Monday 20 February 2012

Language Game on Word Formation

Teaching English to the young learners is not easy because English is not their mother tongue and it is a new thing for them. The interest of students in learning English is needed as the key to make them easier in mastering English itself. The teacher should have a good and an interesting technique to introduce English for them, so that the young learners will be interested and motivated to learn English.

There are a lot of ways to introduce English to the young learners. One of them is by using games. As we all know that children like play, so by using games as the teaching method the students can be more interested to learn English. Games are not only for fun but also for motivating students to master English fast and easily. Learning by doing is a good way to make them easy in understanding about English, because with doing fun activities by themselves, they will find it easy to remember and easy to learn about the material which is taught by the teacher. 

During this activity, our group has provided a few games such as “Memory and Imagination”, “Imagination and Write”, “Listen and Write”, “Roll and Action”, and “Guess and Check”. We try to include every aspect such as writing, speaking, reading, and listening. Games are a good approach to teach the students in different way rather than sit down and listen to the theory only. This will makes the teaching and learning process become more interesting and fun.  At the same time during the game, this will teach the students the values of cooperation, healthy competition also boosts their self-esteem. 

Another group’s activities have their own uniqueness and interesting. For example, Edward’s group which conducting game on The Odd One. The group which have the odd answer is the winner and will get the sweets which be staked by another group. On another side, it may looks like gambling. So the teacher should implement good value to the students to make them understand on the good view.

This is supported by:
  1. Games add interest to what students might not find very interesting. Sustaining interest can mean sustaining effort (Thiagarajan, 1999; Wright, Betteridge, & Buckby, 2005). After all, learning a language involves long-term effort.

  1. Games provide a context for meaningful communication. Even if the game involves discrete language items, such as a spelling game, meaningful communication takes place as students seek to understand how to play the game and as they communicate about the game: before, during, and after the game (Wright, Betteridge, & Buckby, 2005).

  1. This meaningful communication provides the basis for comprehensible input (Krashen, 1985), i.e., what students understand as they listen and read, interaction to enhance comprehensibility, e.g., asking for repetition or giving examples (Long, 1991), and comprehensible output, speaking and writing so that others can understand (Swain, 1993).

  1. The emotions aroused when playing games add variety to the sometimes dry, serious process of language instruction ((Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000) Ersoz, 2000; Lee, 1995).

  1. The variety and intensity that games offer may lower anxiety (Richard-Amato, 1988 ) and encourage shyer learners to take part (Uberman, 1998), especially when games are played in small groups.

  1. Games can involve all the basic language skills, i.e., listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and a number of skills are often involved in the same game (Lee, 1995).

  1. Games are student-centered in that students are active in playing the games, and games can often be organized such that students have the leading roles, with teachers as facilitators.

  1. Many games can be played in small groups, thereby providing a venue for students to develop their skills in working with others, such as the skill of disagreeing politely and the skill of asking for help (Jacobs & Kline Liu, 1996). Other advantages of games played in groups include:

a.     The team aspect of many games can encourage cooperation and build team spirit (Ersoz, 2000).
b.     Although many games involve competition, this is not necessarily the case (Orlick, 2006).
c.     In most games, everyone has a turn, encouraging everyone to take a turn, rather than letting others do all the talking and other actions, and discouraging one or two people from shutting out others.

  1. As many games can be played outside of class, they provide a means for students to use the language outside of class time (Ellis, 2005).

  1. Games can connect to a variety of intelligences (Gardner, 1999), e.g.,
    1. Games played with others involve interpersonal intelligence
    2. Games involving drawing connect with visual/spatial intelligence
    3. Games often have a hands-on element, such as cards, spinners, or pieces, which connect with bodily/kinesthetic intelligence

Teaching is all about acting. Whatever situation we face on the day, we should keep on with our spirit to teach. Keep passion on teaching and for sure we will enjoying it too and forget our problems (^-^)

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