Play and Games in the Primary Classroom
by Anna Sawa
"Play is the work of childchood."
[Jean Piaget]

Children
learn a foreign language through play and games. Active learning
presuposses a lot of advantages, however teachers can meet some
problems. What take into consideration to make sure your students get
all the profits?
Advantages of play and games
Lessons
including games are fun and provide meaningful situations to practise
and improve a foreign language. Games help to form a positive attitude
to learning and develope teamwork skills. Children foster co-operation
and participation as well.
Play
and games add variety to lessons and valuable way to reenergise young
learners. They provide not only secure learning environment but also
they are highly motivated. Children play and they do not even know that
they practise hidden language items and fluency of speech.
Disadvantages of play and games
Playing
games can cause hustle and bustle in the classroom. In such a
situation, it is easy to lose control of the class. Sometimes children
are as involved in the game that they start to talk in their mother
tongue. What is more, game can be too competitive and can cause
arguments about scored points. Teachers can also face parents' opinion
that games are waste time in the classroom.
Taking
into consideration all the pros and cons of play and games in the
classroom, plan the activities to avoid all the 'cons'. First of all
activities should be well-matched to your students, neither too simple
nor too complicated. What is more, they should be fitted to your
classroom - make sure there is enough space to play safely. Brief
thought-out instructions are crucial to avoid boredom befor the game
begins. Moreover, teachers should plan carefuly lexical aspect and
introduce language which will be used. As children playing monitor if
all the students are involved and interested in the game. Remember to be
vigiliant and defuse the problems at the start.
Initially
playing games in the classroom can be hard, especially in big classes.
However, if you scrape through the beginning, children learn co-operate
in groups. Using the same activity with different language elements
students will play the game without any introductions.