LEARNING
VOCABULARY THROUGH GAMES
The
Effectiveness of Learning Vocabulary Through Games
Authors
Nguyen Thi Thanh
Huyen
Khuat Thi Thu Nga
( SUMMARY )
In
learning a foreign language, vocabulary plays an important role. It is one
element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing
all together. In order to communicate well in a foreign language, students
should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use them
accurately. Traditionally, vocabulary has not been a particular subject for
students to learn, but has been taught within lessons of speaking, listening,
reading and writing. During the lesson, students use their own vocabulary and
are introduced to new words provided by the teacher and classmates which they
apply to classroom activities. For many learners of English, whenever they
think of vocabulary, they think of learning a list of new words with meanings
in their native language without any real context practice. A number of
learners may share the same experience of looking up words in a bilingual
dictionary to find their meanings or definitions when they encounter new words.
They may even write down lines of new words without any idea of the real use of
them in context. Working this way, after a short period of time, many learners
may find out that learning vocabulary in lists does not satisfy themselves, and
they think the cause for it is just their bad memorization, Gnoinska (1998:12).
Furthermore, some other students may require teachers to give meaning and
grammatical function for words that they are not familiar. Learners just wait
for teachers who control the lesson to provide new forms of words then they
write those words in their notebooks or complete their exercises. They may use
words they learn in the exact formats as the original patterns in which those
words appeared. This kind of rote verbal memorization is good to a certain
extent since it helps learners learn and use the correct form of words. Unlike
the traditional method of learning and teaching, in a communicative language
teaching (CLT) approach, learners are required to take part in a number of
meaningful activities with different tasks. This is to improve learners'
communicative competence by encouraging them to be a part of the lessons
themselves.
To
assess the effectiveness of learning vocabulary through games in the classroom,
the researcher want to know how students' experiences help with their learning
and what progress they gain. Specifically, can we apply games as an effective means
to make students feel more comfortable and interested in learning the subject
of vocabulary. Moreover, the researcher observed four lessons which applied
games in providing and retaining students' vocabulary by two CLT teachers at
HUFS. In two different classes, the researcher watched the game-like activity
called "Selling and Buying Things (in which 10 students were shopkeepers
selling fruits and food to the rest of the class. The shopkeepers had to sell
all food they had and the shoppers had to buy all food they needed in the
shortest time) in two different classes, and the researcher observed the same
students' reaction in both classes. After observing the game, the researcher
gave a small survey to 20 students with some questions about their feelings
toward the game like; "Do you think this game is useful for you to
remember words you have learnt?" and, "How can your classmates help
you learn through the game ?"... From this survey, we learnt that all 20
students agreed that games help them a lot in vocabulary learning. Among them,
12 students said that said that they could answer well two-thirds of questions
in the game; and only one student could always respond to all questions.
Regarding
the effectiveness of games, interviewed teachers reported that their students
seemed to learn new vocabulary more quickly and retain it better when it was
applied in a relaxed and comfortable environment such as while playing games.
Using games in the classroom sometimes fails due to the lack of cooperation
among members of the class. Games require all students' involvement and they
promote friendly competition, therefore, it is very important that students
have a cooperative attitude. Games have been shown to have advantages and
effectiveness in learning vocabulary in various ways. First, games bring in
relaxation and fun for students, thus help them learn and retain new words more
easily. Second, games usually involve friendly competition and they keep
learners interested. These create the motivation for learners of English to get
involved and participate actively in the learning activities. Third, vocabulary
games bring real world context into the classroom, and enhance students' use of
English in a flexible, communicative way. Therefore, the role of games in teaching
and learning vocabulary cannot be denied. However, in order to achieve the most
from vocabulary games, it is essential that suitable games are chosen. Whenever
a game is to be conducted, the number of students, proficiency level, cultural
context, timing, learning topic, and the classroom settings are factors that
should be taken into account.
In
conclusion, learning vocabulary through games is one effective and interesting
way that can be applied in any classrooms. The results of this research suggest
that games are used not only for mere fun, but more importantly, for the useful
practice and review of language lessons, thus leading toward the goal of
improving learners' communicative competence.
