Games and Activities as Educational Tools in a Language Learning Classroom

Name of Author : Asha Khurana

Abstract:  In Indian classrooms for long traditional methods have been followed for teaching English at school and university level. In such classrooms, teacher would act as a sage on the stage, who is a repository of knowledge and would do all the talking in the classroom and poor students would listen to the teacher, translating the lesson word by word, copying answers written on the board in their notebooks and later they learn the same and reproduce in the exam. This was and still is in many classrooms the methods of teaching English language. Unfortunately, this does not result in adequate learning of the skills of English language. Over the last three decades and so, methods, approaches and techniques of teaching English have changed. Our teaching has become more students centric. Language learning is skill development, hence the importance of practice and drill. There have been direct methods of teaching and a communicative approach of English language teaching. Games help the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful. The learners want to take part and in order to do so must understand what others are saying or have written, and they must speak or write in order to express their own point of view or give information.2 With this in mind, in communicative approach various games and activities are included in classroom lessons which involve and engage the learner. Resourceful and innovative teachers introduce new fun filled and engaging ways of teaching a language and it generates enthusiasm and love for the target language in the learners.

Keywords : Games and Activities, Educational Tools, Language Learning Classroom

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