Question:
Discuss about the Games in Grammar Teaching for Communication.
Teaching grammar with games can serve as an excellent method to improve some grammatical knowledge. It has been found to impose a marked significance in improving the grammatical concepts related to parts of speech, vocabularies and simple articles. Games serves as an excellent means of communication that can be used to internalize the vocabulary and the structure the grammar correctly (Alsagoff et al., 2012). It is known that students are always more interested towards games and less on deskwork. Hence such activities would lead the students to pay attention in the grammar classes. The rules of the games are simple but they are of so much fun that the students are automatically attracted towards the learning methods.
The traditional system of grammar teaching mainly focuses on the structuring of the sentences, parts of speech involving books, but the teaching methods have changed a lot. Many studies have found it to be ineffective in teaching grammar to the young learners. Traditional system of grammar learning is not only cumbersome; it also fails to motivate the students from learning grammar (Nunan & Richards, 2015). Traditional methods of grammar teaching mainly focused on how languages are constructed at the sentence level and does not provide an impressive platform from to the students on learning how to apply grammar in daily life outside the classroom (Alsagoff et al., 2012). Traditional grammar teaching used the common methods of teaching grammar till 1960. Later on in the 19th century there was a reform movement against the grammar translation method. The aim of the movement is the need for changes in the conventional methods. The methodology of grammar underwent a history of changes. The different grammar methodology that was adopted was grammar translational methods, direct methods, oral approaches, audio-lingual methods and communicative approach (Hassan & Selamat, 2017). Game is an activity which is bounded by a set of rules but also bears element of fun in it. This concept led to the evolution of grammar games. Educators have found that students are always lazy to do tasks and therefore tried to find out a way that could involve the learners in the learning. All these factors drive the introduction of games in the learning of grammar (Hassan & Selamat, 2017).
Games in grammar do not require much preparation and the students generally take up their own responsibility for what they think grammar is all about. It also provides opportunity for the teacher to find out what their students have learned without extra attention. All the students in the classroom remain extremely absorbed in the classroom activity (Alsagoff et al., 2012). In general games are associated with a relaxed environment and even the students who are introvert have the opportunities to participate in the games. Games help to encourage entertain and promote fluency to the students. Previously the grammar learning methods were more complicated and required extensive learning (Hassan & Selamat, 2017). Young learners often do not have the patience to do extensive learning or cannot self motivate themselves to the learning of grammar. Traditional methods of grammar learning involved books, but in the games the teachers needs to make rules for the games (Chanseawrassamee, 2012). Grammar learning through games can be considered as an excellent method for the evaluation of the students. Previously assignments and exams were the only means of evaluating or assessing the students. Many young learners are scared of exams, and hence fail to perform in exam which may result is faulty evaluation of a student (Alsagoff et al., 2012). Games on the other hand create a non hostile and fun filled environment in the class rooms where the teachers can evaluate the students on the basis of their performance in the games.
Teaching in ESL context allows an ESL child to study English and the school subjects simultaneously. This learning involves a lot of visuals and graphics. With pictures and posters a child can start developing anticipation regarding the context (Ersoz, 2016). In traditional teaching the texts are so convoluted that it would be difficult for a native speaker to decipher the context. Whereas diagrams can help an ESL student to understand the content of the text, may be not to the full, but to some extent. The color and the picturisation of books often have impacts upon child’s brain.
The teaching patterns rest solely at the hands and discretion of the teacher. In this context, the aspect of teaching English grammar in the form of second language had been taken into consideration. As commented by Baecher, Farnsworth & Ediger (2014), English is the non-native language of almost 72% people and is learned as a compulsory second language paper in most contexts. However, the traditional and the strict patterns of learning often delimit the scope of the student in getting a better hold of the subject. The word and language power in a foreign language could only be developed with reading and studying the subjects depthfully. For the purpose of which sufficient interest needs to be generated within the students by means of interactive and gaming sessions. The teacher could use colourful presentations and posters for teaching the students about articles, prepositions. The students could be asked to participate in some of the poster making sessions where they are asked to use cuttings from old newspapers, articles to make collages representing certain actions (Uysal & Bardakci, 2014). The teacher can ask the student to describe the story in the picture with the help of reporting and doing verbs. Here, small and interesting gaming techniques could be used by the teacher to better inculcate the students with the rules of English grammar. The teacher could also take the help of puzzles to access the grammar skills of the students.
There are some points that have to be maintained while teaching grammar in ESL classes. If the teacher does not belong to an English speaking background, then it is necessary to brush up the English knowledge before approaching the students. Secondly it is essential to differentiate between inductive and deductive teaching and how to utilize both at times. Before entering the classrooms it is necessary to plan the ESL lessons (Alsagoff et al., 2012). As we have discussed earlier, one can also seek help of games to impart grammar knowledge to the students. Before entering the classes there are certain questions that need to be addressed such as the objectives of the class, the learning background of the learners, the learning style of each student and what resources are available in the classroom (Rutherford, 2014).
The traditional practice of grammar was problematic as they required students to produce the outputs immediately. It cannot be denied that production can help in increasing the fluency and accuracy; grammar cannot be developed in the internal system (Purpura, 2013). In the new system of grammar teaching the learners are first provided with the information about a linguistic structure, then they are provide with the knowledge of how a particular process strategy can negatively influence their outcome (Nunan & Richards, 2015). The traditional grammar system was merely a text book thing and did not provide the students with the opportunities to use grammar in their daily life (Kawaguchi & Ma, 2012).
With the onset of digitization more emphasis has been placed upon the modern methods of teaching compared to the traditional methodologies. In this regard, learning grammar through traditional approaches has been discussed over here. They seem to have a number of limitations, which have been seen to have profound effect on the learning capabilities of the student. As commented by Wang & Smith (2013), sufficient attention is not paid over teaching the basics such as reading, writing, listening and affluently speaking in English. Therefore, the traditional scope of learning is limited by giving more emphasis to a teacher centred way of learning rather than empowering the students (Ryu, 2013). Thus, here the teachers are placed at the centre of the learning activities and approaches.
However, as asserted by Uysal & Bardakci (2014), sufficient opportunities are not given to the students to imbibe and practice creativity within their learning process. In this context, reading in a language different from ones mother tongue requires that the student deciphers the meaning associated with each and every word completely while reading the sentence, which helps in better inculcation of a foreign language. However, the strict and inflexible traditional approaches delimit the opportunity for a student to build sufficient curiosity regarding the language. Here, learning is limited to following the rules and conventional approaches followed while solving typical grammatical problems. As asserted by Avinash (2016), there is the lack of pronunciation practice in teaching grammar through traditional methodology. On the contrary, the students here are bombarded with linguistic information.
Writing had been used an effective tool for learning subjects since time immemorial. However, the traditional learning styles and approaches considered writing a form of punishments for teaching students about misspelt words and wrong sentence constructions. In this regard, a student who had made a mistake in writing a sentence is punished by the teacher in a manner, where the student has to take note of the corrections made by the teacher and write down in the same in the copy for over 25 times. This was done to develop visual memory in the student, which would prevent them from repeating the same mistake again in the future (Illingworth & Hall, 2015).
The current study focuses upon the different methods of learning English which are the traditional methods and the modern methods. Here, the traditional methods place more emphasis upon memorizing than understanding the rules of English grammar. This could be established by reading the sentences again and again or writing, re-writing them. However, studies had been conducted in the past, which disregarded the contributions of memorizing alone in understanding a lesson (Baecher et al., 2014). Therefore, in this regard a simplified five step procedure for teaching grammar could be discussed over here which are as follows:
With the advent of technology people use emojis and short text forms for communicating with each other. This has drastically reduced the attention span from 12 to 8 seconds. The rise of gadget has reduced the dependence on books and research for gathering knowledge. The digital age students have reduced levels of patience owing to the availability of internet resources at hand, where from they can retrieve information within seconds (Ryu, 2013). This limits their curiosity to search books and gain knowledge from there and gradually affects the learning and memorizing skills of the students.
Teachers can introduce games in the classrooms for the introducing the zeal of grammar learning among the students. There are certain popular games that are used in ESL classes for a quick grammar review such as Shoot for points, where a ball is given to the students and they are allowed to shoot them for points, but they are given the chance to shoot by asking them questions related to grammar, may be a correct construction of sentences (Chanseawrassamee, 2012). Other games that can be used are board games and games involving cards, snakes and ladders related to the grammar subject. There one interesting game called Tic- tic -toe where the grammar topics to be reviewed are written on nine index cards, then they are arranged by facing them down on the table in a 3×3 grid (Vazirabad, 2013). The students are then asked to choose the cards containing the questions. Another game involves where the students are divided into two teams where a ball is placed at the centre (Jalali & Dousti, 2012). A student needs to answer the questions correctly for getting the opportunity to shoot for the goal.
The use of the games in the learning of the grammar can facilitate self motivation and helps in retaining the lessons at the sub conscious levels.
The use of games in teaching grammar not only motivates the student but also enhances the competition and the cooperation in the classroom. It also facilitates the bonding between the students and helps the students to absorb grammar at the sub-conscious level (Purpura, 2013). Many young learners will not get the motivation to learn anything new, they don’t understand why it is important to learn grammar but their intrinsic motivation encourages playing games. Hence they end up playing games where grammatical knowledge’s are obtained subconsciously. Cross words, puzzles can help in improving the memory skill. Several concentration games can be played for sharpening the memory. For example studies reveal that board games in ESL grammar lessons can facilitate knowledge retention among the adult learners.
References
Alsagoff, L., McKay, S. L., Hu, G., & Renandya, W. A. (Eds.). (2012). Principles and practices for teaching English as an international language. Routledge.
Avinash, M. R. (2016). Use of puzzle solving games to teach English. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 9(15).
Baecher, L., Farnsworth, T., & Ediger, A. (2014). The challenges of planning language objectives in content-based ESL instruction. Language Teaching Research, 18(1), 118-136.
Chanseawrassamee, S. (2012). Teaching Adult Learners English Through a Variety of Activities Perception on Games and Rewards. US-China Foreign Language, 10(7), 1355-1374.
Ersoz, A. (2016). Six Games for the EFL/ESL Classroom. The internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 6 June 2000.
Hassan, F., & Selamat, F. (2017). WHY AREN’T STUDENTS PROFICIENT IN ESL: THE TEACHERS’PERSPECTIVE. The English Teacher, 17.
Illingworth, M., & Hall, N. (2015). Creative approaches to teaching grammar: Developing your students as writers and readers.Abingdon: Routledge, pp.15-25.
Jalali, S., & Dousti, M. (2012). Vocabulary and grammar gain through computer educational games. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 12(4).
Kawaguchi, S., & Ma, Y. (2012). Corrective feedback, negotiation of meaning and grammar development: Learner-learner and learner-native speaker interaction in ESL. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 2(02), 57.
Nunan, D., & Richards, J. C. (Eds.). (2015). Language learning beyond the classroom. Routledge.
Purpura, J. E. (2013). Assessing grammar. John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
Rutherford, W. E. (2014). Second language grammar: Learning and teaching. Routledge.
Ryu, D. (2013). Play to learn, learn to play: Language learning through gaming culture. ReCALL, 25(2), 286-301.
Uysal, H. H., & Bardakci, M. (2014). Teacher beliefs and practices of grammar teaching: focusing on meaning, form, or forms?. South African Journal of Education, 34(1), 1-16.
Vazirabad, A. F. (2013). The use of games to foster fluency among ESL learners. International Education Studies, 6(4), 205.
Wang, S., & Smith, S. (2013). Reading and grammar learning through mobile phones. Language Learning & Technology, 17(3), 117-134.
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