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Teaching English grammar can be difficult for both the teacher and the students. HOWEVER, it doesn’t have to be painful or difficult. You can teach English grammar by learning fun games and knowing before your students will be more than willing. How does it work? You ask. Well, there has been a move from traditional methods of teaching English grammar through writing, rewriting and worksheets to using a more active approach through games. Researchers have also started looking at how and why these new methods work.
Four good reasons to teach grammar with games
1. Arif Saricoban and Esen Metin, authors of “Songs, poems and games to teach grammar” explain how and why games work for teaching grammar in a classroom ESL. They say, “Games and problem-solving activities, which are based on tasks and have a purpose beyond the production of correct speech, are the examples of the most preferable communicative activities.” They go on to explain that grammar games help children not only to acquire knowledge, but also to be able to apply and use that learning.
2. Furthermore, games have the advantage of allowing students to “practice and internalize vocabulary, grammar and structures extensively.” They can do this because students are often more motivated to play than to work at the desk. In addition, during the game, the students concentrate on the activity and end up absorbing the language subconsciously. It can also be added that fun learning games usually contain repetition, which allows the language to be maintained.
3. While games are motivating for students, probably the best reason, selon Saricoban and Metin, to use games is that “the use of such activities both increases the cooperation and competition in the classroom.” One can use games to add excitement through competition or games that create bonds between the students and the teacher.
4. Aydan Ersoz, author of “Six Games for the ESL / EFL Classroom” also explains more reasons why games work to teach grammar. Learning a language requires constant effort and that can be exhausting. Ersoz says that games can counter this because:
* Games that are fun and challenging are very motivating.
* Games allow meaningful use of language in context.
Children are more motivated to learn grammar through games.
The theory of intrinsic motivation also gives an idea of why teaching grammar through games really works. Intrinsic motivation refers to the internal factors that encourage us to do something. Most young students will not decide internally that they want to learn grammar. They do not yet understand the concepts of why it is important to know proper grammar, so these external factors will not affect them much either. Instead, intrinsic motivation can lead them to encourage them to play. If these games are good, they will learn as they play.
Using some movement is crucial because movement helps activate students’ mental abilities and stimulates neural networks, thus promoting learning and retention. If you have a large class with no space, you still have options. Children can stand up, sit down, move various body parts, and pass things to each other. Movement doesn’t just mean kids play on the playground.
What kinds of games work best?
When looking for games to use in your classroom, don’t just pick something to “fill the time” that doesn’t have a definite linguistic result. These games can entertain students, but when you don’t have a lot of time with them every day, you’ll want your game to do double duty to make the most of the time you spend playing.
Have a clear linguistic result for each game. The game can be a listening game to allow students to listen repeatedly it has a new grammatical structure in use, or it may be a game to talk to allow practice of the grammar once it has absorbed listening beforehand. There are degrees of difficulty with speaking basic repetition games in a fun context for more creative phrase creation for review or more advanced practice once the fundamentals have been mastered. The teacher must guide the children through this progression so that the game in question is always within the reach of the students. This makes the games fun rather than laborious. It is a mistake to play a conversation game immediately after the new grammar has been introduced. Ideally, the reading, spelling, and writing games come after the new grammar has been absorbed and students can use it orally.
Another thing to keep in mind with grammar games is that a maximum of students participate simultaneously. If you have thirty children, you want to avoid a game where only one child is speaking at a time. What are the other twenty-nine kids supposed to do in the meantime besides getting bored? At the other end of the scale, however, are games that cause chaos in class and make teachers are unpopular among his colleagues because of high noise levels. A variety of suitable games are available for you to try for free in the resource box below the article.
Now you can stop rolling your eyes and complaining from your students when you even THINK about teaching them a grammar lesson and having fun productively.