Design Games to Teach Grammar to Young Learners

Games are the most engrossing and interesting activity of language learning for young learners. Games do not put any form of stress, so children participate with ease without any anxiety and it is motivating as well. Since most of these activities are known to them they grow a level of familiarly they link back to these tasks.
The games mean the world to children and are generally all inclusive in nature. Playing games is always fun for children and the best learning method for young learners is to learn with games. Like the guessing game which can be played numerous times which the students would participate happily without getting bored with its repetitive nature. Games are simple structured activities involving little language terms that are effective for students. They will get involved and thus will build a strong association with grammar.

When a child is beginning to learn a foreign language games play a valuable role in it because while learning a new language the child requires a certain amount of time to adjust and adapt the language. Sometimes children take some time in producing language and will gladly experiment and at other times children remain shy and they need more attention and time. This phase is called the ‘silent’ time period when they develop a liking and gradually learn to produce language without any external pressure. The games are also important in terms of generating social skills through activities wherein they share and mingle with their peers. Thus games teach young learners the art of coexistence and collaboration.
Games are generally designed to enhance any part of the lesson and can also be used to practise, revise and assess any language. Those are used to develop the listening, speaking and reading and even writing skills of kids and the responsibility lies with the teacher wherein the focus has to be given. Choosing the right grammatical exercise for the children to practise and deciding on the specific games is your task as a teacher. Making it enjoyable pass times through various activities should be your goal. Thus games are clearly those learning activities which not just enhance student’s language development but leads to overall personality development of the kids.

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There are wide varieties of games which can be used for young language learners. Let us bring our focus on a few of them:

First, the flashcard games which are played with a set of flashcards prepared by you and your students in the classroom or can be bought from a bookstore. Games include - listen and find, disappearing picture or words, running games, swat, pass the card etc.

Second, there can be ball games played with soft ball without worrying about breaking window glass or hurting students. Like - say a different colour/animal etc.

Third, action games can also be experimented which involve movement inside classroom. This can be exciting but must be carefully chosen when to make use of them. Like - Robots, In/out – hot/cold, step on the card, hit the card.
Thus games play a special role in any language learning for young learners. It has become more demanding for teachers and learners like any other innovative process helping towards development. Games particularly provide enjoyment and relaxation and also encourage students to learn grammar in a most creative way. This has thus become a natural part of young learner’s lives. It can be concluded that designing games for teaching grammar to young learners has several advantages when those are properly implemented in the classroom. Games help students focus on learning and using language properly.