Gaming technology in English lessons
Saidkasimova Azizakhon Saidmavlanovna, teacher
Uzbek State University of World Languages (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)
The article discusses the theoretical implications of using gaming technology in English classes at a comprehensive school and classifies games according to their didactic orientation and form. The author examines this technology briefly from a psychological perspective, focusing on the efficacy and pedagogical viability of using the game at various stages of the lessons. The article, for example, provides an adversarial team game for memorizing words that can be used to learn any subject and help students improve their vocabulary.
Keywords: English, game technology, game, varieties of games, speech activity, game activity.
Among the types of student-centered education, games also play an important role. To fully understand their essence, it is necessary to know the content of the concepts «game» and «game technology». Person teaching, growth, and education are all features of the game. Games have long been one of the most critical pillars of folk pedagogy due to their peculiarities. Children's spiritual, moral, emotional, physical, and aesthetic education is aided by direct games, which help them improve intelligence, imagination, memory, reasoning, and expression. In play games, the preschooler plans for study and practice.
If physical games cultivate agility, agility, stamina, and perseverance in children, academic games teach them to learn, reason, and think logically. “Play is a leading practice that influences a person's spiritual growth throughout his life. It is only through play and play that a child learns reality, including social relations, relationships and human behavior. " In the process of historical development, play has taken a special place not only in the lives of children, but also of adults. In modern conditions, game models are also popular among adults, allowing the production of intellectual, computer, economic, military, professional, sports and household entertainment.
Throughout the game, the nature and structure of the game ensure that each player develops specific talents, strengths, abilities, and attributes. The instructor must be able to accurately articulate their pedagogical roles in the script by incorporating gaming devices in the instructional process.
Play is defined as a type of activity in situations aimed at acquiring and reproducing social experience, and in the process of playing a person forms and improves self-control. The main motive of educational activity is the educational and cognitive motive, and the most important motivation for educational activity is the student's interest in the profession he has chosen and mastered. The student must be emotionally satisfied with the knowledge, professional skills and abilities acquired in the learning process. The use of gaming technologies in the learning process is of particular importance in solving this problem. Gaming technology also enhances students' creativity and thinking skills.
In the teaching of a foreign language, fun events are extremely important. Play stimulates children, forms their interest in the matter, and simplifies challenging content. Learning becomes effective when pupils are actively involved in the process. There are a variety of ways to encourage children to be involved, but play and imagination are the most successful. Children master language content and develop oral skills at an affordable level by engaging activities and enjoyable drills, puzzles, and rhyming sports. [1, p. 49]. Games are now an important part of studying English. When a game is used to help students memorize, repeat, consolidate, or assimilate content, it becomes enjoyable. Another advantage of the game is that it allows students to put their newly learned skills into effect, which increases their interest in learning English.
Games can be used to improve the skills of pupils in all types of speech activity. Games can be used at the beginning of the lesson to activate cognitive activity, at the end of the lesson to reinforce the new material, after the test work to relieve stress, to change the activities of the lesson. One of the advantages of games is their communicative component. Games may be played between teams, in groups or in the whole class. In all cases, students interact closely and learn to cooperate, compete without aggression, lose and take responsibility. The use of games in lessons helps to engage the children in the foreign language and creates a situation of success.
The games contribute to different tasks: creating psychological readiness of children to communicate in English; consolidating, repeating the language material; practicing the choice of the right speech option.
Games can be divided into several categories: lexical, grammatical, phonetic, spelling and creative.
The type of play can be divided into two groups:
1) Competitive (players or teams compete against each other);
2) Collective (the aim of the game is achieved jointly).
There are several popular games to choose from. Nowadays, finding an engaging game on specialized educational websites on the Internet, in methodological literature, or among digital resources is not difficult. The instructor should also be inventive in his or her use of sports, devising a range of engaging game plays for the pupils.
Here is an example of a team competition game that aims to increase the vocabulary of the students and can also serve as a way of testing the knowledge of words assigned for memorization on a particular topic.
For example, when learning about food or food-related topics, you could chalk up two large baskets on the blackboard. Divide the class into two groups. In the first basket the children should «put» vegetables and in the other fruit. The two teams take turns approaching the blackboard and writing one word in their basket. The teams can be given a certain amount of time and checked to see which team gets more words in that time [2]. The game can be made more colorful by using an interactive board, which can also be divided into two parts with pictures of beautiful baskets, and the children can write words into them with special markers. But without brightness, colorfulness and peculiar special effects the game will lose some of its appeal. Therefore, we should try to make use of the possibilities of modern digital equipment when using game technology in lessons. Modern electronic resources facilitate the teacher's work, make the game technology accessible, interesting, exciting, helping to achieve the planned results.
Play is a source of the child's cognitive activity, which lies in the children themselves, in their functional tendency to activity and development. When planning games, teachers should consider the following psychological aspects of children's development: In sports, both children should be the leaders in order to develop the basic interpersonal skills required for shared play activity leadership. [1, p. 51].
A game in an English lesson gives children the opportunity to develop their listening, monologist and dialogic skills, reading and writing skills, enhances their learning and cognitive activities and greatly increases their interest in the subject. And it is the job of every teacher to make their subject a favorite.
However, it is important to note that play should not become an end in itself. If games are used only as a means of amusement, entertainment, relaxation, then their usefulness is minimal. Play has these functions, but they are not leading, not the main one. Unfortunately, this is sometimes forgotten. Play is only a shell, a form, its content and purpose should be teaching, in our case, mastering types of speech activity as a means of communication [3, p. 204, 205].
Modern playful technologies should not become meaningless entertainment, but should reasonably, methodically and effectively address the tasks of achieving the outcomes that the federal state educational standard requires of schools today.
References:
- Lukyanchikova N. V. Teaching a foreign language at the initial stage of education. // Elementary School, 2001. № 11. С. 49–51.
- Ideas for English lessons. [Electronic resource].
- Passov E. I. Foreign language lesson in a secondary school. 2nd ed. revised. Moscow: Prosveshcheniye, 1988. 223 с. (Foreign language teacher's library).
