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As for the content of teaching English in primary school, some people regard it as to acquire pronunciation, memorize basic vocabulary, develop learning skills and communicate with others in English. However, these are not true in this new era, when students’ motivation and interest can never be neglected at the beginning stage of English learning. In the National English Curriculum(2001), the task for English curriculum is described as to “arouse the students’ interest in English learning and develop the positive attitude so as to build the confidence in English learning.” As we all know, interest is the best teacher for pupils to learn a foreign language. So, primary school English teachers shoulder great responsibility of arousing students’ interest before they can go further positively and actively towards their advanced learning.
One effective way to arouse students’ interest is game. Games have been widely used in some English training institutes such as New Oriental Teaching Center and so on but they haven’ t been adopted by teachers in primary school. One of the main reasons of applying games in teaching is that the exam-oriented education limits both teachers’ and students’ creativity
However, the good news is that since the publication of the National English Curriculum, more teachers and educationists have realized this problem and are trying to make some changes. The new edition of English book of Yilin in 2013 pays much more attention to the importance of games in English teaching. In this new edition of Yilin, a unit is pided into 7 parts: Story time, Fun time, Cartoon time, Rhyme time/Song time, Letter time/Sound time, Checkout time, Ticking time. Among these 7 parts, games are taken into consideration in Fun time. In this part, some interesting games are designed to be played in class with teacher’s decent organization.
In this thesis, the author will first explore the theoretical background of English game teaching, including psychological background and linguistic background. In the second part, the author will analyze the advantages of using game in teaching English. In the third part, the thesis will focus on the application of games in primary school English class, which includes choosing appropriate games, integrating games into learning, and the procedures of using games and a case study of using games in teaching. Teacher as the torchbearer should organize games rationally in order to develop students’ learning interest in English.
2. Theoretical Background
2.1 Psychological background
Students in primary school have limited abstract thinking ability, and their level of thinking is intuitive and based on appearances. So, games can be easily accepted by students and will provide students with an opportunity for communication and to use the target language during the game playing.
People also find it difficult for students in primary school to focus on one thing for a long time. A survey (Zhao Chengfu, 2002:202) shows that in a well organized atmosphere, children’s attention last for different time: around age 5 to 7, their attention span is 10 to 15 minutes; age between 7 and 10 their attention span is 20 minutes; age between 10 and 12 lasts for about 25 minutes; and the attention span of those older than 12 can reach to 30 minutes.
The great educationist says “Children like playing by nature and games are their lives. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.” (Chen Heqin,1980:46) However, from the perspective of English teaching, students are required to master basic English knowledge and the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing to improve their comprehensive language competence. Therefore, teachers will unavoidably adopt rote-memorization and mechanical training in class, which will destroy students’ learning interests and enthusiasm. According to the study of children psychology, students in primary school are active, curious and eager to show themselves. Game is an excellent way to integrate learning with playing, to let students practice the learnt knowledge in games.