THE ROLE AND PLACE OF GAMES IN LEARNING LEXICAL MATERIAL

Аннотация

The following article illustrates the importance of games in teaching. Moreover, it show the role of games in learning lexical materials as well as discusses some ways of teaching with the help of various games. KEYWORDS: games, teaching, lexical materials, classroom management, attention grabber. Today teaching has changed a lot over the past years. Once it was all about learners being passive and listening in the classroom, but today learners are usually much more active in the classroom, and what better way to be active than by playing games. The national curriculum in foreign languages in Uzbekistan talks about the importance of keeping teaching methods diverse in order to light and sustain interest among students. Teachers can help sustain diversity in a variety of ways, for example by using activities that require learners to be creative in thinking and emphasizing individual learning and cooperative learning equally. A more specific way that teachers can use in order to keep diversity within the classroom is to not be afraid of using games as a teaching method along with other methods. According to the national curriculum games can be a good teaching method and games, such as role playing games, imitation games, theatrical expression and problem solving activities are especially fitting for all stages of language learning. Howard Gardner, whose theories that humans have eight intelligences, claims that when exploring a certain topic in school it can be approached in 6 different ways in order to maximize the chances of reaching all students in the classroom. One of these ways is “the personal way”, where the ultimate goal is to see if it is possible to approach a specific topic by using, for example, role play, or other interactions In addition, Armstrong suggests board games as a teaching strategy that might suit learners with interpersonal intelligence because they provide an excellent setting for interaction between students. Even though games are usually started with the aim of having fun, they can sometimes end badly, for example if someone gets carried away with all the fun and says or does something that hurts someone else or his feelings. When games are used in the classroom the teacher must keep this in mind and control the game in the right way. Also he or she must make sure that every participant has a positive experience because the classroom must not become a place where students feel vulnerable or picked on in. Another thing that is important to acknowledge is the fact that not all games fit the classroom environment, or all groups of students, and that it can be hard finding the right game. In fact, it is good to keep in mind when selecting a game that a recipe for a good educational game is one that balances both fun and challenge. Another point teachers need to keep in mind is to choose wisely when it comes to selecting a game to use in the classroom because; although one game might be perfect for one teacher or a particular group of learners it can be terrible for another teacher or group of students. Physical games - an example of a physical game is “Walking the line” where participants have to walk a line and perform various types of tasks at the same time, for example walking 110 ` backwards, or balancing a book on their heads (Ingvar Sigurgeirsson.. In order to make this game more fitting in a language classroom the teacher should give the instructions in the target language, for example “everybody has to walk backwards”. 1Another example of a physical game could be the game “Simon says”, where someone plays Simon and gives the others orders, for example “Simon says jump” or “Simon says clap your hands”. I categorize this game as a physical game because of the fact that the Simon’s orders are usually physical. Activities like “Simon says” fits into a teaching method called Total Physical Response (TPR) in which languages is taught by allowing students to observe and take their time to understand the language before having to speak it. TPR is thought to be a good teaching method for learning a foreign language for two reasons. The first one is that it is thought to reduce the stress level of learning a language and therefore making the learning more enjoyable, and the second one is that it resembles the learning of children’s native language, where children are exposed to the language for many months before starting to talk. Scavenger hunt games - savage hunt games are especially fitting in the language classroom because the clues can be written in the target language, which forces the participants to read and fellow team members to listen and test their understanding. Also within the scavenger hunt could be puzzles, which the students would have to solve, such as crossword puzzles, word searches and questions. The possibilities are almost endless and teachers are only bound by the limits of their own creativity. Educational games - the “mail game” where participants have to deliv