游戏在七年级语法教学中的应用

许楚娟

【摘要】本文將从首先说明初中语法教学的重要性以及在语法教学中采用游戏的原因，然后分析在一中学进行的实验来证明在语法教学中采用游戏这一教学手段的重要性，接着会提供四个语法教学游戏，并且在最后提出老师在设计游戏时应该注意的地方和在游戏中老师应该扮演的角色。

【关键词】游戏应用 语法教学 教学游戏

【中图分类号】G633.41 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】2095-3089（2015）08-0108-02

1.Introduction

Since English became the world language， there has been an increasing number of people all over the world learning English as the most important foreign language， with no exception to Chinese. Children in China start to learn English at an early age. The learning period lasts generally from primary school to university. In addition， English learning in Junior High School is always regarded as one of the most important periods of students English learning. So is English teaching in that period.

How to make English grammar teaching and learning more effective and interesting？ Many TESOL specialists and English teachers have given their suggestions. Games application is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and effective ways to teach grammar. As famous English expert Pat Adler （2003：7） puts it， “Grammar can be consolidated and practiced through games， which are an interesting addition to drills and exercises.” In fact， many teachers in Junior High School had tried English games to teach grammar， but a large portion of them failed in the end for some reasons such as some problems in the process of designing or applying games. Consequently， these teachers are reluctant to use games in their grammar teaching. However， as long as the design of games is reasonable， games in class can be combined with the impartation of grammar as well as the practice of grammar structures （Xie Guihua， 2006）. Although there are some essays involved with games application in English grammar teaching， most of them placed emphasis on the significances of games application or providing some English games， rather than the application of games and some points to which should be paid more attention in the course of designing and applying games in the classroom.

2.The Necessity of English Grammar Teaching in Junior High School

For Chinese students， English is a foreign language. That is to say， Chinese students would have more difficulties in learning English than acquiring the mother tongue—Chinese， which we can learn in everyday life. For most Chinese students， they can only learn English in the English classes at school. Moreover， due to some improper methodologies and the lack of real English situations as well as students limited learning methods—mainly is by memory， students always come across with problems when communicating in English （Song Yuhua， 2010）. How to deal with these difficulties？ Learning English grammar is helpful in figuring out the problems. “The task of learning a language is made easier if one is exposed to one part of the grammatical system at a time.”（Wilkins， 1972：82） Learning grammar is beneficial for students to decompose the input language into language units， which make the foreign language easier to be accepted and understood by learners. In addition， it is conducive to improving students ability to comprehend and analyze the language， so that they will gradually form a language system which， in return， promotes their capacity for using English （Song Yuhua， 2010）.

3. Reasons for Games Application in Grammar Teach？鄄 ing in Grade7

3.1 The goal of grammar teaching

There has been a consensus that the real purpose for teaching English grammar is to help students pursue effective communication in any specific situations by using appropriate language patterns. That is to say， the ultimate purpose for grammar teaching is to facilitate effective communication （Xie Guihua， 2006）. Effective communication is the combination of forms， meanings， functions and situations. In the course of grammar teaching， only when grammar， meaning and function are comprehensively combined in a certain context， can linguistic forms serve communication. （Fu Mengxuan， Wu Huizhong， 2006）. If students learn English grammar out of contexts and situations， even if they memorized some grammar points， they would only know that rather than understand that in which circumstances can these grammar rules be used or how to use them to make successful conversations. Games， however， can provide situations which are similar to real everyday communication contexts for students. As Zdybiewska（1994：6） believes， “games are a good way of practicing language， for they provide a model of what learners will use the language for in real life in the future.” In the context produced by game， students have to use the grammar knowledge they have acquired in class to express themselves and try to achieve the goal of the game， which will realize the function of communication. In this process， forms， meanings， functions and contexts are completely merged together， which ultimately promotes students communicative ability.

3.2 The Task-based Approach proposed in New Curricular Standard

In the New Curricular Standard （2001）， the Task-based Approach is highly proposed to be used in the English class （He Anping， 2002）.

What is a task？ As J. Willis points out in 1996， “a task is an activity where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose （goal） in order to achieve an outcome” （He Anping， 2002：97）. In accordance with the definition， playing games is one of the best activities in English class， since games can provide an opportunity for students to use the target languages to start conversations with others for the purpose of communication. When playing a game， in order to achieve the task assigned by the teacher， students would follow the teachers instruction， and use the new-learned grammar patterns or language points to communicate with other students or the teacher. Consequently， during the process， students will not only practice the language points， but also have a clearer understanding of the use of the grammar， which will help them have a better communication when using the language in the future.

4. Case Analysis

4.1 The Name of the Experiment

Name of the Experiment： Impact of Games Application in Grammar Teaching on the Grade 7 Students Mastery of Grammar.

4.2 Introduction of the Experiment

This experiment was carried out to study what impact the application of games in Grade 7 grammar teaching produces on students mastery of grammar knowledge. There are a total of 103 students from Class 3 and Class 4 in Grade 7 （from Chihu Junior High School， Chaozhou） participating in the experiment. The teacher would first teach these two classes the same grammar knowledge in their own classrooms through different teaching methods， and the next day ask them to take a gap-filling test on the grammar points they have learned in last class. In order to release students stress and nervousness， as well as get the most authentic statistics， students are required not to sign their names on their paper. The statistics would be collected from their answer sheets and then analyzed to study what effect the application of games in grammar teaching in Grade 7 exerts on students grasp of the knowledge.

4.3 Procedures

Step1：

Students from Class 3 and Class 4 attended the class of the same teaching content respectively in their own classrooms. The content was the teaching of prepositions in unit 4， Go for it students book for Grade 7. In class 3， I used the old “chalk and talk” method to teach the prepositions （on， in， under， over， near， behind） and used the written drills such as multiple choices to help them consolidate the knowledge. While in class 4， after the basic explanation of the prepositions， I applied games in the practice to help students grasp these prepositions. They played the two games （as shown in the following） under my instruction.

Step 2：

On the next day， in class， all students from Class 3 and Class 4 took a gap-filling test （illustrated below） on the prepositions they learned yesterday. Then their answer sheets were collected anonymously and the number of their correct answers would be accounted from their answer sheets.

4.4 Data Collection and Analysis

The statistics of the number of the correctness of students answers is presented as Table 1（Class 3） and Table 2（Class 4）. There are totally 103 students attending the test， 52 from Class 3 and 51 from Class 4. However， I chose 2 answer sheets out of Class 3 and 1 out of Class 4 randomly to make the total number of answer sheets which were going to be calculated in the experiment equal， at 50.

From these two tables， we can clearly see that there are 34 students in Class 4 getting the all-correct answers， which almost takes up 70% of the students in Class 4； while only 22 students （44% of the class） in Class 3 did that. And if we count the overall number of students who got 6 or 4 corrects， it is only 38 students in Class 3， but 47 students in class 4， which is 97% of the whole class. Furthermore， the total number of students who got 2 or none correct answers in Class 4 is only 3， which is 1/4 of that in Class 3 （12students）. All of these show that students in Class 4 have a better command of the prepositions than the students in Class 3. From the analysis above， we can clearly see that games application in grammar teaching is indeed very helpful for students to master the boring grammar knowledge and apply them correctly.

After the experiment， I had once asked around 30 students of Class 4 the question： How do you think of playing games when learning grammar？ Some of them said： “Playing games is very interesting， I love it.” And some boys told me：” Playing grammar games make us feel that learning grammar is an easy job.” From their words， we should more firmly believe that applying games in grammar teaching in Grade 7 can not only facilitate students grammar acquisition but also active their interest in learning grammar from the beginning.

5. Conclusion

From the analysis in the paper， we can see that games can not only arose students interest in learning grammar and help them learn effectively， but also work as a bridge which can connect the class and the real world， offering opportunity for students to apply the grammar knowledge in similar daily contexts so as to improve their communicative ability， which is the real aim of teaching grammar. Just as Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen and Khuat Thi Thu Nga（2003） put it， “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.”

Game application is a useful and practical tool in grammar teaching in Grade 7. Therefore， teachers should try to apply more appropriate games in grammar classes， so that students can acquire grammar knowledge effectively as well as enjoy the games happily and ultimately improve their language proficiency and communicative competence.

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