ESL and TEFL: Teaching Children Grammar through Games

One of the questions ESL and TEFL teachers areleft. You can give them another go with the new
asking on forums the world over is: how can youpicture.
teach grammar through games?Notice that only 2 children move at any one time
If you don't want your class to glaze over with(aside from when you say "All Change), which makes
dictation, writing exercises and "Jimmy, would youit easy to keep control.
please read paragraph 1," then take heart! You'll findHow could you use this game in your language
you can teach everything you want with games, andteaching? Firstly, you can use it to reinforce new
the children remember it better to boot.vocabulary, secondly, for revision, thirdly to help spelling
Here is a disarmingly simple game, which can be usedby playing the game with word flashcards instead of
for many purposes. Please note this particular game ispictures, and fourthly, to practise a grammatical
for small groups of up to 20 children or so, and youstructure.
need floor space. If you have more than 20 children, orLet us say you want to teach the conditional tense
no floor space then please see the bottom of theand you start with "I would like". Hand out pictures of
article for games suited to your needs.food that your pupils already know. Call out "I would like
The players stand round in a circle with one playerbananas and pie". The pupil with the bananas tries to
standing in the middle. Each player has a picture of anchange places with the pupil holding the pie without the
item, or a word flash card, except for the player in theperson in the middle taking one of the spots in the
middle. Call out two of the picture card items or words.circle. Continue until everyone has had a go, repeating
The two players holding these cards have to changethe target structure each time. With a class that learns
places without the person in the middle grabbing onequickly you can also introduce the rest of the
of their spots. If the person in the middle manages todeclension (he and she would like, etc.). You are now
slip into the spot in the circle then the one left standingready to proceed to a speaking game where your
goes in the middle. The new person in the middlepupils use the target structure, as they will have heard
hands their flash card to the child taking their place init repeatedly by now. You can follow the speaking
the circle.game up with a writing game, and hey presto your
If someone is stuck in the middle for two turns say, "Allchildren can understand, say, read and write the new
Change!" When the players hear this they must alltarget structure.
change places, which gives the person in the middle aNow what better way is there to teach grammar than
very good chance of joining the circle. Once everyonethat? You are teaching grammar by absorption and
has had one go ask your class to pass their picture torepetition, which is the way we learn our native tongue,
the right, and take the one handed to them from theand for children it is by far the best way to go.