The Role of Games in Teaching English

It’s more than a game,

Today we are going to speak about the role of games in teaching English. The aims and tasks of teaching English, the content and methods can’t be achieved without repeating and systematizing the necessary language material.

In his/her work the teacher uses various types of methods and techniques. The teacher must have a good professional level knowledge of the field and a great leadership potential. He teaches the pupils and students pronunciation, lexis, grammar, reading, speaking and writing. Great attention is paid to the developing of unprepared speech habits. The main objective of the learner is to be able to use the linguistic material to express his thoughts. The teacher should encourage each pupil to speak on the subject in his/her own way and thus develop pupils’ initiative and thinking. There are many techniques for stimulating pupils’ unprepared speech. And the teacher must choose the techniques most suitable for the pupils and students since he knows their progress in the language, the concrete material at which pupils and students are working.

Here we can’t help speaking about the games which arouse pupils’ interest to the language, they make the atmosphere of the lesson more emotional, more lively. They give the possibility to even a weak pupil to take an active part in the game.

As you know there are different kinds of games: lexical, grammar, role plays, the ABC games, phonetics games and so on.

It is very important that before organizing a game the teacher must introduce some words and expressions to the pupils.

Introduction:

Let’s play a game.
Today I am going to teach you how to play a game called…
Now we’ll play a guessing game.
This game will give you practice in the use of…
Do you know how to play this game?
Has anyone played this game before?
No? I’ll explain it to you then.
Now, the rules are quite simple.

Arrangement of the classroom:

Put your chairs together.
We can put 2 chairs back to back.
Play in twos (threes, fours, fives…)
Split into 2 teams.
Split into pairs.
Play with the boy (girl) sitting next to you.
You’ll be the team captain.
I’ll be the referee.

Taking turns:

You’ll take it in turns to begin…
Now it’s your turn to come out.
Now it’s your turn to ask questions.
You do it first (next).
It’ll be your turn next.

Scoring, winning, and losing.

You can keep the score, Marina.
That’s one point for you.
That’s another point for you.
That’s right. One point for your team.
No point for your team if I hear anybody whispering.
A point for team B instead.
One point is awarded for every correct sentence.
The team which answers the most questions wins.

Some expressions for guessing games:

Guess what this is.
Guess what I am drawing.
Each team can also make a guess at the word.
One point for a guess…and so on.

A. Guessing Game “Who Am I?”

Today we’ll learn a new game. It’s called “Who Am I?” Has anyone played it before? No? I’ll explain it to you then. In this box I’ve got the names of all the main characters in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. I’ll call one of you out to the front. Come here, Sasha. There’s no need to be afraid. You’ll be the first one to start. Stand with your back to me. Now I am showing the pupils a card with the name of a character out of the book. And you have to guess who you are. You can ask the pupils any questions except of course the name of the character. You can’t ask ‘Am I Tom Sawyer?’ or ‘Am I the main character?’ You can ask questions like for example:

Am I an adult or a child?

Am I a man or a woman (a boy or a girl)?

Am I a pupil?

Am I working?

Am I married or single?

Am I old or young?

Do I live in the country in a city?

Do I have many friends in the novel?

ABC games

1. Alphabet Train.

All the players sit around in a circle. The first player begins ‘My train is carrying apples’, he uses any word which begins with the letter ‘A’. The next player must use a word which begins with ‘B’. He may say ‘My train is carrying butter’. The third player must have something which begins with ‘C’. He may say ‘My train is carrying cakes’. The game goes on around and around until they finish the alphabet. A player who can’t think of a word or says a wrong word drops out of the game. It is very difficult to think of words which begin with Q, X and Z. The players can look them up in a dictionary beforehand.

2. Out You Go!

The player thinks of some word. He draws on the blackboard or a sheet of paper as many squares as there are letters in the word. The players in turn call out some letters. ‘Is there T in it?’ or ‘Has it B in it?’ someone asks. If the word contains this letter the player writes it in its proper square, if not, the one who gave it drops out of the game. The one who guessed the greatest number of letters wins. The other name of this game is “The Hanger”.

C H R I S T M A S

Do you want to play it?

3. Stop.

All the players need a sheet of paper and a pencil. The leader calls out one after another the letters of the ABC. Then the teacher says ‘Stop’ and the letter is chosen; for example ‘M’. Each player must write words beginning with ‘M’ (moon, men, meet, my, make, etc.). At the command ‘Go’ the players start writing the words. They are given 3-5 minutes for completing the task. The one who has the longest list of words will be the winner. They compare the words written by the players and cross out those which coincide. The player whose words were not found by the rest of the players scores more points.

4. Add one and the same letter to the words given below to make up new ones (the letter to be added is given in brackets). (H) is, and, arm, ear, our, air.

(S) tool, port, mile, he, and, it.

5. Make up some new words by inserting a letter into the middle of those given here: cat, for, tree, red, sand, sit, man, ran, hat, sick, soon. ( coat, four, three, read, stand, suit, mean, rain, heat, stick, spoon).

Lexical Games.

1. The aim of the game is drilling the usage of the prepositions and the question ‘Where was…?’

There are some objects on the table: a book, a pen, and a pencil-box. Then the teacher puts the pen into the book, the pencil-box in the table. Then he/she puts these objects on the table and asks:

T. - Where was the book?

P1 - The book was on the table.

T. - Where was the pen?

P2 - The pen was in the book.

T. – Where was the pencil-box?

P3 - The pencil-box was in the table.

2. The aim is the drilling of the lexis and the usage of the structure ‘There is…’. There are 2 teams. The teacher puts some objects in the box and the members of the teams must name them in turn:

There is a pen in the box.

There is a book in the box, etc.

3. The game is called ‘The Invitation’. One of the pupils leaves the classroom. The rest of the pupils decide where they are going to go. Pupil 1 must guess their decision.

P1 – Let’s go to the yard.

P2 - Thank you, I don’t want.

P1 – Let’s go to the cinema.

P3 - I am not well.

P1 – Let’s go to my friend’s birthday party.

P4 - Oh, with great pleasure.

Grammar Games:

1. A Boaster.

The pupils were studying the Future Simple Tense. They were to boast what they were going to do in summer.

T. - In summer all of you will go to some place. Let us boast.

P-s - In summer I shall go to Paris. In July I shall go to Hollywood.

T. - Express your doubt.

P-s - Will you go to Paris? Will you go to Hollywood?

T. - Disagree with him (her).

P-s - You will not go to Paris in summer. You will not go to Hollywood in July.

2. Think of the Future.

The teacher says a statement and throws a ball to a pupil. The pupil must catch the ball and give the answer very quickly.

3. The teacher asks a question: “What is spring?”

The members of the teams must say as many sentences as they can: “ Spring is a season. It comes after winter. It has three months. They are March, April and May. It is not cold in spring. The sky is often blue. The trees are green, etc.”

4. Don’t forget.

There are 8 or 10 toys (objects) on the table. The pupils have a look on them for 1-2 minutes. Then the table is covered with a cloth. The pupil’s task is to name all the objects.

5. Who reads a lot.

The task is to say as many sentences as possible about an English or an American writer, e.g. Mark Twain.

P1 - Mark Twain is an American writer.

P2 - He wrote many books for children.

P3 - I like his book “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and so on.

6. Finish my story.

The teacher gives the beginning of the story and the pupils must finish it.

E.g. Yesterday I was at home. I was waiting for my friend Nick who promised to come, but did not come. I was lonely and decided to go out. I put on my cap and overcoat and went out into the yard. But as soon as I closed the door I heard a terrible cry. I turned round and saw…

How would you have finished the story if you had been the author?

Dear teachers, don’t be afraid to play with you children, because the game arouses children’s interest to English, their outlook, even the weak pupil can remember the words and grammar structures through the game. Don't forget, the atmosphere must be always friendly, you must keep the score, because the game is always a competition. The teacher must know the aims and tasks of each game.