Application of Games in Primary School English Teaching
--A Case Study in Longhua Foreign Languages School
黄嘉慧
广东省深圳市龙华区外国语学校 广东 深圳 518000
Abstract: Based on the former studies of the scholars at home and abroad, the researcher starts this research from the concept of game teaching, and explores the application of games in primary school English teaching under the Chinese educational background. This study focus on the research questions to explore the types of games, the effect of the game teaching and in what aspects do the games benefit students’ English learning.
This study uses observation, questionnaire and interview. The participants of the study are some Grade 4 students in a school of Longhua District. This research aims to have a deeper understanding of the application of games in primary school English teaching. The researcher also put forward to the advantages and significance of game teaching. And the problems and suggestions of game teaching are also put at the last part, which hopes to provide some useful suggestions to the future English teaching.
Key words: game teaching, primary school English, interest
As English becomes more and more useful, many schools have set English as a basic subject. However, most of the teachers still use the traditional teaching method. They speak for most of the class while students just have a little time to practice speaking English, which can not arouse students’ interest. Therefore, many students think that English is quite boring and lose their interest to it. In the new era, this kind of traditional teaching method should be replaced with an interesting and effective one, and games teaching method is such a way.
The game teaching method bases on the physical and mental development of children. It can create a relaxing and comfortable atmosphere for students to learn English in. Students can absorb knowledge more quickly and easily in such an atmosphere.
What is game teaching? Sorensen and Meyer (2007) define game teaching as a new learning form in the field of educational design, which concerns purpose, objective, content, planning, organization and evaluation of teaching and learning (p. 559). Qin Min (2013) states that game teaching is a kind of teaching approach in the form of games with some specific teaching objectives, changing the tedious content into some interesting activities which can create a lively learning atmosphere for student to acquire knowledge (p. 109). Ding Zhicheng (2005) also gives the definition that game teaching is an instructional method, which uses games to teach students knowledge, transforms monotonous language phenomenon into interesting games, and create harmonious and vivid communicative context (p. 26). In light of the definitions above, the researcher thinks that game teaching is a kind of new teaching method. The objective of the method surrounds the teaching goals of the English classes and centers on students. This method is used to help students to acquire knowledge more easily. In many educators’ opinion, game teaching is a kind of teaching method with some specific teaching goals. It uses games to teach and changes the tedious content into some interesting and diversified activities which can create a lively learning atmosphere for student to learn new things.
In this essay, the researcher intends to explore different kinds of games that teachers use in English teaching in primary school, and the advantages and disadvantages of them. Then, the researcher discusses which games are more useful and acceptable to students, and the effectiveness of these games.
The research is conducted in Shenzhen Longhua Foreign Languages School which includes 9 grades. The participants of the research are a class of Grade 4 students. The class includes 46 pupils, 22 are girls and 24 are boys. The age ranges from 9 to 11. By the time of study, all the students had at least 3 years English learning experience in the primary school. The class has 5 English courses every week. Most of the students in the class are at an average English level. And a few of them are at a high or low English level. These 46 students are randomly divided into 4 groups. Each group has 12 students except one group which only has 10 students.
Class observation, questionnaire, and interview were used as the instruments to collect research data in this study.
The students and the English teacher of the class were observed when they are having English classes. The observation lasted for four weeks. The procedure of each class was recorded. The observation aims to find out what kinds of games do teachers usually use during teaching and the response and feedback of the students.
After four weeks’ observation, the researcher delivered a questionnaire to each student to know more about their thought of the game teaching. This questionnaire is designed to know the students’ reflection on the games their teacher used in classes. The questionnaire has 17 choice question and all of them center on the research questions. There is no right or wrong answer in this questionnaire. The sample of the questionnaire is included in Appendix.
Then, the researcher had interviews with six students chosen and the English teacher. The standard to choose these students is according to the behavior of the students in the class. In addition, student’s English level is a reference standard. This interview aims to find out student’s further thought about the application of games in primary English teaching.
According to the observation, questionnaire and interview, the results show that game teaching is a useful way to teach English. The results of this research will be summarized as follows.
Firstly, the games that teachers use can be divided into 4 types. The first one is warm-up game, such as singing a song. The second one is vocabulary game, which include “what is missing”, “find the word”, “match the word and picture”, “play music and pass the word cards” and “read words as quickly as possible”. The third one is sentence game and the last one is communicative game like role play. During the observation, the researcher found that teachers are more likely to use games when teaching vocabulary. The vocabulary game has a lot of forms which are favored by students. Besides the vocabulary game, students also like role play. According to the questionnaire survey, 82.6% of students like the role play.
Secondly, among these four kinds of games, vocabulary games and role play are more effective. Students are active to participate in the vocabulary games and learn the new words more easily. According to the questionnaire and interview, students believed that from playing these vocabulary games, they learn how to pronounce the new words; they learn how to spell the new words; they learn how to use the new words. When doing the role play, students can practice their oral English and improve their confidence and courage. Therefore, it can be concluded that the vocabulary game and role play are more effective than singing a song and sentence game.
Thirdly, according to the questionnaire survey, game teaching has a lot of advantages. As the researcher pointed out at the beginning, interest is a very important element for students to learn a language. And the result shows that game teaching can arouse student’s interest. For example, item 8 shows that 78.3% of students believe English game can improve their interest in learning English. What’s more, 48% of students think game teaching can practice their oral English, enhance their memory and help them to grasp knowledge more easily. And nearly 40% of students think game teaching can improve their English listening while 44% of students believe game teaching can improve their confidence and courage.
The analysis of results shows that game teaching is a useful way to teach English in Primary classes. However, some problems should be taken into consideration.
Firstly, every game should be played with some specific goals, not just for fun. According to the Item 9, one of the disadvantages of game teaching is that students just play the game and learn nothing. Therefore, when designing the games, teachers should center on the teaching objectives and think about the purpose of the game.
Secondly, teachers should pay attention to the variety and creativeness of the English games. Because of the characters of children, they are active and lively; they have strong curiosity for new things; and their attention is easy to be attracted by the interesting things. Therefore, students will feel bored if they always play the same kind of games. To solve this problem, teacher should design more interesting games to maintain students’ interest.
Thirdly, the difficulty of the English games should be medium. For example, if the games are too difficult, students will feel frustrated and lose their interest to play games. If the games are too easy, students will feel bored and learn nothing. Therefore, the difficulty of the games is medium which fit for students’ level and everybody can enjoy it.
Fourthly, teachers should explain the rules and prize clearly before the game starts. If students are clear the rules and prize, they can judge the result and be little teachers. At the same time, teacher should show a clear model to students. This point is very important. If students are not clear what to do, they will feel confused and not willing to play it.
Fifthly, as for the time to play game, the researcher divides it into 3 types. The warm-up game should be played at the beginning of the class. This kind of game can let students be ready to have English class. Then, the vocabulary game can be played after the warm-up game. Other games like role play can be played in the middle of the class.
This study was designed to explore the application of games in primary school English teaching. However, the context of this research is only a key school in Shenzhen Nanshan District, and the participants of the research are not enough. That means the result can not represent the situation in the whole Shenzhen or even all the primary schools. In order to know more about the application of games in primary school English teaching of China, it is necessary to do further study on the related issue in different educational backgrounds.
References
Sorensen, B.H. & Meyer, B. (2007). Serious games in language learning and teaching — a theoretical perspective.
秦敏，(2013)，游戏教学在小学英语课堂中的应用探析，《四川职业技术学院学报》，第2期，109-112。
丁志成，(2005)，小学英语游戏教学法探究，《中小学英语教学与研究》，第10期，25-28,。