張智慧

【Abstract】In recent years，people realize primary education has been become the most important part in their whole life，especially English teaching.However，the English teaching in primary school still have many problems needed to be solved.A common phenomenon is that the children lack of interest in English.

【Key words】English； learning； games； interest

English researchers and educationalists point out that “interest is a good teacher for pupils to learn a foreign language，and its an important task for primary school English teacher to arouse students interest at present.” Playing games in English class is an effective method to improve teaching effectiveness and childrens interest.

1.The advantages of using games.There are three roles that are very important in class，pictures，stories and games.Games are the most important activity for children in classroom.These three sources of interest are very important for childrens learning.The first functions as a visual stimulus，the second as both visual and aural，while the last is，besides the first two functions，also can apply activity and physical movement.Many scholars advocate games playing in language teaching.In English class，students with motivation can enjoy themselves and challenge themselves.English learning requires students to try their best and work hard，which is a difficult target for pupils.But games can help students to solve the problems，and make students feel that learning is an easy job.They provide many chances to practice different English skills： speaking，writing，listening and reading.They encourage students to communicate in English and help them to learn the grammar focuses.They provide a meaningful environment for English using.For many pupils，especially the youngest，games can provide them stimulus and motivation.The game environment is useful for the children to learn English.The game encourages the children who dare not speak in English or have less interested in English to speak English regularly.Children will be willing to preview English knowledge，though no requirement was put on them.

2.Types of games.There are some teaching methods can help teachers to abstract students attention，such as information gap games，guessing games，role play games，and so on.

Information gap games can involve a one-way information gap，for instance the drawing game.Guessing game is developed by information gap game，the best known example of guessing games is 20 Questions.In the kindergarten，role play is the most useful game，children talk with each other in English，it offer the real language environment，when they perform roles they can come up with their own words and practice the new knowledge.

3.Principles of using of games.Traditionally，games usually used as warm-up time before English class，or as review content time in extra time near the end of class.All these are fine，but games can also constitute a more substantial part of language courses.There are two situations we can see in real class，one is that the traditional class teachers think game is not suitable to be part of class，another condition is at some modern classes，teachers just put the children first，and ignore the aim of game.

Some teachers recognize these problems and they try to find a way to solve it.A common manner is used in English class，which divides a lesson into “study” sections and “fun” sections.Before the game，teacher must give clear rules to ensure students can achieve the goals of game.However，rules are always difficult to definition，so teacher must prepare very carefully before class，and teacher also should pay attention to the process of the class，for children would like to break some rules while playing.Once rules are broken，the teaching environment would become extremely dangerous or harmful.

Conclusion

This paper tells us the development of the application of games in foreign countries and China.The aim of this thesis is to prove game teaching is good for pupils learn English and its more effective than traditional teaching way.Games are effective way which is cultivate the interesting of children learning English and can provide a relaxed atmosphere.

References：

[1]Jane Willis &Dave Willis （2002） Challenge and Change in Language Teaching Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

[2]Xia Jimei （2003） Foreign Language Course Design Modern Theory & Practice Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.