Training in English by means of game technologies or how to teach English using games

Раздел Иностранные языки
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Тип Другие методич. материалы
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Завертяева Ирина Васильевна - преподаватель английского языка.

Training in English by means of game technologies

or how to teach English using games

Game as a method of training, as the transferring of experience of the senior generations to younger, people used it from antiquity. Game always assumes a certain tension of emotional and intellectual forces, and also ability of decision-making: How to arrive? What to tell? How to win?

The desire to resolve these issues aggravates cogitative activity of the playing. Positive is also that fact that the game method conceals in itself the rich training opportunities. Value of game can't be settled and estimated entertaining opportunities. So its phenomenon also consists that, being entertainment, a rest, it is capable to develop into training, into creativity, into model like the human relations and manifestations in the work.

Feature of a game method is that all are equal in game. It is feasible practically for each student, even for one which has no enough strong knowledge in language. Moreover, the student, weak on language preparation, can become the first in game: resourcefulness and ingenuity are sometimes more important here, than knowledge of a subject. Language material is imperceptibly acquired, and together with it there is a content, the student can already speak on an equal basis with all.

Using of a game method in training in English promotes performance of important methodical tasks, such as:

1) Creation of psychological readiness of students for speech communication;

2) Ensuring natural need of repeated repetition of language material by them;

3) Training of students in a choice of the necessary speech option that is preparation for situational spontaneity of the speech in general.

Realization of game receptions and situations at a fixed form of occupations happens in the main directions:

1) The didactic purpose is set before the student in the form of a game task;

2) Educational activity submits to rules of the game;

3) The training material is used as its means, the competition element which transfers a didactic task to the game entering into educational activity;

4) Successful performance of a didactic task contacts game result.

Main requirements to a role-playing game are following:

1. Game has to cause an interest and as well a desire to perform a task in students, it should be seen off on the basis of a situation of an adequate real situation of communication

2. The role-playing game has to be well prepared from the point of view of both contents and forms; it must be accurately organized;

3. It has to be accepted by the entire group;

4. Game is by all means held in the benevolent, creative atmosphere. The more freely the student in a role-playing game feels the more initiative he will be in communication. Over time it will have a feeling of confidence in the forces, that it can use different roles;

5. The role-playing game will be organized so that students could use as much as possible in active role communication the fulfilled speech material.

The role-playing game is also good because in its process students not only say words of a role, but also carry out the corresponding action which the naturalness helps to remove stress which usually comes at the time of the speech. The role-playing game is constructed on the dialogical speech of students. Mastering of the dialogical speech is carried out in three stages: mastering dialogical units; mastering micro dialogues; creation of their own dialogues of various functional types. In each group the role-playing game is used.

So, it is possible to tell that the training games (lexical, grammatical, role) are the strong motivating factor in the course of training in a foreign language. Game promotes fixing of the language phenomena in memory, to maintenance of interest and activity of students, emergence of desire at students to communicate in a foreign language.

How can we use games?

1. Whole Class games. Some games such as interview activities, bingo, jeopardy, and board games can be played by the entire class.

- An interview activity to practice the "Where are you from?" and "I'm from ~." structures might start by handing out slips of paper with eight to ten different country names. Students can then be given a worksheet with all the country names written on the left and told that their goal is to get a student signature for each country by mingling with their classmates and asking the target question. When asked the target question, a student should respond based on the slip of paper he received.

- Bingo can be played with numbers, letters, vocabulary words, or many other topics you may want to practice.

- Jeopardy is more of a review activity because it focuses on listening and does not give students lots of speaking practice. The easiest thing to do is have students make groups of four to five, write categories and stars for each answer on the board, and explain that groups will get three points for a correct answer after the first clue, two points after the second clue, and only one point after the last clue. You will need five or six categories and perhaps five answers per category. If you would like to focus on a particular tense, simply use that tense for at least one clue per answer. You can choose the first category but after that, the group who provides the correct answer first should choose the category. This activity could take a whole forty-five minute lesson and the group with the most points at the end of class wins.

- Board games are often best played in small groups but if introducing a very challenging game, it may be a good idea to play as a class first. A group of students can be represented by a game piece and students can work together to answer questions. In the class following this, students can play the game in groups for further practice.

2. Games in Small Groups. There are also lots of games that can be played in groups of about four students.

- Board games where students move pieces and answer questions or form sentences based on images make for good practice activities. For practicing the "If ~, then ~." structure a Chutes and Ladders layout may be fun for students.

- Card games such as Go Fish, Memory, and many more can be adapted for classroom use. When you are teaching comparatives, card games can be an invaluable tool. You can also use simple card games to test comprehension by making up decks of cards with letters for example. Have students spread all the cards face up on their desks, you then say a letter aloud, and the first student to slap the correct card gets to keep it. Repeat until all the cards are gone and the student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. To make this more challenging, you can tell students that if they slap the wrong card, they have to take one card out of their pile.

3. Pair work Games. There are many of pair activities students can do to practice English but very few of them take the form of a game.

-The best and most versatile one by far is Battleship. This will take a lesson to explain and practice but once your students are familiar with it, can be played as a twenty to thirty minute activity. Battleship is best used to practice tenses. The worksheet consists of two identical seven by seven grids, one above the other. The first box in the upper left is kept blank, the first row is filled in with phrases such as "play soccer" and "study English", and the first column is filled in with words such as "I, You, He, We, They, The students." Students should secretly draw their "boats" on the grid. Typically one boat should have five squares, one boat should have four squares, two boats should have three squares, and one boat should have two squares. Boats can only be drawn vertically or horizontally. On the board practice the structure that students will use for the activity for example "I played soccer. You studied English." until every row and column has been practiced and then instruct students to say "Hit", "Miss", or "You sank my ship!" when appropriate just like in the original game. Students can usually play two or three times before moving on to another activity.

Games help the teacher to recover a lesson, to bring naturalness in educational communication in the learned foreign language, to facilitate process of digestion of language material, to make educational work more interesting.

A wide variety of games can be used when teaching English.

The key is to ensure that everyone fully participates and has enough practice with the lesson material to play. If students are not confident, they will struggle and will not get the most out of the activity.

В данной статье говорится об использовании игрового метода обучения, что способствует выполнению важных методических задач. Обучающие игры (лексические, грамматические, ролевые) являются сильным мотивирующим фактором в процессе обучения иностранному языку. Игра способствует закреплению языковых явлений в памяти, поддержанию интереса и активности учащихся, возникновению желания у учащихся общаться на иностранном языке. Игры помогают преподавателю оживить урок, внести естественность в учебное общение на изучаемом иностранном языке, облегчить процесс усвоения языкового материала, сделать учебный труд интересным.

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