Teaching English with games is the way to go. Kids love to have fun, and using games means they enjoy lessons more and learn faster. There are so many benefits to teaching children  with games, for example:

their social skills develop rapidly, they cooperate and share
they like competitions and games
they seek out friendships
open up to friends about their emotions
pay more attention to teamwork

Teaching English with games is the perfect solution to exploit all these evolving behaviours in a fun and exciting way. As a result, your lessons become stimulating while your students effortlessly learn English as a second language.

What results you can expect

As many researchers have shown, using games in the ESL classroom benefits teachers and students alike.

1. CHILDREN LEARN TO SPEAK OUT CONFIDENTLY, LOUDLY AND FLUIDLY

Playing an ESL game has a purpose to it, an outcome. To play, students have a reason to communicate rather than just repeating things back mindlessly. In addition, they want to get involved with their classmates. Students use the language all the time during my communication games, which are designed to allow everyone plenty of opportunities for speaking without neglecting spelling, reading, and writing.

Shelley’s personal view

As a language teacher, I believe the greatest gift you can give is the skill and confidence to SPEAK the language and use it. What use is a language qualification to someone if they cannot say anything?

2. STANDARDS AND CONFIDENCE IMPROVE EXPONENTIALLY

My ESL games are designed to stretch and test the children constantly, helping them reach performance levels; and this, in an encouraging and stimulating environment. The brighter kids help inspire the slower ones.

ESL games exhilarate and motivate children. However, if they do not pay attention and make a mental effort to memorise the target language, they will not be able to play the games well. As a consequence, they will let their team and themselves down. To avoid this, they make more effort to join in and learn as much as possible.

The philosophy of encouragement incorporated into my ESL games allows all students to gain confidence. Usually, this means they get better at English, and often in all subjects.

3. REVISION BECOMES FUN AND NOT A BORE

Many of my ESL games lend themselves perfectly to quick bursts of revision. With a game, you can revise plenty of vocabulary and grammar in a few minutes. If you use games to cover two or three topics every lesson, imagine how well your kids will do at exam time and how proud you will feel.

Repetition is the mother of skill. Teaching English involves a lot of repetition, which can be boring, but you can’t avoid it.  How do you expect your class or children to remember vocabulary if they never use it?  However, repetition will be fun if you teach English through games, and your pupils will have new words indelibly printed on their brains!

Teaching English with games means even boring repetition becomes fun!

4. ACTIVE LEARNING IMPROVES ATTENTION SPAN

Some ESL games involve physical movement, which helps keep everyone stimulated and focused. Children naturally have a lot of energy and are not good at sitting for long periods. Therefore, if you throw in a game with movement, you will prevent them from getting restless and bored.

Because pupils freely choose to get involved in the games and enjoy playing with other children, it creates interactive energy that grows with interest and improves concentration.

5. FUN FUN FUN…FOR YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS

“See it, Hear it, Do it” are the three learning styles addressed in one fun activity. Games get great results in the classroom for children aged 4 to 12 bringing more success and joy into the lives of the children you teach. Most importantly, they will associate fun with learning.

Teachers, you will improve your teaching effectiveness by creating a positive learning environment while your students are engaged and speaking English. In addition, games are great levellers, enabling you to handle mixed ability situations in class successfully.

Games make everybody, including you, more motivated and optimistic. You can make a difference by helping your pupils have more self-esteem to succeed in all areas of life.

SUMMARY

Ultimately it is up to each individual how well they apply themselves, but you can make a difference, making it easier for students and giving them every chance to succeed.

Considering what these games can do for you and your pupils and your sense of achievement, they are valuable to your classroom. The fond memories, fun, sense of satisfaction, and affection for your students that you will experience from using them are priceless, for these are the feelings that make life worth living.

Teaching is a wonderful profession, and one thing we all know is that we never forget our teachers. Instead, we vividly remember the few incredible teachers we had who challenged us and made us think rather than spoon-fed us so we could be successfully processed through exams like a sausage.

Your pupils will remember you for the rest of their lives, and with that in mind, don’t you want them to recognize you as one of the best?