ENGLISH FOR YOUNG LEARNER

Using Game in the Classroom for Young Learner

By :
Ruri Rohmatin Ananissa

11431036

Novelia Viska Fajar Asri

11431048

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF GRESIK
2014

A. General Description
Games are valuable activities for language learning, especially for young
learners. Using games in teaching english will be very helpful for teacher to create
the good atmosphere in the classroom. The teacher can encourage students
interest to follow the activities with pleasure, because games enjoy them to
learning english with fun and participate it without anxiety. According to Aydan
in his journal said that well-chosen games is very important as they give students
a chance and at the same time allow students to practicetheir language skills. The
appropriate games will be very helpful for student to practice their language skills
and they can improve their skill easily. Games can motivate children greatly with
the familiar activities to children as regards structure, rules, etc.
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 bored as it is
part of a game and has a real communicative function.
Using games in the classroom are very valuable to start the lesson for the
children who begin to learn a foreign language. English as foreign language in
this country give the great expectation to use games in the classroom in improving
students language skill. Young learner or children just need some times to adapt
their tounge about the english language, it can be sounds and rhytms. It may be
glad for them to learn english and improve their skill without anxiety, but some of
them also may be shy and require more time. They should never be pressured
again in the classroom when the teacher can handle them and help them to
participate using games.

B. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Game

By using games as student activity it will provide teacher with many
advantages when they are used in the classroom. The all of those advantages are:

Students directly motivated them self learn about language when they are
in a game. According to McCallum (1980, p. ix) that by using game as
students activity in the classroom it can automatically stimulate students
interest in learning english.

Reduced anxiety levels of students. The fact is, many students are feeling
stressed when they enter to the classroom language. There they will think
that they have to master the target language that is unknown by them.
Besides, students are always haunted by anxiety of punishment from
teachers if they make a mistake. So by using game can be solution to
reduce anxiety of students also it can increase positive feelings and
selfconfidence becuase learners will not afraid with punishment during
practicing the target language said by (Crookal, 1990, p.112).

Increasing focus of studentss attantion on specific structure such as

gramatical patterns and new vocabulary items.

Can be used in any language teaching situations and with all skill areas
(reading, writing, speaking or listening).

Games also can increase students proficiency in practicing good

communication, students can develope their ability in using language as
they are given a chance to use language in the situations which have
purpose.

Each of the four basic skills may be practised by the use of games (Lee
1995)
Not only the advantages that we get when we use the game as a student

learning activity, however, applying game as a learning activity also has many
disadvantages such as :

The first disadvantage of applying games in teaching learning process was

by attracting student's interest to games, all of them were active and made
noisy. Sometimes they too much moved and spoke. That condition made
the teacher difficult to control them.

Applying the same game activity and repetitive will make students feel
bored.

Sometimes when teachers use games as learning activities in the classroom

we will find some students who are not active or pasiv especially if we
applay it to teenagers probably because they feel that these activities are
too childish for them.
From all the explanation above, it shows that the using of games is good

method for teaching English vocabulary especially by applying the creativy

activity, but there were also some disadvantages in using games in teaching
English vocabulary to the young learners. So thats way as good teacher must have
a lot of interesting learning strategies to improve the quality of student. If using
the game be the best solution to increase student interest in learning English, then
the teacher must select the appropriate game types and quality by considering the
advantages and disadvantages.

C. Kinds of Games in the Classroom

There is a wide variety of games that you can choose to teach english for
young learner. Here we will focus on three categories of games :
1.

Flashcard Games
These games are played with a set of flashcard that you use as the media in
this games. The flashcard can be gotten from the book or you made it with
your own.

Alphabet
Up:

Line This is a good way to teach the alphabet to your

class. Give each Student an alphabet flashcard with a
different letter of the alphabet on it, starting at "A" (e.g. if
you have 7 Students, give flashcards A through to G).
Have them move around the room to music. When the
music stops, they must line up in order. You can also
play with missing letters (e.g.. Give a "c", then an "f", a
"k", an "o", etc). That way they are really learning the
order, not just memorizing.

Jump On It:

Spread out flashcards on the floor and have Students

stand at one end of the room. Shout out a card and the

Students have to find the card and jump on it. The first
Student to do this wins a point. Variation: Make 2 teams
for a relay race. The first 2 Students try and jump on the
flashcard first to win a point for their team.
Up and Down:

You need 2 sets of flashcards for this game. Give each

of your Students a flashcard from one set. Teacher keeps
the other set. Arrange the Students so that they are all
sitting down. Teacher holds up one flashcard and the
Student with the same flashcard stands up and says the
word and then sits down again. Play the game at a fast
pace so that Students are standing up and sitting down
rapidly. Variation: Give each Student 2 or 3 flashcards.

2.

Ball Games
These games use a soft ball in a class without worrying about breaking the
windows or hurting students.

Spelling Ball

This game is as simple as ABC. Have your students

stand in a big circle. Say a word and toss the ball to one
of your students. Student says the first letter of the word
and tosses the ball to a classmate, who has to say the
second letter, and then tosses the ball to another.
Students who make a mistake must sit down and play
starts again with the teacher. The last student standing is
the winner!

Description

Use a very light, soft ball for this game, as students

Dodgeball

will be trying to hit each other!Have students line up

on one side of the classroom (if you can play this in the
schoolyard, better!) One student stands in the front next
to you holding the ball. Describe one of the students in
your class: This student is the tallest in the class. The

student you are describing has to run to avoid being hit

by the student with the ball. If the student is hit, he/she
becomes the next thrower. You may also have students
wear tags with names of cities, animals, or places for you
to describe.

Basketball Dare

Practice giving commands. Set up a basket far enough

away for it to be a challenge, but not impossible for
students to score. Students line up and shoot for the
basket. If students score, they get to give you a command
you must follow: Walk like a monkey, Say something
in Chinese, Stand on one foot for 30 seconds, etc
Make sure youestablish some ground rules, for
example, students cant give you commands that involve
shouting, leaving the classroom, etc

3.

Action Games
These games require movement. They might excite a class so you should
perhaps choose carefully when to use them.

Simon Says:

A good review for body parts ("Simon says touch your

knees"). You could change Simon to your name to avoid
confusion. When Teacher says a sentence without the
word "Simon" (e.g. "Touch your knees") then Ss
shouldn't follow that instruction. If a Student makes a
mistake she/he has to sit out until the next round.

Rope Jump:

you need a rope for this one! Have Students stand behind
each other in a line. Hold a rope (have a Student hold the
other end) at a height that the Students should be able to
jump over. On the other side of the rope spread out some
objects or flashcards and a box. Call out the name of one
of the objects/flashcards to the first Student. Sh/he has to

jump over the rope, pick up the correct object and put it in
the box. For other rounds you can hold the rope down
low, so Students have to crawl/roll under.
Line

True

False:

or Put a line of tape on the floor and designate one side

"True" and the other "False". Hold up an object or
flashcard and say its word. If Students think that you
have said the correct word they jump on the True side, if
not they jump on the False side. Incorrect Students sit out
until the next game.

Action Race:

This is a fun game using actions. Use actions like jump,

hop, clap, run etc. Have the Ss split into two teams and sit
in lines with a chair by each team and one chair at the
other end of the room. One Student from each team
stands next to their chair and Teacher calls an action, e.g.
"Jump". Students must jump to the chair on the other side
of the room and back, sitting down in their chair Students
say "I can jump". First one to do it gets their team a point.

Touch:

Have Studens run around the classroom touching things

that Teacher orders them to do (e.g. "Touch the table"
"Touch a chair" "Touch your bag"). Colors work well for
this, as Students can touch anything of that color (e.g.
"Touch something green").

REFERENCESS
http://ilkogretim-online.org.tr/vol10say1/v10s1m18.pdf
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http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/34178123/Macam_permainan
_pembelajaran_Bahasa_Inggris.docx
http://iteslj.org/c/games7.html
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