The Importance of Using Games in the English Classroom

Using games is one of the most important ways to teach efficiently in a language class. Games mean the world to children. Nothing is more fun than playing games for them because they feel happy and free while playing. Remember when you were a child; you will remember the games you played and the happiest moments of your life.

It does not matter indoor or outdoor; we can not deny the importance of games. If students learn with games, they have fun, they feel happy and free, it means that you have reached your goals. Games strengthen language skills. Besides, learners develop social skills and good relationships while they interact with each others.

Do not only get learners to play indoors games. It is useful to try outdoor games whenever the weather is nice. For example even we know board games as indoor games, you can use them in the open air. If there are garden seats outside in the playground, you can use them as desks. Even the idea of going out will make the students excited. They have already got tired and bored of sitting and being in the same class and desks. As soon as you say ’’Let’s go to the playground! It’s game time’’ they will go down the stairs two by two.

Whatever your goal is (speaking, grammar points, vocabulary) you must believe that every game you have students play, is much more useful than tons of exercises and worksheets and you get more positive results than anything else. 

If you ask how often I should use games, do not worry about this. You should not put a fixed time for games. Most teachers keep songs and games for Fridays. You should always have a ready-to-use game in your pocket. When you feel that children are bored and tired, take them out and use them. You can get students to play short games (for 10 or15 minutes) to refresh your little ones. You do not waste time; on the contrary you win some. Another thing you should remember, if you put the games you use for each unit in your yearly plan, it will be helpful for you.

Generally group games are more useful. They are competitive and children come closer with each other. With the feeling of coming first they often have a look at their books or notebooks before a game. Sometimes you should mix the groups during a game so they can play with different ones. But you should be careful about the dose of the rivalry, if the feeling is high, you may start The World War III. 

Because young learners are more energetic and active they enjoy exciting games. But teenagers do not like childish games. They prefer more challenging ones such as word games. I would like to give an example of the word games I used. At the end of a unit to consolidate the vocabulary you taught, take your students outside to the basketball field. Do not divide them to groups. The whole class should join the activity. If you have 20 or 25 students, this game works well. Write the revised vocabulary items on small cards.(One word for one card.)Put these cards into a hat or a bag. Have the students make a line in front of the basket- ring. Give the basketball

to the first student. Let him/her draw a card out of the hat. First ask him/her the meaning of the word. (Either in English or in their native language, it is up to you.) If you get the correct answer give him/her one point. Then want him/her to make a sentence with the word. If she/he knows again, you should give them another one point. The last step: Let him/her pass the ball through the basket-ring. You should give one point for one of the three tasks.  Whoever gets the highest point, wins. Of course there may be more than one winner.

One important point in teaching English with games is rewarding. You should not neglect this point. Everyone who succeeds a hard task would like some praise or a gift. I know you always praise your students. But giving small presents motivates them. They do not have to be expensive ones. According to your learners’ ages you can give them different presents. For your teenagers you can make CDs which have popular pop songs or another suitable gift can be a second-hand graded reader. If you play English games with young learners very often, you should think of your budget. They can be happy with small things. Have a beautiful, colorful bag with some sweets, candies and small chocolates in it to give to the winners.

One problem with using games in the classroom is that some teachers feel lazy. They often complain that they do not enough time to prepare the games. Surely, some games need preparation and time. If a game needs some stationery (such as some cardboard, paste crayons, etc.), it really takes some time. On the other hand there some easy games that do not need any preparation. If you have an archive with instructions of games in your personal file, you do not have to look for them when you need.

In conclusion, using games is an efficient way to teach English in the classroom. This way you get the best results in the classroom. It raises students’ motivation. Games prepare young learners for life and they acquire positive social attitudes. Games teach sharing, helping each other and working as a team. A child learns by doing, living, trying and imitating. So this kind of learning is lasting. During games some feelings such as the pleasure of winning and the ambition of losing may arise. This gives to the teacher an idea about student’s character. So games are must-have activities for hardworking teachers.

Here is a selection of games that may give you an idea about what you can try in class:

1. WORD TENNISStudents are NOT allowed to write or use dictionaries during this game. Write a theme word, i.e. jobs or an individual letter on the board. Each team must shout out a new word. The first team to repeat a word is out and the other team is awarded a point. The next round then moves onto a different theme or letter.

2. TEAM HANGMANThis is great for reviewing new vocabulary, tenses and Q&A. Write two identical words or sentences [as blanks] on the board, one for each team. Each team calls out a letter in turn. Just play it like normal hangman. The first team to guess the word or sentence is awarded a point. Students will only ever reach hangman in this game if you give them something they've never seen before. It's fun to write up just three blanks with a new M5/6 level class though because first they'll go through all of the vowels, then they'll go through common consonants. They usually lose because the word is KFC!

The first team to reach ten points games:

1. HOT SEATPlace two chairs at the front of the class facing away from the board. Have one student from each team volunteer to come and sit down. Write a word up on the board. The teams can then use gestures and language to help the two students guess what the word. This is great for reviewing opposites. Teams must not say the actual word or speak their first language. The first student to guess the word wins the point and then two more volunteers are selected. This game goes down a storm in SE Asian classrooms.

2. SLAP THAT PHONIC! Write the alphabet, using upper- and lowercase letters, across the board. Pick two volunteers one from each team and then pronounce a phonic sound. The students then have to race to slap the letters associated with it and say a word that begins or ends with it. The winner receives a point for doing so. Keep selecting different students to take a turn. This is one of the best ways that I've found of teaching young learners and beginners the phonic alphabet.

3. THREE STRIKESThis is good for reinforcing new vocabulary. Choose eight words and write them up on the board and on eight pieces of paper. Flip a coin or play 1, 2, 3 to see which team goes first. Hold up your pieces of paper so that students can't see the words and ask them which one you are currently looking at. Each team gets three guesses. If they guess correctly they get two points otherwise the other team is given one point. Then it's the other teams turn. Keep shuffling your pieces of paper.

4. ANSWER MY QUESTIONSThis can be anything, i.e. "What am I?" [mime an animal or a job], "What am I eating? [give verbal clues and gestures], "Where am I?" [give descriptions of surroundings and what you can see], "Who am I?" [give descriptions of famous people, superheroes or even class members], etc.

5. THIS IS...Make up a fictional character and give details about their name, age, country, likes and dislikes etc. Then play true or false, i.e. "She lives in Vietnam". If there's one game that gets a class to be quiet, this is it because if they don't listen they can't win.

6. WHAT'S MISSING?Choose a theme, i.e. food, and write this up in a bubble in the centre of the board. Draw a line out from the bubble and write an example word, i.e. ‘hot dog' and then have students populate the rest of the bubble with words that they call out. Get the students to stand up and turn around and wipe one word from the board and then call out "What's missing?" The first team to say what word is missing wins the point.

7. MINIMUM For first graders you need to start the minimum number of letters at three, for all other levels you can start at five. Write up one word at the top left of the board, i.e. ‘chair'. Teams take it turns to call out a single word that begins with the last letter, i.e. ‘rabbit'. Word must meet or exceed the minimum number of letters but not end with ‘y' because it limits the game. Students can use plurals to meet the minimum but they are not allowed to repeat words. As you start a new line on the board, increase the minimum by one letter. When a team gets stumped, begin a countdown from ten. The first team to be get to zero is out. I had a great fourth grade class once that could go up to a minimum of twelve letters [eight lines] and an advanced class that could go to thirteen. I have always found this game to be very popular in SE Asia.

8. DUNGEONS AND DRAGONSPlan out two small dungeons on a piece of paper, say 4 x 4 or 5 x 5 squares and populate each ‘room' with things to do, find, interact with or fight. Write up the maps on the board as well as basic commands, i.e. Go_____ [north, east, south or west] / Look / Get the_____ / Use the_____ / Talk to the_____, Eat the_____, etc. Flip a coin or play 1, 2, 3 to see which team goes first and then have teams take turns to move their way around the dungeons one turn at a time. Each team starts in the top left hand box and the objective is to reach ‘home' in the bottom right hand box. The game doesn't have to have fantasy or horror themes either. I've created maps of home towns, fun parks, movies and cartoons. This game really captures the imagination of second to sixth graders, so use yours when designing maps for it.

9. Simon saysIn this well known TEFL game, students only do the action they are told to when the sentence starts with “Simon says…”, e.g. “Simon says open your books on page 27”. If they hear any other command, e.g. “Knock on the door”, they should remain totally still and not even start doing the action. To add some more useful language, you can replace “Simon says…” with “You have to…” or “The teacher wants you to…”.

10. Only when it matchesStudents only copy if the action and what the teacher says is the same, e.g. if the teacher both says “Stand up and face the window” and does that action. If the action and words don’t match, e.g. if the teacher faces the window while saying “face the door”, the students should just stay still. You can give points to individuals or teams who do the correct actions the quickest, and take points away or make them sit down out of the game if people do things when they shouldn’t.

11. Tell me offStudents should only copy if the action and what the teachers says is the same, and shout something negative like “No” , “That’s wrong”, “They are different”, “One more time, please” or “You’ve made a mistake” if they don’t match (unlike just staying still like the variation above)

12. Do as I say, not as I doWhen the actions and what the teacher says don’t match, students don’t copy the action, but do what the teacher says instead

13. Do what’s right, not what I sayStudents don’t copy if you ask them to do something that they shouldn’t do in the classroom, e.g. “Shout”, “Bang on the table” or “Kick a boy”, but race to follow instructions that are okay, e.g. “Bow to your neighbour” or “Shake hands”

14. Tell me off tooIf the teacher tells them to do something that isn’t allowed in the classroom, the students shout out “That’s naughty”, “That isn’t allowed”, “That’s bad”, “Don’t (whatever the action was)” or similar useful classroom language for discipline, but rush to do the action if it is something good or okay

15. Instructions protestsTell the students to do some typical classroom actions, then throw in some things that are impossible, e.g. “Clean the whiteboard” then “Clean the ceiling”. With the impossible ones, they shout back “I/ we can’t (clean the ceiling)”, “That’s too difficult” or other useful classroom language for telling the teacher they have problems in class.

16. Teacher robotElicit useful classroom language you want the students to say by doing things that make life impossible for them, e.g. writing in tiny letters on the board, speaking very quietly, speaking very fast etc, and only doing it properly when they ask you with the correct language. To add some fun, you can sometimes go too far the other way when they ask you, e.g. writing in huge letters, speaking very very slowly etc.

17. Pedantic robotThe students follow each other’s instructions, but only if they are so unambiguous that they can’t be misunderstood, e.g. they should open their comics rather than their textbooks if their partner says “Open your book” rather than “Open your red English textbook” or rattle the door if their partner says “Open the door” before they say “Turn the door knob”

18. Classroom language brainstormAfter the teacher says or does something, the students try to use as much classroom language as they can to ask the teacher to do it again or another way, e.g. if the teacher says “This is a whiteboard”, the students can say “How do you spell whiteboard?”, “Can you speak more slowly please?” (several times until it isn’t possible to speak any more slowly), “Can you speak more loudly please?” (ditto, until the teacher is shouting) etc.

19. Classroom instructions collocations brainstormsGive the students a verb and see how many possible things they can tell the teacher or another student to do using that verb, e.g. for open “Open the cupboard”, “Open your pencil case”, “Open your mouth” etc.

20. Classroom instructions collocations pellmanism (= memory game/ pairs)Give each group of 2 to 4 students a pack of cards that has common classroom language verbs (pick up, draw, listen to, look at, face, copy etc) on half of the cards and common classroom nouns (the window, the air conditioning, your eraser, your partner etc) on the rest. Students spread the pack of cards face down across the table and try to find a verb and an object that match up. If they think two cards match up, they should do that action in order to prove it. If the group agree that the two cards don’t match (or if they pick up two nouns or two verbs), they should put them back face down exactly where they took them from.

21. Classroom English ranking debateGive students a list of 20 to 25 sentences that are useful for them to use in the classroom, including some more unusual ones like “Can I blow my nose, please?” and “Can you lend me some money, please?” In pairs or threes, students discuss which the top ten most useful sentences are. These can then be turned into a poster or worksheet, and should be the ones the teacher is strict about not allowing L1 for from then on.

22. Classroom language PictionaryStudents try to draw a typical thing that students or teachers say in the classroom, and the rest of the class or their team try to guess what the sentence is e.g. a drawing of a confused face and a question mark for “Sorry, I don’t understand” or a drawing of arrows going from a book, pen, eraser etc to a bag for “Put everything away in your bag”. Drawing of symbols and numbers is okay, but no writing (even of single letters) is allowed. This can lead onto students making posters of useful classroom language with accompanying pictures to leave up in the classroom for reference, e.g. the 10 most useful ones they decided in the ranking debate (see above).

23. Instructions action chainsStudents race to do the typical classroom action written on the board, e.g. “Open your book”, then the teacher adds one more to the bottom of the list, e.g. “Close your book”, and the students race to do both as quickly as possible when the teacher shouts “(Start) now” or “(Let’s) go”. The teacher adds one more to the bottom of the list and repeat over and over until they are doing at least 10 actions in a row.

References French Allen, V. 1983. Techniques in teaching vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gear, J. and R. Gear. 1988. Incongruous visuals for the EFL classroom. English Teaching Forum, 26, 2. pp.43. Vocabulary picture puzzle. English Teaching Forum, 23, 4, pp. 41-42. Gulland, D. M. and D. Hinds-Howell. 1986. The penguin dictionary of English idioms. London: Penguin Books Ltd. Haycraft, J. 1978. An introduction to English language teaching. Harlow: Longman. Hubbard, P., H. Jones, B. Thornton, and R. Wheeler. 1983. A training course for TEFL. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lee, W. R. 1979. Language teaching games and contests. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Rixon, S. 1981. How to use games in language teaching. London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Davis.1992. More grammar games. Cambridge University Press. Abbott, G., D. McKeating, J. Greenwood, and P. Wingard. 1981. The teaching of English as an international language. A practical guide. London: Collins. Raimes, A. 1983. Techniques in teaching writing. New York: Oxford University Press. Games, Games, Games ( a Woodcraft Folk handbook sold in Oxfam shops in UK) Berer, Marge and Frank, Christine and Rinvolucri, Mario. Challenge to think. Oxford University Press, 1982. 

Violeta Ivanof, English teacher