ESL and TEFL: Teaching English Grammar to Children through Games

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One of the questions ESL and TEFL teachers areleft. You can give them another go with the new
asking on forums the world over is: how can youpicture.
teach grammar through games?Notice that only 2 children move at any one time
If you don’t want your class to glaze over with(aside from when you say “All Change), which
dictation, writing exercises and “Jimmy, would youmakes it easy to keep control.
please read paragraph 1,” then take heart!How could you use this game in your language
You’ll find you can teach everything you wantteaching? Firstly, you can use it to reinforce new
with games, and the children remember it better tovocabulary, secondly, for revision, thirdly to help spelling
boot.by playing the game with word flashcards instead of
Here is a disarmingly simple game, which can be usedpictures, and fourthly, to practise a grammatical
for many purposes. Please note this particular game isstructure.
for small groups of up to 20 children or so, and youLet us say you want to teach the conditional tense
need floor space. If you have more than 20 children, orand you start with “I would like”. Hand out pictures
no floor space then please see the bottom of theof food that your pupils already know. Call out “I
article for games suited to your needs.would like bananas and pie”. The pupil with the
The players stand round in a circle with one playerbananas tries to change places with the pupil holding
standing in the middle. Each player has a picture of anthe pie without the person in the middle taking one of
item, or a word flash card, except for the player in thethe spots in the circle. Continue until everyone has had
middle. Call out two of the picture card items or words.a go, repeating the target structure each time. With a
The two players holding these cards have to changeclass that learns quickly you can also introduce the
places without the person in the middle grabbing onerest of the declension (he and she would like, etc.). You
of their spots. If the person in the middle manages toare now ready to proceed to a speaking game where
slip into the spot in the circle then the one left standingyour pupils use the target structure, as they will have
goes in the middle. The new person in the middleheard it repeatedly by now. You can follow the
hands their flash card to the child taking their place inspeaking game up with a writing game, and hey presto
the circle.your children can understand, say, read and write the
If someone is stuck in the middle for two turns say, "Allnew target structure.
Change!” When the players hear this they must allNow what better way is there to teach grammar than
change places, which gives the person in the middle athat? You are teaching grammar by absorption and
very good chance of joining the circle. Once everyonerepetition, which is the way we learn our native tongue,
has had one go ask your class to pass their picture toand for children it is by far the best way to go.