Questions & Answers

Question:
Why are games used in teaching English to young learners?

Answer:
Games are activities that children naturally and universally engage in. Generations of children rediscover the same games and delight in playing them. Games may be seen as a route by which children come to terms with their social environment because they present a social situation which is firmly governed by rules but whose outcome is unknown.
Children need to be involved and even excited in order to learn effectively. That is why games can be very motivating. The discriminating use of games in the young learners’ English classroom can help in creating opportunities for involvement and excitement, for achievement and success. Children who are eager to take part in a well chosen game will want to master the language necessary for doing so.
Games correspond to communicative approaches to language teaching completely. One of the main principles of communicative approaches to ELT is that task-based activities enhance learning. Getting learners to listen carefully to instructions in order to draw a picture, make a model or play a game are examples of a task-based approach. The understanding and use of language is necessary but the analysis of language is not.
To play a game is to enjoy competing alone or in groups against other players, against time or against the challenge of the game, and not to think consciously about the language involved in doing so. Games can be seen as tasks. If they successfully engage the learners’ attention as a proper children’s game should, then learning will be supported.
The interactive principle is also central to communicative methodology. Opportunities for using a language in order to interact effectively – even if inaccurately – with someone else, help learning to take place. Using the language is the best way of learning to use it. Involving children in games which they are very eager to play may be a good way of creating a powerful need to use the language.
A third important principle of communicative approaches to ELT is that the teaching situation must be learner-centred. If it is a condition of games that they contain an element of fun and that they absorb the interest of the learner, it seems clear that using them in the classroom will lower learners’ inhibitions, boost motivation and maximize learning efficiency.

(Adapted from ‘Teaching English to Children’, edited by C. Brumfit, J. Moon and R. Tongue; published by Longman in 1995.)