游戏在小学英语语法教学中的运用

论文总字数：36673字

摘 要

随着信息多元化和经济全球化的发展，英语在社会生活和国际交往中的地位也越来越重要。在这种形势下，越来越多地方从小学低年级甚至幼儿园就开设了英语课程，小学生开始接触的英语语法也越来越多。虽然这些语法比较简单，但对心智还未发育完全的小学生来说枯燥无趣的语法还是有一定难度的，只靠死记硬背对小学生来说是不合适的，因此有许多学生写的句子都是中国式英语句子。为了改善小学生语法学习方面的缺陷，应找出一种符合小学生身心发展特点的教学方式。本论文就此介绍了一种改善小学英语语法学习的方法——游戏教学法，因为游戏是孩子的天性，且符合小学生年龄性格特点。

本论文由5部分构成,其首先阐述了小学语法教学的现状并提出学好语法的重要性和必要性，接着指出前人在语法教学方面所做的研究和局限性，然后介绍游戏教学的益处与各种原则，随后列举一些在语法教学中游戏具体运用的例子来阐明游戏对小学生语法学习起到的促进作用，最后总结论文的主要内容和不足。

关键词：游戏; 语法; 小学英语；趣味性

Contents

1.Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3.Overview of Game Teaching 4

3.1 The Definition of Game Teaching 4

3.2 The Principles of Game Teaching 4

3.3 The Advantages of Using Game Teaching 9

4.Introduction of Some Proper Games in Grammar Teaching 11

4.1Passing on Grammatical Sentences 11

4.2 Using Physical Things 11

4.3 Substantiating the Grammar Rules 12

4.4Picking in a Lucky Box 12

4.5Guessing 13

5.Conclusion 13

Works Cited……………………………....................……………...................15

1. Introduction

With the social progress and globalization of economic development, English, as the most popular language, has captured more and more attention from the public. Besides, the education department in 2001 enacted that the English should be added into the primary school curriculum. Therefore, English courses in primary grades have been generally set up in recent years. However, a great number of problems in primary school English teaching appeared at the same time, especially the problems of teaching grammar.

In the past few years, the learning situation of grammar has become worse. There are several reasons. First of all, many primary teachers not only believe that grammar learning is a waste of time and it is not so useful in primary English teaching practice, but also pay more attention to oral communicative ability after the new curriculum standards proposed, which causes more neglect in grammar teaching. Besides, the students" thinking does not fully develop and grammar is too abstract for primary students to understand. In addition, a lot of teachers just to teach grammar through the mother tongue and ask students to rote those abstract grammar rules. In those cases, grammar rules are too difficult for students to master and the effect of grammar teaching is not so good. There are many students who say and write chinglish sentences, which only consist of several words and have no grammar structure. Thus students losing a lot of marks on this when taking part in examinations.

In order to improve this phenomenon, it is necessary to learn grammar rules carefully and English grammar learning should be put in a prominent position. Because learning English is just like building a house,only when the foundation of the house,namely grammar, builds well, can students make a good house, that is to say, learn English well.Therefore, only by learning grammar well can we speak authentic English like the locals. In recent years, the discussion about how to make grammar teaching better has not stopped and some experts gradually introduce the game teaching approach into English class. They intend to inspire students" interest to learn grammar and make grammar learning become vivid through the games. Then primary students are able to understand and master grammar easily. But how to use the games is not mature and systematic, so there are still many problems in grammar teaching , such as the inappropriate difficulty of the game design, unclear teaching goals and so on.

My thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one is a general introduction，including the background of the research，the current situation and importance of grammar teaching and the structure of the thesis. Chapter two describes the previous researches of grammar teaching abroad and in China and the limitation of previous researches and the value of my research. Chapter Three presents the overview of game teaching,such as the definition,advantages and principles of game teaching. Chapter Four introduces several specific games in grammar teaching, including games of passing on a message,using physical things and picking in a lucky box and so on. Chapter Five is the conclusion, which summarizes the thesis and presents some limitation.

2. Literature Review

Game teaching methods are very popular abroad. One of the researchers was Plato who focused on the role of games in children’ education. He thought the game should not just be the game but also combine with the moral education. At that time, many games were used widely, such as guessing odd, playing games, throwing dice and so on.

Many educators who stress the importance of children"s needs and potential , are opposed to rote，such as Rousseau, Dewey , Froebel,etc, and pointed out how important the game is for the kids.

Rousseau suggests that normal development should occur in a non-restrictive, supportive environment(Rousseau, 1762). He thinks that children could learn well through games, because games could make good environment for children to learn.

John Dewey , American philosopher and educator, laid the philosophical foundation for the game teaching from his “activity” theory(Dewey，1913). Dewey attached great importance to the role of children’ game in the teaching.

Froebel, the German educator of the 19th century, was the father of children’ education. He thought that games are the main characteristics of children’activities and games and language are elements of the children’lives(Froebel, 1997).

At home, there are also many Chinese scholars analysing the current situation of primary grammar teaching and putting forward some corresponding measures. At first, some experts introduce the deductive and inductive methods to learn grammar, which are widely used by many teachers. They encourage students to find the grammar rules and consolidate students" grammar learning by much practice(Yang Jian, 2014：172). However,because these methods are boring, some other experts come up with some other interesting game approaches to teach grammar.

The application of songs in English grammar teaching is proposed later(Shi Lili, 2014：67). Teachers teach students how to sing the beautiful songs containing grammar rules and then explain the sentence grammar structure to help students master easily.

Xu Cuiling also presents two funny ways to teach grammar. One is to make stories. She compares the wh-question words to noblemen who wear crowns and tells that what these noblemen ask is always a serious question so we should say in the falling tone(Xu Cuiling，2012：137). Besides, we should also answer differently according to different noblemen. Then she considers other words as ordinary people who are modest and ask others in the rising tone like consulting others. What the ordinary people ask is simple because they have no education and answer is just yes or no. In this way, students can easily understand the distinction and characteristics of the two sentence structure in a relaxed environment.

The second one is the situational approach. She creates the situation of PE class to teach the present continuous tense. She lets students guess and talk about what students in class one are doing in PE class so as to make students learn grammar in situational communication.

The situational approach is also supported by Dai Jing. She transforms grammar from abstract to concrete in accordance with students" characteristics of thinking(Dai Jing，2011：72). When teaching plural nouns, she asks students to act as little monkeys, pretending to pick and count the number of peaches on ppt. Then students can learn the form of plural imperceptibly.

In a word, the researches about game teaching have made great progress.They are helpful and useful to the grammar teaching to some degree. However, although more and more people are aware of the importance and urgency of game teaching in primary English grammar teaching now,what they do is not enough. There is no explicit and comprehensive rules on game design so that many games are not very efficient and have some defects. But in my thesis, I will introduce many specific rules on game design to compensate the vacancy.

3.Overview of Game Teaching

3.1 The Definition of Game Teaching

Game teaching is a method to enable students to learn the content in the book unconsciously in a relaxed atmosphere and cheerful activities, even in the fierce competition. It is based on the condition that the teacher is just the leader and students" initiative plays a full role in games.Simply put, the game teaching is to combine both the games and teaching tactfully,causing students interested in learning.

According to Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, “games” in language teaching can be defined as an organized activity that usually has the following features：(1) a particular task or objective (2) a set of rules (3) competition between players(4) communication between players" spoken or written language (Richards and Platt, 1992).Besides, the main focus of using game in class is to help students learn and gain fun. However, how to use games perfectly in classrooms is quite difficult and important.

3.2 The Principles of Game Teaching

As the game teaching approach gains much popular among other teaching methods, deficiencies like unclear goals,lack of innovation and improper difficulty have appeared in recent years. With those problems of game teaching turning up, how to solve them has captured a majority of people" attention. Rules for game teaching are needed and dispensable in their opinion. In my thesis，some principles are put forward as follows.

3.2.1 Consideration before class

Before class, many factors, including game rules, characteristics of students, teaching contents and goals,levels of difficulty, should be taken into account. Because those elements have great effect on success of game design and results of teaching. For example, whether games are loved by students or not and whether students master the knowledge or not all depend on them. Thence, for the purpose of success in game teaching，it is necessary for teachers to prepare lessons earnestly before class.

Specific practices are as follows. First and foremost, the most basic principle is to explain the game rules clearly first, otherwise the game will be difficult to carry out due to their misunderstanding. A demonstration activity can be made when necessary. Besides, teachers need to analyse the teaching contents carefully and seize essential parts of contents. Then teachers had better keep those contents that is key points in mind and be able to say smoothly in class. In addition, it is of great significance for teachers to predict the possible problems happening in the games so that they can draw up appropriate solutions accordingly at the same time, which will make sure that the teaching process carries on successfully. Furthermore, fully comprehending student"s nature and interest can not be over emphasized too much. Only when we find out what is likely to cause students" curiosity can we ensure that the games fit the qualities of students. Therefore, when we design the games, the physiological and psychological characteristics of students must be taken into consideration. Different games are suitable for different ages. For those students who just enter the primary school before too long, they may be curious and surprised about everything around them and are not accustomed to the changes from the kindergarten to the primary school, which will make them nervous and not learn well in the first several months. In that situation, games for them ought to be easy to comprehend and operate so that they will establish their confidence. The use of concrete games is the first choice due to their immature development of thinking. In contrast with them, the cogitation of grade three or four is in a period of transition from concrete thinking to abstract thinking but they still give priority to concrete thinking. Another trait of them is the strong imitation of them for whom the approach of Total Physical Response can be adopted. For example, students can speak the sentences and act at the same time. While students of grade five or six start entering the period of adolescence, physical and mental development tend to be conscious and independent to some degree. General simple games may fail to meet their needs. Only some advanced games like magic ones can cause their curiosity. Besides, allowing them to experience in designed activities personally will arouse their enthusiasm as much as possible so some games asking for team cooperation is suitable for them. In the process, they will also learn the morality of helping others and learn to share things with others. Last but not least, students should be divided into several categories with different games designed for them according to their levels of knowledge and ability so that each student can participate in those games. In the class, if faced with the very easy game, students will definitely lose interest after several practices. On the contrary, some tasks of games are too hard for students to deal with in class, which will make students feel awkward and confused. Under that situation, several games should be arranged from easy to difficult gradually in teaching. Besides, students are more likely to solve the questions when divided into several groups according to their different qualities. Furthermore, group work will show great power when the different members work together. Then students will be able to finish various tasks and achieve those targets step by step without barriers. Simultaneously, knowledge included in tasks will be absorbed by students imperceptibly.

3.2.2 Time arrangement and consistency of objectives in game teaching

Because games are designed for teaching so it is successful only when the teaching goals achieved in the limited time. However, the attention of primary students can just last twenty minutes at most so using the same game not only makes students bored but also has the bad teaching effect.In order to maintain their enthusiasm, the teacher should integrate different rules of the game teaching, like a combination of static and dynamic，group and individuals and speaking and listening, to carry out diverse games so as to enhance students" interest. However, the game mustn"t be more than 15 minutes each time. In that environment, students can learn in a relaxed and pleasant but still exciting and tense atmosphere. The more enthusiastic the students are, the more knowledge students will remember. Besides,the game should be regulated appropriately and you can end the game at high climax allowing students to have the aftertaste and expecting the next lesson. Furthermore, games must be controlled to a degree. Because if students play too insanely, it is difficult for them to focus on the teaching contents, which will make the teaching result counterproductive.

The game is a kind of means giving service to teaching so the design of games should be combined with teaching contents. We shouldn"t make students immersed in the entertainment of games and ignore the teaching purpose. What we need to do is to fully consider the important and difficult points and present the teaching contents focusing on teaching goals throughout the game. Besides, basic knowledge such as English words and phrases must be contained in the game for students to grasp. What"s more, the purpose of game teaching shouldn"t be too easy but just difficult enough to make students devote themselves to English learning all the time, which in turn will form the good habit to communicate initiatively in English when they cooperate with each other in the long term. What is the most important is that the ultimate goal of games ought to be consistent with the teaching objective. Only in this way can students both play and learn happily.

3.2.3 Closeness to life and full of creativity in game teaching

Nowadays, primary English remains the elementary level so students can not understand profound English activities. For this reason, when choosing games,we must connect games to children"s real life to let them familiar to these topics and think about students" practical level of knowledge and their qualities, such as willing of self-expression,sense of curiosity and weakness of self-discipline. Besides, selecting some things,which children love in their life, like stars, cartoons,toys and animals, will attract students" attention tremendously. What"s more, games of panting,singing,acting and competing are all favored by children. In such a familiar environment, students will cement the knowledge in mind effectively. Furthermore, creativity is the theme of the time so games will also be required to be creative and enlightening. Those methods of game teaching should be innovative on the basis of contents so that they can arouse students" interest and lead students to think and analyse actively, which will certainly promote students" creative thinking ability.

3.2.4 Requirement of subjectivity and participation of all students in games

It is demanded that primary game teaching should give full play to students" initiative with less supervision from teachers. The main responsibility for teachers is to design games scientifically and reasonably and play the role as a guide while students are the main participators in games. Only in this way can teachers motivate students" zeal to actively participate in games. Besides, helping and cooperating among students in games will be helpful for them to develop the good relationship and realize the importance of unity and cooperation. What"s more, the purpose of game teaching is not to develop good students into the protagonists but to involve all the students regardless of the introvert and the outgoing or the good and the poor,making all of them learn better. Otherwise, they will polarize in grades and interest. Furthermore,the quality education whose goal is to achieve all-round development among students is put forward. To reach the aim, primary English teachers ought to care for those students who have lost interest in English learning and encourage them to join in the game more often. At last, teachers can combine several ways to involve all students in games, such as games of pair work,group work and demonstration between students and the teacher, which will better reflect the spirit of cooperation and sense of collective pride and accomplishment in the activity.

3.2.5 Formation of sense of competition and impartial formative assessment

In the fair teaching process, loving of winning and praises is the nature of children. Therefore, if this kind of psychology was adopted and motivated well before class, it can mobilize the enthusiasm of all the students and stimulate their potential, which may help students put themselves in learning quickly. The use of competitive games is the common practice to develop this psychology. Some teachers divide the students into different groups and hold contests of games to inspire students" sense of competition and winning. There are also many other advantages to carry out competitive games such as detecting students" understanding of knowledge and developing a collective sense of honor and personal responsibility. Besides, during the procedure, the teacher should also give appropriate spiritual or material rewards to them. When faced with the party of the failure ,teachers should still give positive assessment and encouragement to stimulate their spirit of never admitting defeat, while treating winners, teachers also need to educate students to win without pride and lose with grace so that students will maintain a healthy attitude. In such learning process, children will be very concerned about the game results and teachers" evaluation on them. An unfair evaluation and results will strike children"s learning enthusiasm, and even make students dislike and reject the teacher. Therefore, teachers can not judge students only by relying on a single subjective criterion but evaluate equitably based on various standards because every student"s intelligence and basis are different and each student has their own advantages. Therefore, any good things or progress the students have in the game should be timely and appropriately evaluated and awarded and teachers can"t assess them only according to final test. Only in that situation will the students" positivity be promoted greatly. Moreover，there are many cases that a student achieve a great success in certain aspect just due to a teacher"s recognition and praises. Above all, formation of diverse formative assessment allows students to experience honor, build up their self-confidence and make progress with an active attitude.

3.3 The Advantages of Using Game Teaching

3.3.1 Preparing for learning

At the beginning of class, students are often active and absent-minded. The game activities that teachers design can tansfer students" attention to the class effectively and make them enter the state of learning. Besides, those games can mobilize the enthusiasm of all the students to learn because game is children"s nature. In that situation, the whole students all will get prepared for the start of the lesson.

3.3.2 Creating an active learning environment and developing team spirit

As we all know, games can quickly stimulate students" interest and mobilize the enthusiasm of the student to create the active learning atmosphere. Game teaching is helpful to combine the process of teaching and students" emotional experience, which leads students to the following content step by step. In that case, students in the learning process will experience the joy of learning ,enhance their self-confidence and deepen their understanding of knowledge, then actively participating in learning activities. Teaching tasks and content presented through a variety of well-designed game activities will contribute to learning those boring knowledge, such as learning grammar rules. This game teaching method provides the condition for students to absorb new knowledge and develop their potential and specialties tremendously.

Besides, games of team competition can not only motivate and cultivate the sense of competition but also train unyielding spirit and the courage to challenge difficulty. By actively taking part in those games, students will enhance awareness of teamwork and cooperation gradually and the sense of collective pride.

3.3.3 Removing the psychological pressure and developing oral ability

The main function of games is to change the intense and dull study into pleasant learning. In class, there are a number of students who are afraid of learning some new and difficult contents due to the poor foundation of knowledge. However, when they are in such relatively lively and relaxed atmosphere, it is easier for them to overcome the anxiety in language learning. Because the child will feel relaxed and all attention is attracted to the interesting game without worrying about the study. What"s more, they may also have the courage to communicate and discuss with other students in games of role play. In the long term , there is no doubt that they can improve their oral communication ability and strengthen relationships among classmates. The more they say,the more confident they will be.

3.3.4 Helping students learn better and developing students" intelligence

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