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.
