GAMES IN THE ESL CLASSROOM? YES!

Games provide a unique teaching and learning tool in the Adult ESL classroom. Throughout history they have provided a universal way for people to socialize and interact. As learners engage in the fun of playing, they process skills and strategies necessary for everyday life. In the adult classroom, games create an environment for learning where learners can take risks and experiment with language content, function, and structure in a meaningful, authentic, and non-threatening way.

Using games in the adult classroom, especially board and card games, has often been called into question. Two of the problems frequently expressed by teachers in regard to using games in the classroom are: (1) taking away from instruction time and (2) accessing, as well as constructing, instructional games that are appropriate for and meet the needs of adult learners.
Both the design and use of games can be easily incorporated into the classroom. Utilizing students and their input can yield instructional games that integrate life skills, numeracy, reading and writing with strategies such as critical thinking, problem solving and negotiation. For example, the TEA-funded project at the University of Texas at San Antonio developed a life skills board game called Payday to Payday. Almost all of the contents were contributed by students. The designing of the game details and mechanics was an instructional project in and of itself. All of the skills previously mentioned, as well as many others, were incorporated. It was indeed instructional time well spent! And when it has been played, both in the classroom and in workshops, it has been very successful.

Once teachers see that an engaging, fun board game can be loaded with real-life and classroom skills, and that it can be designed relatively easily by themselves and their students, they are more at ease with the concept of using games more often in their own classrooms.