Abstract

In recent years, as the importance of English teaching in primary schools is greatly valued by the whole society, English in primary schools has become a compulsory course. However, there is a trend that the more difficult English learning is, the less interest students have. Researchers have begun to investigate how to use games in the teaching process to make classroom teaching full of fun. 

Primary English Teaching Syllabus points out: “Interest is a good teacher for pupils to learn a foreign language. Games are helpful to create opportunities for pupils to take an active part in English learning, and they are popular in classes in primary schools, where games are widely used for instructional purposes. And it is an important task for primary school teachers to arouse pupils’ interest at present.” 

Teaching with games meets the need of children’ physiological and cognitive development and it can develop their interest. For children, to live is to play. Playing games can cultivate children’ various abilities, such as intelligence, cognition, and social communication and so on. Teaching with games makes pupils actively participate in classroom learning, by which they will experience the joy of learning, and acquire the sense of success and satisfaction, which is very beneficial to children’ life-long learning. 

Therefore, the thesis tries to explore the practical result of games applied in English vocabulary teaching in primary schools. Meanwhile, the writer hopes that the given suggestions can be helpful for English teachers in primary schools. 

Key words: game; English vocabulary; interest; primary school

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

  1.1 The Research Situation of Games Teaching in Foreign Countries-1

  1.2 The Research Situation of Games Teaching in China-1

  1.3 The Significance of the Study-1

  1.4 The Purpose of the Study-2 

2. Literature Review-2 

  2.1 The Theoretical Basis of Games Teaching Approach-2

    2.1.1. Homo Ludens Theory-2

    2.1.2. Second Language Acquisition Theory-2

  2.2 The Characteristics of Pupils-3  

    2.2.1 Cognitive Development-3 

    2.2.2 Psychological Feature-3 

  2.3 Overview on Games-3 

    2.3.1 Definition of Games-3 

    2.3.2 Characteristics of Games-4 

3. Research Design-4 

  3.1 Research Hypothesis-4 

  3.2 Research Questions-4 

  3.3 Participants-4 

  3.4 Instruments-5  

  3.5 The Traditional Vocabulary Teaching Method-5 

    3.5.1 The Traditional Vocabulary Teaching Method-5 

    3.5.2 The Application Case I-9 

  3.6 Games Teaching Approach-9 

    3.6.1 Games Teaching Approach-9 

    3.6.2 The Application Case II-9

4. Result and Analysis-13  

  4.1 Result and Analysis of the Questionnaire-13 

  4.2 Result and Analysis of the Interview-16  

  4.3 Result and Analysis of Oral Test-16  

5. Conclusion-17  

5.1 Findings-17 

5.2 Limitations-17 

References-18 

Appendix I-19 

Appendix II-20