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ICANEWS Septiembre / Octubre 2007, Año 3 # 15 |
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| STUDENTS AS THE 'STARS' OF THEIR LEARNING PROCESS |
by Prof. Patricia Gorostegui
pat1g@yahoo.com |
Motivation is a recurrent theme amongst teachers. Many wonder about the strategies they should implement in the classroom in order to catch their students' attention, interest and willingness to learn.
All for Games is a Project which started some years ago, in a school where I am still teaching, and which gave me not only the answer to my issue, but also enormous satisfactions.
All for Games is a magazine, thought, planned, written and edited by six to ten year olds. It includes an assortment of activities, games, puzzles, tongue twisters, brain teasers and crosswords in English, which were drafted during the English lessons and edited in the Computer Studies class. Before having a look at some of them, let's go through the world of games and the role they have in ELT.
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| The use of games in ELT is based in the principles of the Communicative Approach for language learning. One of these principles states that TBA (Task Based Activities) stimulate the effective use of language and, at the same time, do not require conscious analysis of the learning process on the part of the learner.
Participating in a game means to enjoy the competition against one's opponents, time or the game itself. It is by no means to be aware of the language needed to play. In this sense, games are TBA.
Games are an aid for the teacher since they furnish the classroom with an array of strategies. Moreover, they can be used to present new language as well as to practise items, and even to test students.
Games are fun, and fun contributes to develop a positive atmosphere and a more advantageous setting in the classroom. They work as a learning tool |
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| by helping children develop linguistically, reflecting their level of interest and empathy and emulating their natural conduct. They are not time consuming, they just take as long as any traditional activity. So if you find this proposal attractive, why not inviting your students to be protagonists of their own learning? |
Glossary
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willingness: deseo,
buena disposición
assortment: colección
variada
array: serie, colección |
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