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This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned:
The process of teaching english for young students is not easy as it seems. Most of the children, who just started to learn english at school (9-10 years old) thought that english is funny and enjoyable lesson. But after one or two months, half of them conclude that it is not so easy and english becomes one of the boring subjects for them. One of the reasons of this result is the difficulties in english pronunciation and spelling, further its grammar. The traditional approaches of explanation and practicing do not effect in such situations. The expected outcomes will be gained only after involving the whole class into the lesson.
There are different ways of children motivation, but the most effective are the games, which develops creativity and curiosity. Games are special organized activity which requires emotional and intellectual efforts. The games help the students to be more creative and the creative attitude to the work completes it qualitatively.
That is why nowadays the games become an integrated part of english lesson, in spite of young or adult students. Once a Belgian businessman who observed the process of teaching english grammar through the game, said: “It isn`t silly at all” and was surprised that how can the teaching game be so funny and at the same time so seriously targeted.
The games assist to intensive language practice. They might be used for stimulation in the beginning of the lesson or in the end of it, reducing the loading of new languages study or changing the types of held activities. It does not matter what kind of games the teacher uses, the most important is that the game provides joy for children and language training for the teacher.
One of the games advantages is that it can involve the whole class to the process. The participation in the lesson games develops different skills at once, i.e: co-operating with others, competing without aggression, accepting responsibilities, being able to lose and etc.
However english is a foreign language, the beginner students (young or adult) like to play the games, which content is similar to those in their native language and or they have playing experience. It is also important if the children used to play this game, because:
- they believe to the achievements and they know what to do and how to do;
- the teacher is sure that the students understood the rules of playing and obey them;
- even the passive students will not be afraid to answer or chose an easy role;
- the english expression of already known words or phrases, will be learnt and used easily.
Generally saying the students like to study english through the games, because it will increase the educational success. But the practice shows that sometimes the game which depends on students' ability becomes boring, because only active students will be the winners and the rest students loose the wish for playing. So in such cases the teacher should choose the passive ones to participate. Using the group games, where the winner is more than one and all participants make contribution for winning, is also effective. Therefore the educational games might be divided into three groups according to their structure (number of participants): individual games (listen and guess, etc. ), pair games (shoppers, etc.) and group games (silent dictation, etc).
The games application is the effective way of practicing and improving the language skills, such as speaking, reading, writing and listening. Basing to these components we can classify the games into four groups: games for speaking (chain game, etc.), games for reading (true or false, etc.), games for writing (hangman, etc.) and d) games for listening (Simon says, etc).
Also the teacher should identify the games according to the linguistic content. They might be: phonetic games (fallow the intonation, etc.), lexical games (it means that…, etc.) and grammar games (bingo, etc.).
(There are different descriptions of the educational games, but this research article is limited).
Every time when I plan my lessons, I want my students not only to memorize the vocabulary or the structures, but I will try to develop their individuality. We, english teachers, always try to find the resources of rising the quality and effectiveness of teaching. I think that our mail goal is not to lose our students' interests, by using any ways games or others.
