I swear that the only reason some of the boys I teach know any English at all is video games. Having to figure out the on screen instuctions, listening to the characters speak etc. forces them to use the language and so they actually learn something. An interesting side effect is that they often have a very unsual vocabulary. He (it's usually a "he") doesn't know about adverbs or past simple but yeah, they sure as hell know what "hand grenade", "rocket launcher" and " intruder" mean.
I was thinking that we could use this to encourage the more recalcitrant students to study more. Games such as Counterstrike allow people to communicate with each other while playing. So why not set up teams and/or tournaments ? The only difference between this "lesson" and the normal game would be that everything has to be in English. Any utterence in Greek is punished by a 10 - 20 second pause in which the player is not allowed to use the computer or communicate.
A few ideas on how to exploit games in class
One idea would be to introduce a new game in which all the instructions are in English so studying the manual (also in English) becomes reading comprehension.
Encourage to blog or chat about their game experience with an international audience.
Students write their own cheat notes in English.
Debate and discuss what other games should be used. This could be in the form of a debate, discursive essay, report etc.
Of course the most difficult part of this is selling the idea to the parents/school. You know what kind of response you'll get;
"I don't pay all this money for my son/daughter to play games."
"How are they going to learn grammar ?"
"This is not in the exam so why do it ?"
etc, etc, etc.
Like I said I'd probably recommend this for the students who have given up on the system and are probably going to fail in any case (see my previous post). Teaching the kids is the easy part, it's getting permission to try anything new that wears you down.
BTW I'm not a great fan of video games myself but I do appreciate how an important a role they play in the lives of many of my students.
2 comments:
My son learned to write in English from the PC Game "Sims". Part of the game is to create a business and promote it through advertising. So, my son was doing creative writing without even knowing it. He would come to me and ask me if his spelling and grammar was correct...something he NEVER did when he did frontistirio lessons. The most he ever wrote was two or three lines. In the SIMS, he was writing paragraph upon paragraph describing his new hotel or his pet palace that he built.
Maybe teaching English through video games is a bit unorthodox but I really believe the ends justify the means. I think kids will pay attention and apply themselves better when they're interested in something. If they end up speaking and writing english a lot faster with your methods...no matter what they are...then it's definitely worth trying.
I don't think it would work for everyone (then again what does ?) But I actually believe video games make us smarter. Anyone who has played the latest ones will appreciate their sheer complexity. The trick is to harness the interest they generate in order to learn more tradtional skills such as writing or maths.
I already use dvds, blogs, podcasts in my teaching so why not games which are far less passive ?
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