- •Songs and games
- •Learning outcomes
- •Why songs and games?
- •1.1 Why songs and games?
- •1.1 Why songs and games?
- •1.2 To sing or not to sing?
- •1.3 The advantages of songs and rhymes
- •1.3 Advantages of songs and rhymes
- •2.2 Action songs and rhymes
- •This is the way we ...
- •This is the way we say hello
- •2.3 Traditional versus contemporary songs
- •2.3 Traditional versus contemporary songs
- •Pizza and chips
- •3.2 Adapting songs for the language classroom
- •3.1 Commentary - Adapting songs for the language classroom
- •Actions
- •Adding sound effects
- •Substituting other tunes
- •Omission
- •3.2 Adding actions to songs
- •3.2 Commentary - Adding actions to songs
- •The Alphabet Song
- •Other song ideas
- •Final points about songs
- •4.1 Final points about songs
- •4.1 Final points about songs
- •Are the children involved?
- •Is language development integrated into the song?
- •Does it encourage active learning?
- •Games - what and why?
- •5.1 Games - what are they?
- •5.1 Games - what are they?
- •5.2 Why games?
- •5.2 Why games?
- •Purpose, organisation and materials
- •6.1 Purpose, organisation and materials
- •The purpose of playing games
- •Code-control games
- •Communication games
- •Patterns of organisation
- •Materials and equipment needed
- •The Word Chain game
- •Language focus and involvement
- •7.1 Language focus and involvement
- •Competition and Co-operation
- •Uncertainty
- •7.1 Answer key - Language focus and involvement
- •Songs, rhymes and games - things to avoid
- •8.1 Songs, rhymes and games - things to avoid
- •8.1 Songs, rhymes and games - things to avoid
The purpose of playing games
There are two main types of games:
Code-control games
These practise new language items and develop accuracy. The purpose is usually to score the most points and there is often a clear ‘winner.’
An example of this kind of game is ‘I went to market and bought.....’ The first child says one item, the next child continues ‘I went to market and bought a (first child's item) and a (any other item).’ The sequence continues, each player having to remember and repeat the whole list so far.
When a child makes a mistake, that player is out and the next player starts a new list. The winner is the last remaining player. These games can be quite drill-like but they have an added fun and competition element.
Communication games
These develop fluency and more meaningful, authentic ‘communication’. These usually involve an ‘information-gap’, where one child has information that the other child needs in order to do/achieve something.
An example of this type of game is "Find the Difference". Each member of the pair has one picture but they must not look at each other's pictures. They have to ask questions in order to identify a given number of differences. The game ends when they have found all the differences or when a set time ends.
Patterns of organisation
Whilst code-control games are often played with the whole class or teams, communication games are often played in pairs or small groups. How the game is played is a factor for you to consider when deciding which game to play. You need to think about the following:
Is it going to cause a ‘dangerous’ situation where learners are outside the immediate control of you, the teacher?
Is it going to mean moving a lot of furniture?
Are frequent changes of place going to disrupt the class?
Is it going to lead to noisy, excited competition between teams? If so, is that OK, or is it going to cause problems for other classes, with other teachers, the school head, etc.?
Materials and equipment needed
The game you choose to play with your young learners may also depend on the materials required. Time, availability and cost will probably be major considerations in your choice as will the effort of organising children's groups and the storage of the materials.
Pencil and paper games
Other games, such as "The Shark Game", which we saw Raymond playing earlier, or "The Dog Game" are pencil and paper games, which can often be demonstrated/presented to the whole class using the board.
In "The Dog Game" you write a word on the board, e.g. dog. Then you elicit a word beginning with each of the letters from the class - remember how we did this with the words SONGS and GAMES in this unit?
You or individual children can write the words next to each letter. You can then ask your children to take out a piece of paper and you can dictate words to them, or write words on the board for the children to copy. Then let the children work in pairs to see how many of the word puzzles they can finish.
You can also play the "Word Chain" game from the start of the First steps unit as a board game or pencil and paper game.
Watch Raymond as he plays The Word Chain game on the subject of food. There are some amusing suggestions from the class as to what would qualify as food!