Games

There are many reasons for using games with young language learners. Games provide a natural way of communicating for children and playing helps children learn about and understand the nature of risk-taking and failure in a safe environment.

Games help children to work together in different ways and to develop important social skills such as turn-taking.The motivation to win can be a valuable way of enabling less confident children to participate.

Many games can be repeated frequently with just the language items changing each time so children soon become familiar with the rules particularly of those games already known in their first language. When children are confident that they know what to do, many games can be played independently as reinforcement activities during the week.

Questions

- How can you check that everyone understands what they have to do without translating into children’s first language?

- What are the disadvantages of games like ‘Simon Says’ and how might you overcome these in a lesson?

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Who spoke

Subtheme: Games

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Activity

Think of a new game that you would like to set up in the classroom. Think about what instructions you would need and work out exactly what you would need to say in the new language. Try to keep the instructions clear and simple, use a limited number of key phrases and use words which are similar to English.

Try setting up the activity in small stages and demonstrating the equipment while you are talking rather than just reading out the instructions. Think about how you could incorporate gestures and mimes for support. Try out the game and your instructions beforehand to ensure they are not too long or complex.