game-teaching-.doc

嘉应学院毕业论文(设计)B.A. Thesis The Application of the Game Teaching Method in Primary School English TeachingB.A. Candidate: Xue FangAdvisor: Lai PeiquanSchool of Foreign LanguagesJiaying UniversityMay 5, 2017AcknowledgmentMany people have offered me valuable help in my thesis writing. I am extremely grateful to their contribution. Without their important ideas and support, this thesis could not have been possibly composed.Firstly, I would like to give my sincere gratitude to my tutor, Prof. Lai Peiquan, who, throughout this research, spared no effort to effort to offer his constant encouragement and invaluable instructions. Without his comments and constructive suggestions, the composition of this dissertation could not have been possible.Then, my sincere thanks also go to all the teachers who have taught me my BA courses, who have imparted me their knowledge about the English language. Besides, I am also grateful to my roommates for their cooperation,comments, and wise advice.Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my beloved parents, who give me constant help and encouragement since my childhood. AbstractGame teaching has been one of the most important teaching methods and has been applied to various teaching activities. In this thesis, the application of the game teaching method to the English classes at primary schools will be analyzed from the aspects of the basic information of games applicable for English teaching, the classifications of various games applicable for English teaching and the case studies about such games. The purposes of this research include: 1) introducing various types of games that could be applied to English teaching at primary school; 2) providing case studies to introduce how to apply the game teaching method to English teaching at primary school. For the sake of the validity of this research, the literature analyzing method and the sample analysis method will be employed to investigate the application of games in English teaching at primary schools. To be specific, at first, the background of this research is introduced. Secondly, the previous studies about the game teaching method will be introduced. Thirdly, the information about the games applicable for English classes in primary schools will be analyzed. Lastly, case studies about the application of the game teaching method are presented. This thesis could lead to the conclusion that the game teaching method could help pupils to make much progress in their English speaking.There is no doubt that this thesis could help readers to get some enlightenment on how to improve the efficiency of English teaching and proficiency of students English proficiency. Key Words: game game teaching method English teaching in primary schools摘 要游戏教学法一直都是重要的教学方法，并在各种教学活动中得到了应用。本文将从教师从三方面对英语口语教学活动中的应用进行分析：包括适用于英语教学的游戏基本信息，这些游戏的分类与此类游戏应用的案例分析。为了保证本研究的效度，笔者将使用文献分析法和举例分析法对此类教学方法进行分析。本研究的目的包括：1）介绍几种可以适用于小学英语教学的游戏； 2）介绍一些实例来介绍如何在小学英语教学中使用游戏教学法。具体地说，首先，笔者将对研究背景进行介绍。其次，笔者将对关于游戏教学法的研究背景进行介绍。第三，笔者将对能够应用于小学英语教学的游戏具体信息进行介绍。最后，笔者将为读者提供一些关于游戏教学法在小学英语口语课堂中应用的案例分析。本文可以得出以下结论：游戏教学法可以帮助小学生在英语水平方面取得较多进步。显然，本文将会帮助读者提高英语教学效率。关键词：游戏 游戏教学法 小学英语教学ContentsAcknowledgments.iAbstract (English).iiAbstract (Chinese). .iii 1. Introduction.12. Literature Review.2 2.1The history and present situations of game teaching in foreign countries.2 2.2 The history and present situations of game teaching in China.53. English Game Approaches.63.1 Definition of games.63.2 Functions and goals of games.73.3 Advantages of games.83.4 Types of games.103.4.1 Games to review vocabularies.113.4.2 Games to practice oral English.123.4.3 Games to review grammar.134. Application of Game Approaches.15 4.1 When to use games in language teaching.15 4.2 How to use games in language teaching.16 4.2.1 Choose appropriate games.16 4.2.2 The integration of games into learning.18 4.2.3 Clear rules given.19 4.2.4 Time limitation.20 4.2.5 Rewards and penalties.20 4.2.6 Varying the games.215. Conclusion.21References.23iii嘉应学院毕业论文(设计)The Application of the Game Teaching Method in Primary School English Teaching1Introduction From thousands of years ago, humans have already realized the great significance of education. The reason for such emphasis on education is that it determines whether humans could pass down their culture from one generation to another. The pass-down of culture is exactly one of the crucial factors that enables humans to make more and more achievements in the revolution of humans. As a result of the significance of teaching activities, large numbers of scholars used to make great efforts to establish the system of various hypothesis and theories to account for teaching and learning activities. Among the teaching methods applicable for the language teaching, the game teaching method deserves investigating because such a teaching method enables language learners to raise their interest in learning. Besides, this method is useful because teachers could employ it to grant language learners more time to do exercises about language output, which will, doubtlessly, make learners memorize the language and learn well. As a result, such a teaching method has already been applied to various teaching activities, which lead to the conclusion that it is suitable to use this method in the teaching activities targeting at younger learners. This method could make those young learners become stimulated to learn the language so that it could be easier to reach all the purposes of teaching activities. In this thesis, the application of the game teaching method for the English teaching at primary schools will be introduced in details.Such a thesis is of great significance for readers, especially the English teachers at primary schools. At first, the basic information about the game teaching method, including the definition of this thesis and its features, will be introduced in details. Such introduction could help English teachers to have a deeper understanding of this teaching method so they could guarantee to apply this method correctly to their teaching practices. Secondly, the types of the games that could be used in English teaching activities at primary schools will be introduced in details and such introduction could help English teachers know better about game teaching method. It is obvious that such illustration and suggestions will help readers to guarantee the proper application of the game teaching method to English teaching practice. In short, this thesis will be helpful for English teachers at primary schools to make the best of the game teaching method to improve their teaching efficiency and to raise pupils interest in English learning. 2. Literature Review Before introducing the application of the game teaching method to English teaching at primary school, it is necessary to introduce the background information of this research so as to help readers have a better understanding of the originality of this research. In the following part, the background information will be introduced from two perspectives: the history and present situations of the game teaching method in western countries and China. 2.1 The history and present situations of game teaching in foreign countriesAs the name suggests, the game teaching method is the method by which the teachers made use of educational games in teaching activities so as to improve the motivation of the students to learn the knowledge presented by their teachers (Avedon M.E. & Brian Sutton-Smit, 1999, pp. 32-49). Since one hundred years ago, the contemporary people had begun to use the game teaching method in teaching activities and they have already made a variety of researches about how to apply such software in teaching activities. (K. Kiili, 2005, pp. 17-23). At that time, majority of the teachers at that time found the plain presentation of teaching content could only make young students lose their interest in learning so they started to lead students to play some games in class, hoping that the games could keep students concentrated (Carrier M. , 2005, pp. 84-98). As a result of the above trial teaching experiences, many scholars started to investigate how to use such a method. Their efforts could be summarized as: In most cases, westerners started to develop game teaching method earlier than Chinese did because the technological revolution started much earlier in western countries. The first effort to explore the possibility of games applicable for teaching activities started from 1950s . The real motivation to develop such software is that businessmen wanted to provide some software for parents to lead their children to learn after class at home. (Chris Crawford, 2003, pp. 105-121). At that time, there were some software that deserved more attention: the French software company provided several game software that enable children to learn and play simultaneously, including Tomb of the Paraoh and others. Such software was quite popular in France so that many other similar companies started to try to develop mo re similar software (Dick W. & Carey L., 1996, pp. 99-114). Besides, the software is advantageous because it enables children to broaden their horizon and improve their intelligence by means of playing such games (Diane Larsen Freeman, 1986, pp. 44-57). Such a trial game teaching method helped educationalists realize of the necessity of applying the game teaching method in teaching activities so that more people could be stimulated to Many other countries continuously made efforts to improve the technology about game teaching method (Dick W. & Carey L., 2004, pp. 76-84). In UK, some electronic companies started to design more software that enabled users to learn and play games at the same time and the cooperation of such companies and some famous universities enabled them to make more important achievements in the development of such software. The software products enabled children to play role-playing games ad each role enabled them to try different tasks, which will improve their comprehensive competence (Shen Dan, 2008, pp. 64-65). Mentioning electronic industry, USA should never be ignored because the achievement made by Americans in software development exceeds that of any other capitalist countries. One of the examples to prove such achievement is the development of the software applicable for childrens learning activities (Li Jiansheng, 2007:, pp. 166-169). In addition, some American scholars made efforts to establish theoretical systems to account for how the game software operates to help learners improve their learning efficiency. For instance, Marprensky used to publish a book to introduce the important theories and principles of how game software could be used properly to improve learning efficiency (Gao Huaiwei, 2007, pp. 21-23). All in all, the analysis of the history of game software could prove that those scholars have made great efforts to account for the phenomenon that game software could help learners improve their learning efficiency and raise their interest in learning. 2.2 The history and present situations of game teaching in ChinaSimilarly, Chinese scholars and educationalists have made unremitting efforts to investigate how to use games in various teaching activities. Actually, Chinese researches about such a topic is, in essence, practice-oriented because most of them focused on how to combine the use of games and other teaching activities. Among the researches about the use of games in teaching activities, the majority was about how to use such software in the classes at primary schools. Actually, many of those researchers focused on the introduction of the application of education games in English teaching activities from different perspectives: some researchers focused on strategies of applying game teaching method in English teaching. One of the typical examples is the one made by LV Mingxin, who summarized the principles that determines how to use games in English teaching at primary schools. Such a research is attached significance because it presents English teachers with many important suggestions about the use of games( LV Mingxin, 2008, pp. 18-23). Some other researchers investigated how to make the best of the game teaching method in teaching activities. One of the example researches is made by Zhu Yin. In that research, she illustrated the key points about the use of games in teaching with some teaching practice. Beside the above researches, some other scholars made efforts to introduce how to use games at the schools in certain provinces in China. For example, Zhong Yang published a research to introduce how to use games in the teaching activities at one of the primary schools in Yinchuan, China(Zhong Yang, 2013, pp. 19-32). In addition to the above study, Li Jiansheng provided some suggestions about how to design the classroom activities in which the games are used so that his research could provide important clues about the organization of teaching activities using games. According to Li, it is difficult for teachers in primary schools to make plans for the application of game teaching method so that they could guarantee the high efficiency of teaching activities ( Li Jiansheng, 2007: 166-169). Actually, it is complicated to reach those goals because teachers need to reach various teaching purposes. Besides, the game teaching method may be improper to be used in practical English teaching activities and such impropriety indicates that teachers should make some creative adaption of such software until they are suitable to be used in English teaching. The above analysis shows that both Chinese and westerners have made efforts to investigated the use of the game teaching method in various teaching activities. Those studies laid solid foundation for more application of games to teaching activities in the future. 3. English Game ApproachesIn this chapter, the details about the games teaching approach applicable for English teaching will be introduced in details.3.1 Definition of gamesGames are normally used to indicate the activities participated by at least two people for fun. In this thesis, the games indicate the ones played in teaching activities. Since the middle of the 20th century, western scholars have made plenty of researches about the games used in teaching activities and many of them used to define the term “game teaching method” in their articles. For instance, Brewster J. and Ellis G, used to define the “game teaching method” as “the method by which the teachers make use of games for teaching activities so as to improve the motivation of the students to learn the knowledge presented by their teachers”(Brewster J., Ellis G., 2001, pp. 26-43). It is shown by the above definition that this teaching method is advantageous of improving learners motivation to learn knowledge and that will enable them to make more progress in learning in the future. Actually, plenty of western scholars have already realized of the usefulness of games in teaching activities. For instance, a French company of IT technology named as Cryo launched a computer software named as Versailles 1685, which aims at enabling users to learn knowledge when they are playing games. That was exactly the beginning of the research about the use of games in teaching activities(Arnold J., 2013, pp. 93-107). After that, educationists started to be stimulate to introduce various games into the design of teaching activities and made much progress in teaching(Diane Larsen Freeman,1986: 83). 3.2 Functions and goals of gamesAs a special type of games, the games applicable for English teaching activities play important roles related with the purposes of teaching activities. Generally speaking, the functions carried out by games used in English teaching activities could be summarized as followed: Generally speaking, the functions and purposes of games applied to English teaching include: firstly, such games could raise the interest of pupils in English lear