Course work theme: the introduction of games in the study of foreign language

1.2 THOUGHTS OF EDUCATORS IN USING GAMES TO TEACH ENGLISH LANGUAGE
It is an undeniable fact that teaching foreign language (English language) to children can be indubitably daunting and tiring, especially for teachers who have never had any experiences with this certain group of learners. As it has already been mentioned, as learners, children naturally have shorter attention spans than adult learners; however, if foreign language teachers are well aware of characteristics of their learners in the classroom, they will eventually find that teaching those learners is extremely worthwhile. Since learning is invariably changing, teachers do not have any other choices but to keep modifying their teaching methods and approaches. As a teacher of foreign languages, in a purpose of supplementing lesson plans in the classroom, he or she is often found to turn to games. One of all the reasons would be a well demonstration of justification for using games in the classroom. Games are believed to benefit learners in a variety of ways ranging from the cognitive aspects of language learning to more co-operative group dynamics . They have always been known as the pure symbol of fun, involvement, cooperation, and competition .To further support this, El Shamy also clearly stated in her book that:
Game is a competitive activity played according to rules within a given context, where players meet a challenge to achieve an objective and win.
In addition to this, El Shamy added her final say that by including games in the classroom, it means providing contexts in which the learning materials can be less boring and interesting instead. Even if this advocacy of games could be counted as logical, considering from teachers’ positions, what are exactly their views towards games? According to the case study conducted in at a middle school called Khaoula Bent El Azouar (in Briska) concerning teachers’ perception towards games, the result of this study highlighted games in a very positive way . Yahoui continued stating that even though all the teachers in the school had different points of view about games, majority of them (approximately 67%) viewed games as an educating strategy. The rest inserted that games can be both educating and entertaining strategy for they believed that games can guide students to learn in an enjoyable situation.
Teachers and Game selection
In truth, every pupil does wish to play games purely for fun and nothing more than that. Different from the pupils,teachers strictly need appropriate and convincing reasons before including games in their lesson. Teachers are believed to take times to consider a variety of things such as what type of games to use, when to use them appropriately, how to coherently link them with the language focus, the syllabus, textbook or even the program, as well as how different types of games will benefit the pupils in different ways.The further precise explanation on this fact is that teachers would spend time to question themselves which skills or sub-skills are to be improved by games, the learner’s (children) current status in that particular skill, to where the games are supposed to take the learner, and even which didactic and methodological intention would best suit the language learning games. In other words, the teachers, when deciding to include any games in their lesson plan, would attempt to confirm whether the games aim to introduce, consolidate, automatize, make more flexible, systemize, reactivate, or interlink particular skills. Last but not least, the teachers would review whether the desired language learning games indeed pursues both a language goal and a game goal . In spite of the careful consideration, it can be witnessed that teachers also apprehend learners’, especially children’s, gratification matter. They certainly do recognize the value of having their students involve in a combination of learning and playing. However, this appears to be a challenging teaching p roblem and teachers, over and over again, do not really succeed in meeting this challenge. Notwithstanding the proposed challenge, foreign language teachers, if they wish to adopt games in their teaching, ought to be mindful that the key to successful language game is that rules should be clear, the ultimate goal of using games is well defined, and most importantly the games themselves must be fun .
With the purpose of assisting teachers to properly select games for their learners, in the book ‘Training games: Everything you need to know about using games to reinforce learning’, El Shamy (2001) compiled all the criteria needed to assess the game usefulness in just one table attached below.
Checklist of assessing a game
The Ultimate Training Game Assessment
Game assessed:
Rate each item: 4 = excellent, 3 = good, 2 = fair, 1 = poor, 0 = awful

Value as a Game:

4
3
2
1
0
1. fits with content, design, objective

2. is challenging and engaging

3. adds variety and energy

4. has objective, measurable results

7. works with various numbers of players

8. has a high fun facto

Learning Issues

9. repeats and reinforces key learning

10. gives immediate feedback

11. provides safe practice of new skills

12. develops understanding of concepts

13. provides meaningful challenge

14. stimulates many senses

15. promotes intense dialogue, discussion

16. provides social contact, group work

17. has realistic, complex experiences

18. has analysis, interpretation, reflection

Trainer Friendly

19. has minimal advance preparation

20. fits time, space and cost constraints

21. fits trainer competencies

22. is flexible and adaptable

23. is nondisruptive to surroundings

24. is easy to transport

25. you like it!

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