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CHAPTER I. MAIN PART. THE IMPORTANCE OF GAMES ON LANGUAGE LESSONS
The role of games on language lessons
Games offer students a fun-filled and relaxing learning atmosphere. After learning and practicing new vocabulary, students have the opportunity to use language in a non-stressful way. While playing games, the learners' attention is on the message, not on the language. Rather than pay attention to the correctness of linguistic forms, most participants will do all they can to win. This eases the fear of negative evaluation, the concern of being negatively judged in public, and which is one of the main factors inhibiting language learners from using the target language in front of other people. In a game-oriented context, anxiety is reduced and speech fluency is generated--thus communicative competence is achieved3. Games are also motivating. Games introduce an element of competition into language-building activities. This provides valuable impetus to a purposeful use of language . In other words, these activities create a meaningful context for language use. The competitive ambiance also makes learners concentrate and think intensively during the learning process, which enhances unconscious acquisition of inputs. Most students who have experienced game-oriented activities hold positive attitudes towards them. An action research conducted by Huyen and Nga (2003), students said that they liked the relaxed atmosphere, the competitiveness, and the motivation that games brought to the classroom. On the effectiveness of games, teachers in Huyen reported that action research reported that their students seem to learn more quickly and retain the learned materials better in a stress-free and comfortable environment. The benefits of using games in language-learning can be summed up in nine points.Games: are learner centered.
promote communicative competence.
create a meaningful context for language use.
increase learning motivation.
reduce learning anxiety.
integrate various linguistic skills.
encourage creative and spontaneous use of language.
construct a cooperative learning environment.
foster participatory attitudes of the students.
The findings of the present study demonstrate that games are effective as energizers and educational tools that can provide enjoyment, pleasure, passionate involvement, structure, and motivation among other benefits; the researchers supported the trend towards using them as short warm-ups.
When learning exercises are held alongside games, instruction is assisted, and increases foreign languages students’ achievement. Moreover, if English language is practiced with the help of games, the achievement of the learners can be higher than that from traditional education. This is a strong invitation for teachers to refer to games while teaching difficult tasks so as to maintain an interesting teaching environment. Games should be perceived as elements of the process of teaching, learners should benefit from games connected with English learning in the process of teaching-learning at the right time and the right place. The overall results of this study reflect the fact it does not matter what games are played; we cannot deny the importance of games. If students learn with games, have fun, and feel happy and free, it means that you have reached your goals. Games strengthen language skills, in addition to allowing learners to develop social skills and good relationships while they interact with each other.
Based on all of the information above it seems clear that games can and should be used as a teaching method when teaching languages. One reason why games could work well as a teaching method is because of the change that has occurred in teaching, where students have become much more active in the learning process. Besides giving students a chance to be more active, games usually place the teacher in a background role, and therefore allow the students to take on more responsibility.
When we consider the positive effects of language games, such as lowering learners’ anxiety and providing meaningful use of a language in the classroom, this result is striking and should be investigated in detail. Since the perspectives of learners and teachers might vary, even about the specific issue such as learning English through games, teachers and researchers should conduct studies or action research to examine learners’ views on several points to take into consideration when teaching a language and planning their lessons in a way that meets their individual learners’ needs. If learners are children, language teachers should not ignore their natural instincts for games, and they should seek ways to turn education into edutainment.
It has also been made clear that games help create diversity and can be very helpful in sustaining interest amongst students in school. We have also learned that by creating diversity, teachers are reaching out to a broader group of students and that is very important because students are individuals that differ from each other in so many ways.
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