Teach English in CaishAn Zhen - Huanggang Shi

What are some advantages and disadvantages of games in the classroom? In recent years English has become an international language that’s been taught and adopted in so many countries especially in Asian countries like China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia etc. English is a widely used language and thus many people are adjusting to learning the English language rather than the indigenous languages to ease the communication and open them selves to the world. Teaching English as a second language is usually quite challenging since students are used to speaking their mother tongue as well hard for the English learners to adopt, therefore this requires the teacher have good fun and interesting techniques to introduce to the English language so that the new students can enjoy the lessons. There are a number of ways to introduce English to students but one has to be considerate since these techniques vary from student to student, age groups and the students learning levels for example young learners may require active classes to make the learning environment fun and easy for them to memorize the vocabulary as the teacher needs to use classroom games, activities, songs, drawings, pictures etc. These all motivate the students to master the English language really fast and easily while learning. Playing these classroom games requires one to have the technique the methods and other theories for the different kinds of games to enable teacher to easily and quickly instruct students and to know which kind of materials needed while playing the games. We can use Pictionary , songs, flash cards and drawings in the activity, these can all be necessary tools while playing classroom games. The various classroom games that we have include; Hangman which is used to help students learn how to spell words through remembering the missing alphabets in a word. This is a great game for almost all levels and it requires a teacher to draw a hangman on the board while the students are spelling the words or identifying the missing alphabet. Memory game; here the teacher uses flashcards which are put on the table or any working space and ask the students to memorize them according to their order and finally the teacher has to pick out one at a time and encourage students to remember the missing flashcard according to their order. Run if you have the flash card the teacher mentions. The racing game. With this game students have to compete against one another, whoever finds the card first gets a point. Touching the flash card that the teacher has placed on the board. This game is mainly for the teacher to assess the students if they have understood the lesson’s content, so whoever finds it first gets a point. Flashcard hunt. With this game the teacher places the flashcards face down and the students have to quickly find the word the teacher calls out. Other activities include; asking questions, here the teacher gives the answer and lets the student ask the question to that answer, forexample, teacher says “My name is Joseph” and the students should find the question to be “What is your name.” Advantages of games and activities in class. Students have a fun friendly and engaging environment which enables them to learn really fast, easily and also memorize the vocabulary given to them by the teacher. The students are also not limited to the vocabulary of the lesson plan because as the teacher gives instructions students are as well able to learn more new words, expressions and grammar, for example if the lesson is about animals like tiger, elephant, lion and monkey, the teacher may say, stomp like an elephant, run like a tiger, jump like a monkey, roar like a lion you’ll find that the new words are still being learned by the students from the simple instructions given by the teacher hence improving the students grammar, listening and vocabulary. Games also keep the students motivated, interested and attentive which enables them to learn more and stay active through out the lesson. Much as we have a numerous advantages there are some sighted pitfalls like; sometimes the students may put the focus off the lesson and concentrate on playing the game and also become uncontrollable by the teacher. There are some students who are also shy and may not be interested in participating which affects the classroom activity and the learning process. Some games tend to be dangerous for the students for example, run if you have the flash card, this may cause accidents in class and yet they may be more fun especially for the young students who like physical body engaging activities. Some students also get emotionally attached to the game and when they lose they get emotionally destabilized and upset which kills the fun out of the game. In conclusion classroom games are a fun way for any teacher to adopt and use in passing on information to the students especially to the new learners at beginners level, however this has to be done professionally by putting in consideration good techniques, methods and theories to be used to make the class room environment fun and we also have to know of the different strategies that we have to follow to enable us have the right classroom games. The teachers should be ensure that the game has a motivating strategy which is in line with the content that he or she is going to teach. The game should also have a warm-up strategy which helps the students warm up hence making them more active, relaxed and easy going and confident in the classroom. It should be presented in a way that is simple and easy for the students to adapt to and quickly peek up without missing the main point of the lesson plan of the day and this strategy should also be inclusive of all the students in a way that a student should be able to listen, speak, read and write.