“Филологические науки”/1. Методика  преподавания языка и литературы

S.L. Berdenova, A.I.Mailybayeva

M.Kh.Dulaty Taraz State University

Advantage of using game in language teaching

Motto: “Not to include games in the classroom would be to withhold from the children an essential tool for understanding their world”

Gordon Lewis and Günther Bedson

There are a lot of definitions what the game is. Everyone is able to imagine something when hearing the term “game” but to give a precise definition is difficult. The definition “Games are fun” is simple and exact (Celce-Murcia, McIntosh, 1979). Shelagh Rixon (1999) interprets the games like activities that involve play and enjoyment. We agree with the definition of Julia Khan (1991) who said “games are activities governed by rules, which set up clearly defined goals. The achievement of these goals signals the end of the game. Games involve a contest either between players or between the players and the goal, and games should lead to having fun.” However the game in education must be more than just fun; learners have to learn through playing games, too. Wright, Betteridge and Buckby highlight that enjoyment of games is not restricted by age but it depends on the appropriateness of the games.

We can say that to define the term game is not simple and likewise the usage of it can be problematic. It has advantages on one side but there exist many factors that can influence using games either positively or negatively.

The positive influence of the games on learning language skills is well documented. The advantage of the game is that it can focus on more than one aspect of language. Games can focus either on grammar, speaking, listening, and pronunciation, vocabulary, etc. or complex of them.

McCallum (1980) and Lindsay and Knight (2006) grasp the benefit of games when talking about their usefulness because of their ability to liven up a lesson. McCallum (1980) also highlights the informal atmosphere as one of the advantages of using game when he says: “Students, in the informal atmosphere of game play, are less self-conscious and therefore more apt to experiment and freely participate in using the foreign language.” Children have to obey the rules; they can find their own abilities during the work on the game and compare them with other learners what helps children with self-appraisal.

The advantages of using games as follows:

· “Games add variety to range of learning situations.

· Games can maintain motivation.

· Games can refresh learners during formal learning.

· Games can encourage an interest of those students whose feel intimidated by formal classroom situations.

· Games can make a teacher-student distance less marginal.

· Games give an opportunity for student-student communication and can reduce more usual student-teacher communication.

· Games can act as a testing mechanism, in the sense that they will expose areas of weakness.” (Carrier, 1985)

There are a number of reasons that games deserve a place in the language classroom. First of all, they are fun, which is extremely important, because they can help activate students who may have been inactive before, due to lack of interest. Keeping students active is vital because teachers will never be able to actually teach students anything unless they can get them to participate in their own learning process.

Second, games also play a big part in helping participants build relationships, and to feel equal. Playing games in the classroom can also help create a friendly and positive atmosphere here seat arrangement can differ from game to game, and thus cause diversity from the norm which can be extremely helpful in keeping an exciting learning environment.

Third, the reason most people want to learn a language is to be able to use it in real situations, for example when travelling. Games can be a very good way to practice this skill because they can easily be used to reenact various situations from real life and provide students with practice in their fluency. Also, by using games in the classroom the teacher is giving his students a bigger role, and he himself is stepping out of the frontline which is a positive thing because it allows students to take on more responsibility. Also that allows students to do more on their own, and that can very well result in an increase in their confidence level. (Langran & Purcell.1994. p.12-14).

Fourth, language students need to be exposed to the language in a variety of situations, which is a need games can fulfill. Language students also need to be ready to take on the experience, keeping their minds open and being willing participants Again, games make this possible.

Based on all of the information above it seems clear that games can and should be used as a teaching method when teaching languages. One reason why games could work well as a teaching method is because of the change that has occurred in teaching, where students have been becoming much more active in the whole learning process.

Literature

1. Lightbrown Patsy M. and Nina Spada. How Languages are Learned. Oxford University Press. Oxford, 2002. ISBN 0 19 437000 3.

2. Lindsay, Cora and Paul Knight. Learning and Teaching English. A course for teachers. Oxford University Press. Oxford, 2006. ISBN-13: 978 0 19 442275

3. Thornbury, Scott. How to Teach Vocabulary. Parson Education Limited. Harlow, 2006. ISBN 0582 429668.

Internet sources

4. MacWhinney, Brian. “Language acquisition” 28 March 2009 <http://www.answers.com/topic/language-acquisition>.

5. Tennant, Adrian. “Speaking matters: Pair work.” 30 March 2010 <http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?catid=59720&docid=153708>.