TEACHING VOCABULARY WITH GAMES
Language learning is hard work. Effort is required at every moment andmust be maintained over a long period. Games help and encourage many learnersto sustain their interest and work.Games also help the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful. The learners want to take part and in order to do so mustunderstand what others are saying or have written, and they must speak or write inorder to express their own point of view or give information.The need for meaningfulness in language learning has been accepted for some years. A useful interpretation of meaningfulness is that the learners respond to the content in a definite way. If they are amused, angered, intrigued or surprised the content is clearly meaningful to them. Thus, the meaning of thelanguage they listen to, read, speak and write will be more vividly experiencedand, therefore, better remembered.
There are many kinds of games which can be used in teaching English.Of course, as a technique games need help from media. The media can be picture,flash cards, object, puppet, cassette, projector and many others object surroundthem. It is better if the games are familiar for children, because they learn in avariety of ways, for example; by watching, by listening, by imitating and by doingthings. It means children learn their knowledge through what they see, heard intheir surrounding and then imitate it and imitating by doing things (children lear by doing)Children can generally imitate the sounds they hear quite accurately andcopy the way adults speak.
It means they do imitation, memorization, practice andover learning, what the people are saidBruner says that language is the most important tool for cognitive growthand he also investigate how adults can help the children to solve their problem.Scaffolding is bruner’s theory, it means that scaffolding is explainig to studentsand interacting to students to communicate, in scaffolding is holistic and must permeate all aspects of scientific teaching, if we answer.So, teaching vocabulary-using games as methodolgy in learning – teaching process and the teaching materials for children less than five years old which isrelated with their surround, it means the vocabulary which related and introducingthings surround them such as family names, naming of alphabet, name of number.
And teaching materialLearn how to teach math vocabulary and specific words as youdemonstrate math activities and when you talk to your students about their mathexperiences. Children learn the language of math just like they learn to talk aboutother topics.
In this variation, students break up into small groups and play a board gamefollowing commands. After the students have completed the game, they createtheir own board game using commands they have created on their own.Language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be frustrating.Constant effort is required to understand, produce and manipulate the targetlanguage. Well-chosen games are invaluable as they give students a break and atthe same time allow students to practise language skills. Games are highlymotivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging. Furthermore,they employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts. They alsoencourage and increase cooperation . There are many advantages of using games in the classroom.
Games are a welcome break from the usual routine of the language class.
a.They are motivating and challenging.
b.Learning a language requires a great deal of effort.
c.Games help students to make and sustain the effort of learning.
d.Games provide language practice in the various skills-speaking, writing, listening and reading.
e.They encourage students to interact and communicate.
f.They create a meaningful context for language use.
g.Vocabulary games bring real world context into the classroom,and increase students’ use of English in a flexible, meaningful and communicative way.
h.Games usually involve friendly competition and they keepstudents interested in learning the language.
i.Games can help them (children) learn and hang on to newwords more easily.
"Hot seat "
This is a good activity for getting your students going in the morning. It is also excellent for revising vocabulary.- First, split your class into different teams (two is best, but if you have a large class, any number could be used).
- Sit the students facing the board.
- Then take an empty chair - one for each team - and put it at the front of the class, facing the team members. These chairs are the 'hot seats'
- Then get one member from each team to come up and sit in that chair, so they are facing their team-mates and have their back to the board.
- As the teacher, have a list of vocabulary items that you want to use in this game.
- Take the first word from that list and write it clearly on the board.
- The aim of the game is for the students in the teams to describe that word, using synonyms, antonyms, definitions etc. to their team-mate who is in the hot seat - that person can't see the word!
- The student in the hot seat listens to their team-mates and tries to guess the word.
- The first hot seat student to say the word wins a point for their team.
- Then change the students over, with a new member of each team taking their place in their team's hot seat.
- Then write the next word…
This is a very lively activity and can be adapted to different class sizes. If you have many teams, perhaps some teams wait to play. Or if the team sizes are large, you can restrict how many team members do the describing. Have fun!
