ANA IBÁÑEZ MORENO y BEGOÑA CASASNOVAS GIL

Universidad de La Rioja

Learning by playing: games to practice the past tense in English

Applied Linguistics

Abstract: The lack of motivation among secondary students is the main obstacle in the teaching of English as a foreign language. As a result, the process of learning usually fails. Thus, by focusing on raising learners’ motivation, this paper proposes a number of games that can be implemented in the English classroom in order for students to practice grammar. In the light of the Communicative Approach, especially following the Interactive Learning and the Task-based Methods, and taking into account the competitive nature of students, games are proved to be a useful tool to raise motivation. The games presented here were applied in two classrooms of 13 and 14 year-old students at the end of each session throughout a unit dealing with the past tense. Some of them are individual (each student competing against the others), others are devised to work in pairs (one pair against another) and others to work in groups (one group against another). They proved to be highly effective for a number of reasons: first, learners focus all their effort in winning, which becomes a powerful extrinsic motivation. In order to win, they have to learn and use the grammar and vocabulary first, and they actually do it. Second, learners enjoy. Thus, in line with Krashen’s (1981) Affective Filter Hypothesis, their degree of attention is at the maximum level, which contributes to their learning process. Finally, the expectation of the game at the end of the class, and the awareness that all they learn in the lesson will be useful for the game also becomes highly motivating.

Keywords: extrinsic motivation, past tense, grammar, Affective Filter Hypothesis, Interactive Learning Method, Task-based Method, Communicative Approach.

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