Language learning is not easy. It takes time and effort. Games can sustain students’ interest and work so they ought to be at the heart of teaching the foreign language.
Perhaps they are often used as short warm-up activities or when there is some time left at the end of a lesson.
But they should be used at all stages of the lesson, provided that they are suitable and carefully chosen.
There are many benefits of using games in EFL classes. These are seven of them
- Breaking the usual routine of the language class as they are fun, and children like to play them.
- Motivating and challenging learners as they add variation to a lesson. Games also increase motivation by providing a plausible incentive to use the target language.
- Providing language practice in various skills: speaking, writing, listening and reading as they create a meaningful context for language use. They also encourage creative and spontaneous use of the language
- Making the foreign language immediately useful to the children as they bring it to life. Also, they make the reasons for speaking even to reluctant children.
- Encouraging students to interact and communicate with their environment. Through games children experiment, discover, and learn English in the same way as they learn their mother tongue without being aware they are studying. Thus, without stress, they can learn a lot.
- Making the classroom student-centred as in the game context, the teacher acts only as a facilitator while the whole class participates and involve in healthy competition. Even shy students can participate positively.
- Reinforcing and reviewing language items as they help learners recall material in a pleasant, entertaining way.
- Focusing on grammar communicatively and promoting using language structures in real-life situations.
Final Word
Even if games resulted in noise, they are still worth paying attention to and implementing in the EFL classes. They motivate learners, promote communicative competence, and generate fluency.
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