V.1.

My approach to teaching English

In my experience as an ESL teacher, I have always been challenged to find ways to

motivate and, at the same time, to help my students improve their skills and competences

together with covering the needs of the curriculum. In my quest for seeking solutions to these

challenges, I have taken part in different training courses where the focus was on using non-

formal methods as a means of teaching excellence and achievement in multilevel classes. All the

methods have proved to be valuable assets when adapted and combined appropriately with

informal and formal ones but my students’ motivation and engagement seemed to be kept for a

short time as only some of them kept their interest in the activities till the end. The biggest issue

was to make the weaker students get engaged and active in the process of learning. Along the

years, as any other teacher without much experience, I changed my approach to teaching from

teacher-centered activities to student-centered ones and so I noticed that students became more

active and started to make visible progress. And, yet, here was one category of students or whom

these methods seemed to fail in helping them improve their skills. Taking part in the TEA

Program has helped me not only find a solution to this problem, but has made me change the

purpose for which I was teaching English. If before the aim was to just pass on information and

to prepare my students for getting high grades in the assessment test, now the goal is to teach

them English as a key competence as a way of solving real life problems which will help them

become valuable assets for the communities they will live in after graduation. In this direction,

the first step was to have a democratic classroom management with the purpose of creating a

small community where everybody feels safe to voice their opinions, to choose the path and the

order of assignment completion, have a say when limits occur and learn to take responsibility for
their actions, with their needs on the table and the ground rule being “respect”. In order to

address the learners’ diversity in the class, I adopted the Jigsaw model which not only helped me

hold everyone’s interest by getting all involved and meeting everyone’s needs no matter the

level, but also promoted interdependence among students and responsibility as the fulfillment of

the group task depends on the quality of work of each student.

V.2. Gamification- a non-formal method of engaging and motivating students

Games have existed for a very long time and are considered an activity, normally

voluntarily, performed within a timeframe and space according to established rules, with an end

or a goal in itself which provide a bit of tension and jog. (Flora Alves, 2014)

Concerning this paper and the connection to the efficiency of teaching English in a

multilevel class, it is the concept of applying game mechanics and game design techniques that

can help teachers engage and motivate students to achieve their goals. In other words, when

applied in the class, the aim is to get students involved and to help them learn better without

paying too much attention to language, as the main focus is the game itself. Some research has

shown the fact that the brain acquires more information when using more than one capacity,

meaning when performing more than one action or activity is involved so, games, as a means of

education, have come to be supported by all pedagogical systems.

It is obvious that not all the class activities can be transformed in games, but several of

them could as games are activities in which participants feel free and unconstrained. Moreover, it

is through these activities that participants explore and use skills they are or are not aware of

having, and, as a matter of fact, their entire being.

Regardless of the category, social educational games, society games, experiential

games, games aim at:

- developing ambition;

- developing attention, insight and intelligence;

- stimulating senses,

- stimulating logic;
 - stimulating the capacity of understanding others,

- developing solidarity and team work;

- developing behavioral abilities and skills;

- developing creativity and imagination;

- developing physical abilities;

- stimulating memory;

- increasing general knowledge;

- increasing reaction speed and dexterity;

- challenging and creating a friendly competition;

- getting and/or providing feedback.

When applied in the class, games make the activities more accessible and more appealing

to the students. This process is called “gamification” and, according to Oxford Dictionary, it

means the “application of typical elements of game playing to other areas of activity.” In other

words, gamification is the concept of applying game design thinking to non game applications,

or the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non game contexts to engage participants in

solving problems.

Due to the wide range of concepts and structures that can be taught or reinforced, or

skills and competences that can be developed or acquired, using games is a widely used method

in my practice. Along the years, I have noticed that games create a stress free environment in the

class and promote more engagement regardless of age or level of knowledge, and it is also a

means or reaching out to all my students, helping them, if inner motivation exists, to cover the
knowledge gaps they come with, in the 9th grade, and even achieve some progress, up to the

required level.

This chapter focuses of presenting some of the games I used for four years teaching a

class of 33 students and their progress from the 9th grade to the 12th grade as a result of this

method.

I must mention that at first, and this is a general behavior for all 9th graders, students were

reluctant and reserved in engaging in games as they were scared of making mistakes, not having

certain fluency, of being judged. Later on, as the environment became more friendly and relaxed

and the rules were set, students began to enjoy taking part in the activities which not only

challenged them to use what they already knew but also created a sort of friendly competition

among groups and an opportunity for all students to develop their skills and competences.

Before using this method alongside with others mentioned in the previous chapter, the

results of the diagnostic assessment showed an average of 5.75 per class which meant that most

students were below the required level of fluency, the class being characterized as a multilevel

class. In four years the progress line vacillated from progress to stagnation according to the

motivation level that was influenced by various factors (lack of interest due to the lack of future

opportunity of using English, repeated avoidance of doing homework, lack of interest showed by

the family or the community, health problems, etc). The fact that no students’ grades were under

five at the end of each semester, proves that a progress has been made as at the end of 12 th grade,

all students, even the weaker ones, were able to express themselves in terms of opinions, likes,

dislikes, to master a basic vocabulary related to all topics of main interest today (education,

technology, entertainment, family, leisure, hobbies, etc) and to write an informal letter, an e-mail

and, the more advanced ones, an opinion and for and against essays. The number of students that
mastered all the above mentioned skills and competences at the required level of proficiency was

bigger comparing to that before the diagnostic test as the formative, summative and interim

assessments showed. All these forms of assessments can be subjective so they do not reflect the

true progress of each student being influenced by a lot of factors, some of them having been

outlined already. The results at the National Exam (Bacalaureat) where all students passed with

minimum A1 grade, proves that a progress occurred after four years.

Before analyzing and presenting in detail how I used these games and how they have

proved efficient in my teaching practice, I will highlight the challenges I faced when the first

assessment was conducted. The main issues that came out as a result of the diagnostic

assessment were:

- students know the basic vocabulary related to topics like: family, leisure, school,

etc;

- they are not able to write full sentences;

- they make a lot of spelling mistakes;

- they do not know the use of tenses and how they are formed;

- they do not know the degrees of comparison in adjectives;

- they do not know all the form of irregular verbs;

- they do not know the use of “s” or “es” in the 3rd person singular;

- they cannot read properly not being familiar with a lot of words and phrases;

- they have difficulty in understanding the read texts;

- they are unable to express themselves in terms of likes, dislikes or familiar topics

such as family, home, hobbies.

 In terms of speaking, only 10% of the students were able to understand what they were

asked and express themselves using simple sentences. Another 80% were able to understand

partly what they were asked and were able to give mostly “yes” and “no” answers or half

sentence answers. The rest of 10 % were barely able to understand the spoken message and were

unable to answer or express themselves in any way.

In terms of writing only 10 % were able to fulfill the task of writing a description of

themselves as requested in the diagnostic assessment, with the mistakes I have outlined above. In

conclusion, only 10 % of the students in the class were close to the level of knowledge, having

the skills and competences required by the curriculum.

As the situation presented itself, there were a number of challenges that had to be dealt

with after this assessment, meaning:

- cover the curriculum;

- help students fill in their knowledge gaps related to vocabulary, grammar, writing

and speaking;

- find methods and strategies that can engage, motivate and meet all the students’

needs and interests in the class regardless of the level they had;

- develop/improve skills and competences;

- ensure progress.

In order to cope with these challenges, the first step was to establish what the needs and

interests of my students were. For that I used the questionnaire presented in chapter III. The

results showed that only 10% of the students, the ones that scored the highest in the diagnostic

tests, were interested in learning English for using it later for finding a better paid job or thought

it is going to help them in the future, so they were the ones that watched TV series or films
without Romanian subtitle or with English subtitle, and/or played games and even chatted with

other English speaker from other countries. Another 80% of the students enjoyed watching films

and/or TV series but with Romanian subtitle, and 10% had never done any of the activities listed

in the questionnaires. As the results showed, the class could be classified as a multilevel one

where students were classified as following: the 10% who scored the highest, above 7, were

considered advanced, the 80% with scores between 5 and 7 were considered intermediate and the

other 10% who scored below 5 were considered beginners. As it presented itself, the class posed

a lot of challenges in terms of teaching, one of them being that related to class management. The

most efficient way to deal with this challenge was to divide the class in groups of four or five,

mix groups, where an advanced student was assigned the leader. The leader’s duty was not to

solve the tasks assigned to the other members of the group but to help them understand better the

instructions, to correct the peers, if necessary, and to make sure that everyone in the group

fulfills their tasks. As shown before, students learn better in a relaxed, friendly environment so

assuring a stress free environment where students feel free to express themselves without the fear

of being judged or criticized was another challenge that had to be dealt with in order to ensure

students’ involvement in the class activities.

Considering all the gaps that the diagnostic test revealed, the best way to approach

teaching was to focus on developing one skill more than other each year. So in the first year, due

to the fact that most students did not master the grammar rules and structures on which to build

the other skills and competences , I focused on revising grammar and building vocabulary by

trying to develop the reading and listening skills more that the speaking ones. In the second year

of study the focus was on improving the writing and reading skills, in the third year the focus
being on speaking, listening and writing and in the fourth year the focus was mostly on speaking

and writing as all the other skills had been developed in the previous years.

In terms of assigning tasks, even though it took more time for planning and adapting,

students were assigned tasks according to their level of knowledge, for example: when reading a

text, the beginners were the ones in charge with looking up the new words and phrases, the

intermediate ones worked on the summary of the paragraph and answered the questions related

to reading comprehension, and the advanced ones helped the others with instructions and

correction and were the speakers who presented the general idea of the text comparing it

afterwards with those of the other groups.

Concerning the activities, they were all designed as games, if the context allowed, or

adapted some board games to fit the content that I wanted to teach and the skills that I wanted to

develop in my students. A broader presentation of these games will be made in the fifth chapter.

In terms of developing listening skills, audiovisual materials were used, mainly short

films, advertisements or pictures, and the follow up activities were spilt task assignments for

group work.

Although games were broadly used in my teaching practice, other methods were used,

too, the goal being to use a collaborative learning by doing approach that put all students,

regardless of their level, in control of their learning process, challenging them to take part in the

activities and keep their interest all the time. This approach gave students the feeling of being an

important part of a community where failure was not a drawback but an opportunity to learn and

experience, helped them discover skills and competences they did not know they had and

motivate to improve those they already had, it developed their critical thinking and changed

perspectives related to current issues like religion, politics, gender and social ones, it also taught
them to give voice to their opinions and to work for the benefit of all individuals, to become

responsible and take responsibility for their actions.

After four years, the results showed that 80% of the students had made small progress

each year whereas 20% reached the intermediate level in the first three years and maintained it

all through the fourth year. There is a number of factors that had influenced this slow progress of

the 20% of the students:

- late start in studying English (some students came from schools where English

was not a subject of study in the curriculum, or there was not a qualified staff to ensure the

quality of the teaching process);

- a big gap in their knowledge that had to be filled in and not enough time for

covering all the content needed;

- a lack of motivation due to the lack of interest showed by the family and the

community in general;

- lack of perspective of a future job that required English or traveling to an English

speaking country.

It has to be mentioned that these reasons stood also for explaining the number of low

grades scored in the diagnostic test at the beginning of 9th grade.

The only relevant results that are accredited and certified by the educational system are

those provided by the National Exam (the Baccalaureate) so, at the end of the 12th grade, 45% of

the students in the class qualified for the B2 level, 11% for B1 level, 9% for the A2 level and

35% for the A1 level with the mentioning of one student being absent. In conclusion, all students

have managed in all these four years, due to the collaborative learning approach and the large use

of non formal methods, games in particular, to not only fill up most of the gaps they had at the
beginning, but also develop the four skills and acquire competences which translated in being

able to communicate in English at an advanced or intermediate level preparing them for the

demands and the needs of our society. On the other hand, this has proven that games are not only

fun and interactive but if appropriately adapted they can help teachers cope with the big

challenges of teaching excellence and achievement in multilevel classes.

To sum up, by using these approach based on games, the results have shown that this is

an efficient way to teach English to multilevel classes.

 V.3. Developing skills and competences through games

Due to all the benefits that games can bring to the class for both students and teacher, in

my practice I use a lot of games in order to make the teaching-learning process more appealing

and more challenging for my students. The focus of this subchapter is to present a few of the

most popular games I use in class in order to motivate my students to improve their grammar,

develop their vocabulary and skills and acquire competences.

1. Story cubes/Story Chest

These games focus on developing the imagination and creativity of the players. Adapted

for in the class, these games cannot only help improve grammar and vocabulary, but also

develop the reading and writing skills as well. Designed as a group activity, the games can be

played as following: in groups of four or five (depending on the class size), each group has to

write a short story based on the first images that grab students’ attention on the dice or the cards

they randomly pick up from the bag. The first step of this activity starts with rolling the dice for

students to choose the images/ pick up randomly the cards with images that will help them write

about the characters, the setting and the plot. The second step would be to brainstorm for ideas,

split tasks according to each students’ level and start writing the story as following: the beginners

will write the beginning and the end of the story and the intermediate and the advanced ones will

work on the plot and the climax of the story. At the end of the activity, all students put together

the paragraphs and make all the corrections and adjustments needed. The next step will consist in

passing around the stories in groups for them to be corrected. During this stage of activity each
student is in charge with checking and correcting a certain section: grammar, spelling, structure,

overall impression and recommendations or suggestions. The final step would be the reading of

each story to the whole class and the offering of feedback on the part of the teacher. My

experience has shown the little correction needs to be done at this stage as the students have

already done it themselves.

The Story Cubes as well as the Story Chest could be used in various ways besides using

them for developing writing skills, one of them being for reinforcing grammar structures such as:

the adjectives (degrees of comparison), the use of tenses, prepositions, etc. When rolling the dice

or picking up a card from the bag, besides using the words that describe the pictures or are

related to the pictures, the students can also use certain adjectives, certain grammar structures or

certain words previously acquired. In order to bring diversity or making the activity funnier, each

group could be asked to write a certain type of story like, tragic story, adventure story, detective

story, funny story, etc.

Another fun and creative way in which these games can be used is to assign each group

to write only the beginning of the story on the first round of rolling the dice or picking up the

cards, then to pass it around randomly to another group for writing the climax after rolling the

dice again or picking up other cards from the bag. Next, after the second part has been written,

the stories are passed around again for the last round of rolling the dice/picking up cards for the

ending of the story. At the next stage, when the stories are given back to the initial group who

wrote the beginning. Up to this stage, when the stories are passed around, each group has to

make corrections and adjustments if necessary and then continue the story. At the final stage of

the activity, each group assigns a student to read the story to the class or students in a group can

take turns in reading the story. The teacher offers feedback and as a fallow up activity they can
be asked to make comparisons between the end of the story offered by the peers and the one they

had in mind when starting writing the story.

These games not only challenge and engage all students but they also help them to

improve their vocabulary, to practice and reinforce certain structures, develop the writing and the

reading skills, work team spirit and collaborative learning. Another advantage is that it teaches

students to become responsible for their own learning process and to motivate them to continue.

To spice up the activity and create a motivating, friendly competition, rewards can be given to

the most correct or the most interesting, the funniest stories in the form of stickers or points that

students can use for upgrading their grades.

2. Dixit

This is another game that stimulates creativity and imagination and adapted in the class, it

can help students develop their vocabulary, writing and listening skills. At the first stage,

students form pairs and each student receives 5 cards with different images. The games starts

with a pair, at their choice, who will have to write sentences or short stories related to the image

that both students decide on after checking their cards without showing them to each other or any

other student in the class. After writing the sentences or short story with as few hints as possible

to the image they have chosen, they hand the card to the teacher. Next, they read what they have

written to the class, then each student checks their cards and chooses one that is the most similar

to the story read or sentences and compares it to their partner’s in order to vote for only one that

is handed to the teacher. The teacher shuffles the cards and then puts them face up on a table

where all students have access. Each pair will vote for one card they think belongs to the pair
that has written the sentences/short story. The pair that identifies the correct card wins a point.

The game continues with the next pair that will choose a card and write the story/sentences and

so on. The game ends when all pairs have taken turns in being the story tellers.

Another way in which this game can be used is as a group activity where students are

given the opportunity to pick up randomly a card that can serve as a framework for writing s

story where they must use certain grammar structures and/or vocabulary. It can also be used for

activities similar to those described in the previous presentation.

Unlike the Story Cubes or the Story Chest where all the students received tasks according

to their level, in Dixit the tasks are not split and that is why I usually use this game, as presented

in the first part, with the 12th graders because most of the students are able to use the correct

grammar structures, have a certain fluency and a rich vocabulary. When used as a group activity,

as presented in the second part and similar to Story Cubes/Story Chest, it can be used with all

classes regardless of their level.

3. Wummy!

The aim of this game is to develop the vocabulary but it is also a means of developing the

writing skills. Being a combination or Rummy and Scrabble, the game is a very challenging way

of helping students acquire new vocabulary and use they already know. At the first stage, each

group receives five consonant card and two vowel cards but one group receives one extra vowel

card or consonant card at their choice. Next, each group tries to make up as many words as

possible for which they get different points as following; 7 letter word- 5 points; 4 letter word- 2

points; 3 letter word-1 point, linking word-1 point. The words that they are not familiar with
have to be looked up in a dictionary. The game starts with the group that has received an extra

card. They have to lay a card they do not need face up on a table where all students have access.

After making up as many words as possible each group exchanges one card they do not need

either with one already on the table or with a new one from the packs of consonant cards or the

vowel cards. After the first round students are asked to write sentences with the words they have

made up, or a story, depending on the class level. Each student has to write at least one sentence

using a certain grammar structure or a part of the story if this is the assignment. After this stage,

each group changes all their cards with new ones and another round, following the same rules,

starts.

This game can be used in the first year of study when skills and competences are

developed, respectively acquired, being very helpful for beginners but especially for multilevel

classes.

4. Taboo

This is a well known game largely played all over the world being a family game but

when adapted to the class, it can be used for developing vocabulary, listening and speaking

skills. The advantage is that Taboo can be used in multilevel classes but the words need to be

adjusted to fit each level. For example, there can be three categories of words: basic vocabulary

for beginners, marked with a certain color (red), words for the intermediate level marked with

blue and words for the advanced level, marked with green. These words must be sorted out in

three packs from where the students will pick one at a time, according to his/her level, and try to

describe the word on the card without using certain words related to it to the class. The students
will be organized in groups of four students of different levels. The nominated group to start the

game will send each student at a time to take turn in describing the words on the cards to the

whole class. If the student that describes the word is a beginner than the student that tries to

guess the word should also be a beginner and so on. The student has two minutes to describe as

many words as possible. If more than three seconds pass and there is no student that can guess

the word, the point goes to the group whom the student belongs to. Any student that guesses the

word receives a point for his/her group. After the first round, the intermediate, then the advanced

students will take turns in describing and guessing the words. The group that gets the most points

wins.

In order to make it easier for the students that lack a rich vocabulary, especially the

beginners, students are allowed to mime the words but not more than three times. When used

with a more advanced class, where there are not so many differences among levels, Taboocan be

also used as group and whole class activity without sorting out the cards according to the level

and the students who guess the words should belong to the same group as the one that tries to

describe the words. Every time someone in the group guesses the word, the group gets a point.

The group with the most points wins. The points can be used either for upgrading the grades or

for getting stickers as rewards. In my practice I have noticed that the ones that most enjoy this

game are the 11th and the 12th graders who have certain fluency and a rich vocabulary.

5. Jeopardy
 Somehow similar to the American game Jeopardy, this game is an adaptation that can be

used in the class when different grammar structures need to be checked or reinforced, especially

in the form of solving exercises. At the first stage it is required that certain content be taught or

revised then the students are given worksheets with exercises whose aim is to check or reinforce

that content. Each exercise is scored with a certain number of points according to their difficulty.

It is recommended that exercises vary from multiple choice exercises to making up sentences.

Each group receives a number by drawing lots then the group number one has the right to choose

the exercise on the worksheet. The teacher is the one who decides which part of the chosen

exercise or sentence students should solve in three minutes. The time may vary, according to the

difficulty of the exercise. After that they have to check their answers with the other students in

the group and decide on the most correct one to read. The group that has chosen the exercise is

the one that gives the answer. If the answer is correct, the group receives one point and the right

to choose again another exercise; if the answer is not correct than the other groups take turn in

answering until the correct answer is provided. The group that gives the correct answer wins a

point and the right to choose but not more than twice in a row after which the next group in

number takes turn in choosing and giving answers and so on.

This game offers the opportunity to both students and teacher to check if the previously

taught content was acquired properly and if students need more explanations or more practice. It

is also a fun and more appealing way of solving dull exercises, motivating students to get more

involved in the learning process.

6. Battle Ships
 The advantage of this game is that it can be used not only as a means of testing new

acquired content, developing listening and writing skills, but also as an ice breaker when the

students are asked to write sentences with “I like…” and “I don’t like…”

At the first stage each group chooses a name that is written on the board they choose a

captain and a second in command. Next, they are asked to write, in two minutes, as many

sentences as possible using a certain grammar structure. When the time is up, the teacher calls

out the name of a group. Within three seconds, the captain of the assigned group starts reading

one sentence then the other students in the group take turns in reading their sentences, the second

in command being the last one to read his/her sentence and then he/she calls out another group’s

name. if the captain of the appointed group does not read his/her sentence then the group that

has called out their name gets the point. If any of the sentences read are not correct the, the group

looses one point in the favor of the group that corrects it. The students are not allowed to read

more than one sentence at the time, when their turn comes, and cannot read the same sentence

twice. When students run out of sentences they can improvise if not, the group cannot continue

playing and so, a round ends. For the next round, students can be asked to write sentences using

a different grammar structure, for example: if in the first round the assignment was to write

sentences using the first type of conditional, in the second round they can be asked to write

sentences using the second type of conditional and so on. At the end of the game, the group with

the most points wins.

Due to the fact that it creates a friendly competitive environment and a lot of content can

be tested or reinforced, the Battle Ships can be used with beginners because it helps them feel

relaxed, it offers them immediate feedback and explanations if necessary, and also the chance to

practice new acquired content in the form of drills.

 There are other ways in which this game can be used, especially with intermediate and

more advanced classes as it develops the speaking skills, too. For example, after the names of the

groups have been chosen, the students are asked to continue certain sentences like: “If I were a

millionaire, I would……”, “If I were a tree, I would……”, “If I were God for a day, I

would…..”, etc, without giving them time to write their answers down encouraging them to say

whatever comes to their mind and fits the situation. There are not wrong answers but correction

on the part of the peers may be needed sometimes. This game not only does it stimulate

imagination but it also improves students’ reaction time, it helps students remember and use

what they already know or have acquired or even reinforce new content.

7. Story World- Legends of the Sea

Pirate stories or adventure stories, in general, have always raised the reader’s interest and

when it comes to games, they not only unlock the imagination and stimulate creativity but also

help students develop their writing, speaking, reading and listening skills. There are many ways

in which this game can be used but the most efficient way that addresses all levels in a multilevel

class is as following: in groups, students receive five cards at their choice; one, they will use for

creating the beginning of the story, which starts with “Once upon a time….”, in terms of

characters and most importantly, the goal of their quest/adventure. Two cards will be used as

helpful cards meaning that every time another group creates a challenge for the group that started

the story, the group uses it in order to solve the problem by creating and writing a continuation,

trying to save their characters. The other two cards, the challenging cards are used for creating
difficult situation for the characters of the stories of the other groups. Both sets of cards cannot

be used more than once.

At the first stage of the game, every group brainstorms and writes the beginning of their

story using the information at the back of the card they have chosen as the starting point for the

story. Then, by choice, a group reads their beginning. Another group, also by choice, writes a

continuation to the story by using one of their challenging cards. The initial group tries to solve

the problem by creating an escape episode with the help of one of their helpful cards. The game

continues with another group trying to create a challenging situation for the initial story and the

first round ends with the initial group writing their last escape episode and the ending for their

story using their last helpful card. The rule is that the characters can face any dangers but they

cannot be killed till the end when the decision belongs to the initial group that started the story. If

the initial group manages to escape every situation/ challenge and finish their story, they get a

point, if they cannot continue the story the point goes to the group that has challenged them. The

game continues with another group reading their beginning and other groups trying to challenge

them and so on. At the end, the group with the most points wins.

There are many other ways in which this game can be played aiming at developing the

same skills in students, but a more simple version would be to allow students pick up one card,

randomly or at their choice, then using the picture and the information on the back, ask them to

create group stories, either by starting their story and then passing it around for the other groups

to continue it using their cards or others, until the stories get back to their initial groups for

writing the ending after they have read and corrected what they other students have written

before, or by creating a whole group story and then pass it around for correction and suggestions

as in the way Story Cubes can be used.

 This game offers the opportunity for students to reinforce grammar structures (tenses,

adjectives, linking words, etc), develop their vocabulary and use the one they already know,

develop reading, writing and listening skills, or with more advanced classes for developing the

speaking skills by asking students to create a chain story on the spot using all the cards.

There are many other games that can be adapted and used in the class and can address the

needs of a multilevel class, but I have chosento present only these six because they not only

stimulate creativity and imagination, motivating students to take part in them, but they also help

them to check and reinforce new acquired contend, enrich the vocabulary and develop all four

skills. They also help at creating a stress free, friendly environment where language acquisition

happens as a collaborative learning process and the mistakes are seen as a means of improving

skills and competences.