pupils ability to speak, to help them form a good habit to learn English. Under the influence of exam-oriented system, most schools and parents think students learning English for exams. So teachers stress more on test-points, which easily makes English learning a texting-centered activity, and pupils spend more time on recite exam points and even text papers. Thus pupils may take a high grade in exams but they fail to express their opinions in English. Some of them may begin to hate English and only go to English class forced by parents and teachers.
Last but not least, activities in English class are not enough. It is obvious that exam-oriented education can not contain many interactions or activities. Activities are great promoter for pupils to learn a foreign language. Interactions can make pupils feel close to teachers and love to have the class. Many scholars abroad agree that interest should be put in the first place while teaching a foreign language, and emphasize that pupils should learn a foreign language in relaxing and happy surroundings. However, it is a failure in present English classes.
As the increasing awareness of evolution among education society, in 2005, the Education Department has published Full-time Compulsory Education English Course Standard and National Curriculum for ELT as the programmatic document of education evolution. The requirements of learning and teaching methods have new definition since then. With this guidance, educators are trying best to probe in teaching methods.
II. The Introduction to Games in Primary School English Teaching
This part concludes two parts. The first part expounds the definition of game and the second part analyzes the aptness between games and primary English.
A．Definition of Game
Game has come into people’s life since ancient time. Many great philosophers have thought about what game on earth is.
Ludwig Wittgenstein is probably the first academic philosopher to address the definition of the word game. In his Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein argues that the elements of games, such as play, rules, and competition, all fail to adequately define what games are. From this, Wittgenstein concludes that people apply the term game to a range of disparate human activities that bear to one another only what one might call family resemblances. As the following game definitions show, this conclusion is not a final one and today many philosophers, like Thomas Hurka, think that Wittgenstein is wrong and that Bernard Suits' definition is a good answer to the problem.
French sociologist Roger Caillois, who wrote the 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 does not accomplish anything useful
governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from everyday life
fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality6
Also, the greatest two Greek philosophers left us precious opinions on game. Aristotle says that game is an aimless behavioral activity for relaxing and amusement after working7. Polato says that game is a conscious imitated activity of children for needs of living and capability8.
Still, there is no absolute definition of game yet. American game-designer Greg Costikyan says：“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."9 According to his definition, appropriate games can be purposely designed to achieve the goal of learning a foreign language.
In addition, as the times progress and society advance, game has been divided into many categories based on different theories. The most popular one used in English teaching is from Hadfield Jill. Basing on the characteristic and spirit of games, he divides games into two categories: competitive games and co-operative games.
B．Aptness Analysis Between Games and Primary English
A game is a form of play with goals and structures, often used for recreations and sometimes also designed as an education tool. In fact, games seem to be always in connection with education content. Game-teaching is defined as an instructional method by which teachers teach pupils knowledge and help them develop abilities to learn, and at the same time, change difficult language points into interesting games, create attractive communications. Many scholars have found that the features of game can easily improve learning. And there are many aptness between games and primary English.
Firstly, games can spur pupils’ motivation and turn the boring classes into interesting ones. English is such an unfamiliar language which has huge differences with our mother tongue. The English classes can easily be a nightmare for pupils if the teacher uses a wrong teaching method. Shy pupils may never open their mouth to speak English. Games are fun and enjoyable for both teachers and pupils. With games in English classes, the learning surroundings will be relaxing and happy. They can provide pupils who are afraid to perform in class more opportunities to express their ideas.
Secondly, game is encouraging and gives the chance to repeat the knowledge in a relaxing environment. Learning a foreign language is a rather hard task and may disappoint the learners. It should be a continuously process and need a lot of effort. The American philosopher John Dewey once said: “learn by doing or by experience”.10 Pupils are only small children during six to twelve years old and they can hardly grasp the meaning of grammar and abstract concept. So it will be much easier for them to remember the long English sentences and conversations through a game. Every pupil need to take participate in the game and the pupil will be encouraged by its classmates. What’s more, during the game, all the knowledge will be repeated several times. While they are enjoying the game, they are learning the knowledge unconsciously.
Thirdly, game is an activity that reflects the reality in hypothetical situations, which needing fertile imagination, and at the same time, with significant enlightening characteristic. The components, roles, plot, acts, instructional aid and even play materials are all imagined by teachers and pupils. For example, think the classroom as a hospital, think the pupils as doctors or patients, what’s more, think the books as food. Though such imaginations that pupils can be self-satisfied in spiritual, the instructional activity will be more impressed and the teaching aims can be easily finished. Playing games is for learning and consolidation of knowledge, as well as making the atmosphere in classroom active and enlightening pupils’ intelligence.
III. The Strategies of Games in Primary School English Teaching
This part consists of three sections which presents the strategies of games in primary school English teaching. The first section is analyzing how to design proper games, the second part is analyzing how to make games and learning an integration and the third part is introduction of the applications of games in primary school English teaching.
The website Wikipedia says: “Game-design is the game development process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of game play, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The designer of a game is very much like the director of a film, the designer is the visionary of the game and controls the artistic and technical elements of the game in fulfillment of their vision.” 11That is a definition of most video game design. While connected with English teaching, game design requires to taking the rules and aims of a game into account.
First and for most, when designing a game, the teacher should be careful to think about the pupils’ language level and competence. That is to say, a game should be easy to understand and short to play. There are a great number of language games in present age, but not all of them fit for pupils to play. The rules and aims should be clearly to represent to pupils and the words involving in should be easily understood by pupils, including the words and sentences used to give the command. If the game is too difficult for pupils to play, it is a failure. Take a hide-and-found game for example. A teacher wants pupils to practice two sentences—“Where are you?”“I am here.” The teacher can divide pupils into two groups, and tells them:“ Group A hide, group B find. Group B should ask ‘where are you?’ ，group A should answer‘ I am here.’ There is no need to practice more sentences once in a game, and the aim can be easier to reach.
Second in order, the game should be designed to fit the purposes of the class or the content. Playing games is not simply for fun, more important, it serves for the teaching aims. The game should be closely connected with the instructional objectives. Educators suggest bring games into English teaching means to find the combination between games and English teaching, and make them an integration. If the game has nothing to do with the class, no matter how interesting it is, it definitely can not be adopted. For example, the class is teaching animals, then, the teacher can choose several pupils to walk around a chair. While they are walking, the teacher describes the characters of animals and when the teacher stops, pupils who know the answer quickly sit on the chair and answer the question.
Last but not least, the game should be designed to fit both teachers and pupils.
Playing with the pupils, the teacher can control the process rather than a stand-by. The pupils will be more willing to play with the teachers.
B. How to Make Games and Learning an Integration
For pupils, games can be considered as an important, even basic, part of English lessons. A game for a game’s sake is meaningless. Games should be designed to practice pupils’ target language and cultivate their interest to English. Since long ago, there had been always a stereotype that all learning should be serious things without laughter. If any learning is having laughter, then it is not a real learning. Now, it is common agreed that it is possible to learn a foreign language funny and enjoy oneself at the same time. That means interesting games can help to reach study goals and be an integration with learning.
At different classes and with different contents, the teacher can have various ways to make games and learning an integration.
First of all, at the beginning of a lesson, a warm-up game can easily draw pupils’ attention back to the class from the break. For example, while the whole class is chasing and playing around the classroom, the teacher stands on the platform clapping hands and says: “Let’s sing the song we leant yesterday together. Who wants to start the song for us?” Then the pupils will be inspired to review the song they have learnt before. A song or a dance is attractive for the little kids and they can review the knowledge of last class through the activity.
Secondly, during the class, games can make it efficient to teach the new knowledge. For example, the teaching content is new words: bird, elephant, giraffe, dog. Then the teacher can bring some cards drawing relevant animals. Each time the teacher can take one picture and ask students: “Guess, what’s this?” Students will try their best to guess and give some worry answers. The teacher then should tell them that their answers are worry and can imitate a monkey and ask: “Is this a dog?”Students will answer yes or no. The teacher can continue to ask students to guess until every student is in his best mood to the class. After that, the teacher should imitate the right animal while asking the animal’ name, students will deep remember the new word and what it refers to.
Thirdly, one of the aims of the game is for pupils to practice the new language. Take last example for example, when students answer the teacher’ question, they are practice listening ability as well as oral English. When the teacher asks: “Is this a giraffe?” Students get to know “giraffe” for the first time. When the teacher tells them it’s a giraffe, they get to know it for a second time. When they finally know the animal on the picture is a giraffe, the teacher will ask students follow him read the word. Reading it together or repeating one by one are common methods a teacher will choose. Then, students will get the chance to repeat the word more ten or even twenty times. With the interaction between students and the teacher, students get more and more familiar with new words and finally remember them during the class. After class, the homework and review will be much more easy and relaxing for students. Thus students will be proud and happy to learn English.
What’s more, the teacher gets the opportunity to check whether the pupils have grasped what he taught. Through a student’s action, the teacher can know whether the student understands what the class teaching and give corresponding aids to the student. For example, while repeating the word one by one, a student forget how to pronounce or can not pronounce right, the teacher can ask the student to follow his pronounce until the student can do it right alone.
Finally, while the class is over, a game can bring to pupils’ high spirit thus the will look forward to the next English class. For example, the teacher can play a game to end the class like this. Divide the class into two groups, Group A and Group B. Distribute cards to Group A, make students in Group A hide cards behind them, then show one card to students in Group B quickly. Students in Group B should read the word out loudly. Each student who read the word right can get a little star, who read worry gets nothing. Add all their stars together, the total amount is Group B’s final result. Use the same way to get the final result of Group A. Compare their results, give the winner. This game helps students review the new words, at the same time ends the class while students think they are not.
C. The Applications of Games in Primary School English Teaching
Since games has been applied in primary school English teaching for a long time, there are plenty types of games for reference.
Game 1Warming Up
This is a kind of games which are great for starting the class and revising the knowledge taught last class. Many teachers like songs and dances because they can easily grasp pupils eyes and make the class active at once.
How to play:
Take this for example, pupils learnt words about some actions last class: go up stair, sit on a chair, eat a pair. The teacher can make up a song, like: “Baby bear, baby bear, go up stair. Baby bear, baby bear, sits on a chair. Baby bear, baby bear, eats a pair, wow!” With a vivid and simple dance, pupils will quickly remember the song and dance, also the words.
Game 2 Noughts-and-crosses12
This is a kind of games which base on asking questions, they are suitable for all ages and great for general knowledge.
How to play:
Divide the class into two groups. Group one is Apple, and group two is Banana.
Draw a noughts-and-crosses grid on the white board. Write letter A to letter B on the corner of each square.
Choose the proper questions you will ask. The questions can refer to the previous class in the text book, be about English language or any subject pupils have learnt.
Group Apple and group Banana choose a square they want in turns.
The teacher asks a question prepared before the class and the group which gives the correct answer can get the symbol of their team name in the square they chose.
The first group to get a line of three symbols in any direction across the grid is the winner.
Sometimes, the teacher can get the group to write the question for the opposing group. It is a great chance for pupils to practice oral English and can rise their passion.
Game 3 The Memory Game13
This is a great refrigerant when the whole class is laughing for a long time.
How to play:
Collect various objects from the classroom, your kitchen, supermarket, or any other places, like tomato, glasses, eraser, pen, bowls. About twenty objects is the perfect number. Ensure students know the vocabulary of those objects.
Put them on a desk, give students several minutes to observe. The time is not only for students to remember but also for them to be quite.
After the time, hide the objects. Give two minutes for the students to write down what they can remember.
The winner is the student who writes down most.
Game 4A to Z Race14
This is a game for revising vocabulary. It may not be successful in grade three or four for they learn little vocabulary. But it is OK for grade five or six pupils.
How to play:
Write two lines of letters A to Z in two sides of the white board.
Divide the whole class into two groups. Each group stands in a line in front of the white board.
The first student in the line should write a word beginning with letter A. Then the student should hand the pen to the student behind him and runs to the back of the line.
All game should be in five minutes. The group who reach to the letter Z is the winner. In the process, if they cannot come up with a word beginning with particular letter, they can leave it behind. The group with more words in the end is the winner.
Game 5Act-and-Guessing
Most students like actions but some shy students do not like it. For shy students, teachers can play the role of acting and the student guesses.
How to play:
Prepare some cards writing words or phrases that students learnt last class.
Three students is a group. Student A, student B and student C. Choose several groups.
Give cards to student A. Student B closes eyes. Student A shows a card to student C, then student C acts out what write in the card. Student B should guess and give an answer.
Each group has five minutes to act and guess. The group who guesses correctly more is the winner.
Game-6 Turn-and-Turn15
This game aims to check whether students grasp the new words or new phrases.
How to play:
Prepare some cards writing new words or new phrases.
Chose two students, give each of them a card. They hold it high in hand, and go slowly in circles hand in hand at the same time. When they sure they have seen what on the card, they can quickly stop to tell the teacher their answers.
Who gets the right answer is the winner.
Game 7 Same or Different16
This game is also great for students reviewing words.
How to play:
Prepare some pictures before class, draw some simple items, those students have learnt could be better.
For this game, the students will look at three pictures and choose the one that is not the same as others. For example, first, the teacher displays three pictures drawing worn, ant, chair. Say each word. Point to chair, shake head and take it away. Worn and ant are animals (same), chair is not (different). Next, display three more pictures, chair, bed, car. Say the names. Hold up chair and bed, and say “same”. Then point to the car. Shake head and take it away. Put together groups of three pictures in which one is different. Give them to pairs of students. Have the student name all the three items and then hold up the two similar items and say “same”.
Who get the most right answer will be the winner.
IV. The Effectiveness of Games in Primary School English Teaching
In general, listening, grammar, reading, and writing are required by the College Entrance Text. Influenced by the text syllabus, English classes often consist of listening practice, text learning and vocabulary learning. Most teachers would prefer to start a new lesson by teaching new words, thinking that once students are familiar with new words, they can learn the difficult text easier. But they often teach students how to pronounce the new word first, then, tell them Chinese meaning. When students come to the vocabulary, they just remember a list of words with their Chinese meanings without any context practice. For a long time, it is a common phenomenon that vocabulary is troublesome for most students in China.
Game-teaching is quite different with the traditional teaching method. In game teaching classes, teachers select kinds of interesting activities to make the students involved in the whole class. They use pupils’ interest to promote their teaching. They try to create a lively learning atmosphere so that students will be fond of English learning. Anyhow, each student is required to take part in several games with different teaching aims. Such activities encourage every student to be a part of the class themselves and they can hardly be absent-minded. This is not only to improve students’ communicative competence and sense of cooperation, but also build up their confidence to participate in collective activities and answer teacher’s questions. Many schools have adopted the approach, especially the English training schools, and have proved quite effectiveness of games in English teaching.
There is a popular teaching mode using game teaching approach, which often divides the whole class into five parts, widely adopted in English training schools, like New Orient School. Pop Kinds Education is a famous project in New Orient School. They teach pupils English with the belief of “play our play”. Take a lesson in Chongqing New Orient School—Pop Kids Education for example. In the first part, the teacher says “hello” to every pupil and claps hands with them one by one to warm them up. Every student put their eyes on the teacher right and does what the teacher tells them. The teacher get students’ attention easily. Then she reviews the last lesson in this way: (T-for teacher, S-for students.)
T: Now, it’s our time for class. Let’s do a game together. Ok?
S: OK!
T: (take out a banana.) Is this an apple?
S: No, it isn’t!
T: Is this a pitch?
S: No, it isn’t.
T: Is this an apple?
S: Yes, it is!
T: Very good! You are so clever. It is an apple. Every one follows me: apple!
S: Apple!
In the second part, the teacher makes up a story according to the text book for the pupils to play. Student A(S-A) plays the part of Beth, student B(S-B) plays the part of David.
S-B (David): Hello, I'm David Garza. I'm a new club member.
S-A (Beth: Hi. My name is Elizabeth Silva, but please call me Beth.
S-B (David): OK. Where are you from, Beth?
S-B (Beth): Brazil. How about you?
S-A (David): I'm from Mexico.
S-B (Beth): Oh, I love Mexico! It's really beautiful.
S-A (David): Thanks. So is Brazil!17
They play exchange the role they play and change the actor. They play for several times to make sure that every student play every role, thus he practice the sentences in the text and know what they mean. In the role-play game, pupils get enough practice what they have learned and remember the new words as well as the expressions.
In the fourth part, the teacher tells pupils the important points in this class by finding cards. The teacher writes important point on cards before class, put them on the ground. Tell students to find what the teacher says as quickly as they can. The game is pretty good and students get more practice with the importance.
And finally, the teacher uses a competitive-game to text how much the pupils grasp. The teacher divides the class into two groups and divides the white board into two parts. He writes Group A on the right part and Group B on the left part. On each part, the teacher writes down a line of a,b,c,d...z. Group A and Group B are given five minutes to write down words learnt in the class which begin with relevant letters. With the same time, the group which writes down more words is the winner. Students have a happy and relaxing time.
The result of that class is that almost everyone remembers what teacher taught them for all of them take part in the class actively. It is obvious that every pupil like games and games do raise pupils’ interest.
This thesis expounds that game-teaching in primary school English teaching is an ideal methods. It analyzes the present situation of primary school English teaching briefly, introduces games in primary school including the definition of game, aptness between games and primary English, analyzes the strategies of games in primary school English teaching which includes how to design proper games, how to make games and learning an integration, as well as applications in primary school English teaching. And it proves effectiveness of games in English teaching.
The New English Curriculum Standard says that the most important purpose in primary English teaching is to cultivate pupils’ interest in English learning. But many facts tell us as students growing up, their interest in learning English is continuously decreasing. The result of the paper shows that playing games is an effective and important method to foster pupils’ interest, what’s more, to maintain their zeal for learning English.
It is true that there still a lot of problems in applying game in English teaching. Firstly, many teachers design games depending on reference books, which make games alien with pupils’ daily life. One of the most important functions of language is communication. The main aim of teaching is to make the test more like pupils’ daily life. Teachers should try to make students practice oral language in simulative scenes. However, the reality is that some teachers use the games introduced on the reference books directly without real care about pupils’characteristics and cognitive development. It is more serious in rural area. Some words, like “coffee” and “library” are so unfamiliar with them because they are beyond their daily life.
Secondly, some teachers often use the same game, ignoring that pupils will fail to focus on the class. Psychologists have done some researches and find out that pupils can only be attention to something for fifteen to twenty minutes, and they are very curious and fond of play18. English Course Standard points out that activities must base on students’ experience and interest, the teaching contents and forms should be as real as possible19. But some teachers still use same boring game in class which makes students unwilling to learn English.
In addition, in some classes, talent students are always the main actors while playing a game. There is no denying that students are the main actors of game-teaching and every teaching method should be good for students’ study. The revolution of education advocates that education should be reached by every student and every student should take part in the class. What teachers should do is to make every student an equal chance to learn, give shy students and those who have difficult in learning more help.
Many further efforts need to make to find out best way to teach English. Also, not any game adopted in primary school English teaching is suitable for teaching every language point. The game should be challenging, purposeful and involve real language and use sounds, dances, play shows, all kinds of materials and so on. Competitive game is often favored by teachers for they can inspire students join in the activity by comparing with other students. Pupils like it, too. When playing such a game, teachers should pay more attention to cultivate students’ sense of cooperation and responsibility. Or, pupils will only learn to compete. In addition, teachers need to give students necessary help and suitable guidance to ensure the activity successful. Only when the game successes can students be enjoyable and keep their interest in learning English.
Applying games in English classes is not simply to make fun, but to combine teachers’ morals, professional knowledge and teaching skills into games. When playing games in English classes, the teacher and students inter on each other and promote on each other. While designing a game, the teacher should take many factors into account, such as students’ language level, fitting for the teaching purpose. Games play a vital role in primary school English teaching. Only teachers do a good job can the game play its real role.
In conclusion, a class carried out with games is much more effective than traditional English class. The use of games can make the class more interesting, enjoyable and effective. Games can be an effective and useful tools applied in primary schools.
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