Title
Increasing Young Learners’ Motivation
Learning English Using Games
By : Malinda Dian Hendrawati
English Department
THE FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
NUSANTARA PGRI KEDIRI UNIVERSITY
Abstract
This article discus about increasing young learners’ motivation learning Englishusing games. Playing games can increase learners motivation in learning English. Games can motivate children greatly and they are activities which are usually familiar to children as regards structure, rules etc. Games are useful in class, games both physically and emotionally. Competitive games teach them about respecting the rules, cooperating with others and the power of teamwork. Children are playing learning individuals when they are young, and when they begin to separate between the two, this message is mediated to them very much by the prevalent school culture. Students surely will be respectfully motivated because of the using of such interesting media during their learning.
INTRODUCTION
Being able to master one or some foreign languages is a must for today’s people. When one is not able to master it well, it is possibly happen that he will be left behind as the world is somehow getting smaller. It is very common for us to name today’s condition as globalization era, where meeting other people from the very different background is surely possible. To prepare these such meetings, people – especially youth – have to be able to use other language than merely their mother tongue only.
English is noticed as one of international languages which is very common to be used by people from different region and country to communicate each other. Nevertheless, the ability to use this language should be developed during youth’s school-age. That is why the government puts this subject to be taught in elementary school.
For years, students are of the opinion that English is one of the most difficult subjects at school. This kind of opinion is surely will decrease students’ interest to learn English. Moreover, students are often trapped by the very old-fashioned way of learning. They get bored even when they are not learning it. It makes students find that English is more difficult than it actually is.
Actually the concept of learning is not new. For ages children have been taught highly complex concept by means of games and activities/concepts that they wouldn’t have otherwise grasped sub games and activities an enhance personal learning and development that no book can provide.
It is true that a school provides education, but knowledge is subjective and can be increased and improved by means of some very simple methods such as playing games. There are so many things that you have your kids do, without realising the kind of message it is imparting to them, or the kind of effect it has on their minds. Playing particularly has a positive effect on kids and helps develop their personality and skills.
Children should be allowed to learn from the consequences of their action, and then realize why they were or weren’t asked to do something. With parents and teacher participation and involvement, for children, learning can be made fun rather than a mundane, stressful task that emphasize only on cramming as much information as possible.
· LEARNING
Learning is often conceptualized as a form of adaptation. But adaptationincludes more than learning. Adaptation involves 1) changes in an individual'sbehavioural repertory that occur in that individual's lifespan (ontogenyadaptation or learning) and 2) changes in species-specific behaviours andanatomical structures that are transferred from one generation to the nextthrough genetics (phylogenic adaptation or evolution). Ontogenic adaptationsresult from an individual's personal interactions with its environment (Skinner,m 1966). Because ontogenic adaptation is the topic of this entire chapter, thissection will elaborate mostly on phylogenic adaptation as a contrast to learningas a form of adaptation.
Hintzman, Douglas L ( The Psychology of Learning and Memor y 1987 ) Learning is a change that occurs within the organism, human or animal, is caused by the experience that can influence the behavior of the organism.
· MOTIVATION
Learning a second language would not be able to occur without a key factor - motivation. Crookes and Schmidt perceive the major approaches towards motivation as social and psychological. They state, "Motivation has been consistently linked with attitudes toward the community of speakers of the target language, with an interest in interacting with such speakers, and with some degree of self-identification with the target community" (Crookes 470-1). Keeping this association in mind, there are different types of motivation, each with a different role. In this article, I will attempt to present a synopsis of the different conclusions of researches with regard to three different types of motivation; that is, integrative, instrumental and intrinsic motivation as it relates to the learner's context of learning a second language.
The distinction between integrative and instrumental motivation was originally made by Gardner and Lambert in 1959. Gardner used the term "integrative orientation," which is not the same as integrative motivation. According to Gardner, (1985) integrative orientation "involves an interest in learning a second language because of a sincere and personal interest in the people and culture represented by the other language group. Integrative motivation on the other hand, is the combination of effort and desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favourable attitudes towards learning the language" (Gardner 1985 as cited in Ellis 1994:509). In a number of his studies based on Canadian students studying French, Gardner linked the students' success in learning French with their desire to become part of the French culture. This model of motivation in second language learning has led to a series of tests known as the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery or the AMTB. The results of such tests have been synthesized into a model known as the socio educational model.
Another type of motivation associated with second language learning is instrumental motivation. Instrumental motivation is the need and desire to achieve the reward for achieving a high level of English. It is important to distinguish between orientation and motivation when referring to instrumental motivation. In Dornyei's questionnaire distributed to adults learning English in Hungary, the concept of orientation involved learners regarding English as important for performing one's profession or reading technical literature. (Dornyei 1990) Dorynei's questionnaire was given out to 134 young adult learners of English enrolled in one language school, the Hungarian division of the British International House system. His aim was t investigate the importance of instrumentality in a foreign learning context. (A foreign language learning context consists of a community where one or two languages are taught in school for several years as an academic subject and proficiency is the main goal. For the most part, there was a strong correlation in his findings between instrumental language use and instrumentality and the desire to spend some time abroad as a significant motivation and attitude factor in foreign language learning contexts.
· GAMES
Games are a valuable activity for language learning, especially for very young learners.Childrenenjoy games and thus participate without anxiety. Games can motivate children greatly andthey are activities which are usually familiar to children as regards structure, rules etc. Due tothis familiarity they link back to the children’s home background.
Games are mostly inclusive activities in that they involve all the children and they can cater to different learning styles and different personalities. They are also activities which are naturally repetitive, thus maximising input, frequency of target items without boring the students. A simple guessing game can be played numerous times with children despite possibly limited language (e.g. “Is it a …?”). The students will happily repeat the structure without getting boredas it is part of a game and has a real communicative function.
Games are simple structured activities which may involve little language but are meaningful tostudents and involve the whole self (cognitively and emotionally), thus creating strongassociations with the language used (Fleta, 2009).
Games are particularly valuable for a child beginning to learn a foreign language. Children just beginning to learn a new language need some time to adapt to the language, its sounds and rhythms. They need exposure to input before they experiment with producing language. Somechildren will gladly experiment with production but some can be shy and require more time.This ‘silent’ time/period should be offered to the children and they should never be pressuredinto producing language. Games, therefore, offer an important tool which allows children tolisten to and comprehend language without requiring production. They can participate fully inall the activities without being pressured to produce language.
Training effectiveness of games
There are a number of empirical studies that have examined the effects of gamebasedinstructional programs on learning. For example, both Whitehall and McDonald(1993) and Ricci et al. (1996) found that instruction incorporating game features led toimprovedlearning. The rationale provided for these positive results varied, given thedifferent factors examined in these studies. Whitehall and McDonald argued thatincorporating a variable payoff schedule into a simulation game led to increased risktaking among students, which resulted in greater persistence on the task and improvedperformance. Ricci et al. proposed that instruction that incorporated game feature enhanced student motivation, which led to greater attention to training content andgreater retention.
Although students generally seem to prefer games over other, more traditional,classroom training media, reviews have reported mixed results regarding the trainingeffectiveness of games. Pierfy (1977) evaluated the results of 22 simulation-basedtraining game effectiveness studies to determine patterns in training effectivenessacross games. Twenty-one of the studies collected learning data that generally consistedof paper-and-pencil fact-and-principle knowledge tests. Three of the studiesreported results favouring the effectiveness of games over conventional teaching; 3reported results favoring the effectiveness of conventional teaching over games; andthe remaining 15 found no significant differences. Eleven studies also tested retentionof learning. Eight of these studies indicated that retention was superior for game-basedtraining; the remaining 3 yielded no significant differences. Level of student preferencefor training games over classroom instruction was assessed in 8 of the studies, andin 7 of those, students reported greater interest in simulation game activities than inconventional teaching methods. In a more recent review, Druckman (1995) concludedthat games seem to be effective in enhancing motivation and increasing student interestin subject matter, yet the extent to which this translates into more effective learningis less clear.
· WHY ARE SONGS AND GAMES USEFUL IN CLASS?
Songs develop learners’ pronunciation and intonation, they cater for their emotional and linguistic development and also for different learning styles and multiple intelligences. Songs can also teach learners about culture and of course they provide authentic language.
Games involve learners both physically and emotionally. Competitive games teach them about respecting the rules, cooperating with others and the power of teamwork. They improve learners’ imagination, memory and cognitive skills. Most importantly however, they motivate students and keep them on task.
· EXAMPLE OF GAMES
ZIPZAP
Learners sit in a circle, they get a slip of paper each, which they cannot show to anyone. Each word appears 2-4 times depending on the size of the group. The teacher has a pile of cards with the same words. A word is called out and students with the word need to stand up and quickly swap places. The teacher (later a student) must try to take the seat of one of the students. The person left without a seat becomes the leader, gets the cards, calls out a word, etc. When the word ZipZap is called out, everyone must stand up and swap places. This game can be used for practicing vocabulary items connected to a topic (such as animals, furniture, etc.) or lexical items connected to grammar (such as past tenses, gerunds, pronouns, etc.)
Flashcard games:
These games are played with a set of flashcards which may be purchasedfrom bookshops or prepared by you and your students
Ball games:
Ball games require a soft ball which you can use in class without worrying aboutbreaking windows or hurting students!
Action games:
Action games require movement. They might excite a class so you shouldperhaps choose carefully when to use them.
Monster Fashion Show: Clothes Vocabulary Flashcards
Monsters wearing leather jackets, polka dot pajamas and plain, blue T-shirts: The clothes cards are a fun way to introduce clothes items vocabulary and adjectives that collocate well with clothes items (such as leather, striped, or purple).
These cards can be used at two levels. One is simply to introduce the clothes item such as jacket or boots. The other is to introduce the clothes item along with some words that might possibly describe it such as leather jacket or striped suit.
Fish is a good game to play with these cards:
A: Are you wearing a silk blouse?
B: Yes, I am. (No, I'm not. Go fish.)
Amounts and Containers Flashcards
Quite often when we talk about foods, we talk about specific amounts of foods. This is also helps turn uncountable nouns into countable nouns by quantifying them. This set of flashcards covers the different ways that we quantify foods. These cards also cover about forty different food items.
Some terms covered are:
cup of tea
bottle of ketchup
plate of cookies
handful of peanuts
spoonful of medicine
jar of jam
bucket of chicken
pot of coffee
bowl of soup
You can use the game Fishor memory to practice this game. Fish goes likes this:
A: Do you have a cup of tea?
B: Yes, I do.
(Or No, I don't. Go fish. A takes a card from the deck)
If the answer was yes, B gives the card to A and A gets a point. This set of flashcards covers the names of the oceans and continents. As well, the cards can be used to review present perfect and simple past tenses..
Some phrases covered are:
The Pacific Ocean, The Atlantic Ocean, The Arctic Ocean, The Southern Ocean, The Indian Ocean, Europe, Asia, Eurasia, North America, South America, Australia, Antarctica
1. How many continents are there?
That depends on where you teach. Europeans for example view North and South America as one continent. Others view Europe and Asia as one continent because it is one landmass. Many schools in North America still teach 7 continents, which has some merit based on historical divisions. We have included Asia cards, Europe cards and Eurasia cards so you can choose what you are going to teach. We haven't included a combined America card however.
2. How many oceans are there?
As a kid I learned four oceans, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Arctic. However, the waters around Antarctica have recently been awarded ocean status as they constitute their own current and other conditions. Since the year 2000, these waters have been called the Southern Ocean. Also, there is some debate about the status of the Arctic ocean as an ocean. Some oceanographers consider it to be a sea, a Mediterranean sea in fact. At present, it is still afforded ocean status.
3. Game for practising this vocabulary:
A good game for practicing this vocabulary is fish. Just make two copies of each card and paste them onto some poster board and then cut them out. For ESL teachers, it can also be used to review the present perfect tense and the past tense:
A: Have you been to the Indian Ocean?
B: Yes, I have. (Or: No, I haven't. Go fish.)
If the answer was 'Yes, I have.':
A: Did you see a lionfish?
B: Yes, I did. (Or: No, I didn't. Go fish).
· THE PLAYING LEARNING CHILD
According to Krecker (1977), Henriette Schrader Breyman clearly separated play and work in the very first German Kindergartens where work was carried out in the kitchen and in the garden under supervision, while children were left to play with the Froebel gifts on their own or together with other children. This kind of approach, distinguishing play and learning, is still the most common, at the same time as there is a heavy rhetoric about play as necessary for learning and education. However, how play and learning are related is almost never discussed, even though there are examples of pedagogies where the teachers play certain scripts together with children and in this way mediate information that they believe children will later pick up. Teachers, however, often get too ‘‘teacherly’’ in their efforts (see, e.g., Singer & Singer, 1990). However, let us turn to the child as a person—an individual in his/her own right.
when young children act they do not separate between play and learning, although they separate them in their talk (Pramling, Klerfelt, & Williams Graneld, 1995). Some children who have been involved in a pedagogy where play and learning become integrated do not even make a distinction between play and learning when they are asked about it in primary school. School children’s thoughts about play and learning are interesting in the way many children express similarities in their ways of talking about the two (Johansson, 2004). This means that they describe play as well as learning as joyful, as an activity or as something transgressive, that the two touch upon each other or run into each other and are transformed in relation to each other. The element of transgression is characteristic of school children’s talk about play and learning. Ebba (8.11) says: ‘‘Well, I don’t know how to explain, but if you think of some work and it is really fun to do, you think of it as play…well script writing is something I like to do and then it turns into some sort of play’’ (Johansson, 2004, p. 20). Anton (9.3) says: ‘‘I really don’t know…you understand more…like if you learn a new game which you didn’t understand when you were little, but when you get older you understand it’’
(Johansson, 2004, p. 22). Anton relates to learning of a certain game that he has previously learnt to play, but suddenly it means something different to him. This is an instance where he thinks that play and learning can be related.
Children are playing learning individuals when they are young, and when they begin to separate between the two, this message is mediated to them very much by the prevalent school culture.
· CONCLUSION
Playing games to increase young learners motivation in learning English is important role in language acquisition. By playing young learners can enjoy their learning although they don’t realize that they learn something. For this reason, teachers should pay more attention in teaching and learning English to young learners. Teacher must be creative to make interesting games.
Playing games in learning English is one of the way which can be used by the teacher in order to increase young learners motivation in learning English. Students surely will be respectfully motivated because of the using of such interesting media during their learning. So, it can study in order to prove the successfulness of the media used in teaching-learning activity.
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http://www.toolsforeducators.com/
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Create online games:
http://classtools.net
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More ideas for games:
http://www.esl4kids.net/games.html
http://iteslj.org/c/games.html
http://www.esljunction.com/esl_games/
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