ENCOURAGE YOUR STUDENTS TO PLAY!

The language learning process is time consuming and stress provoking. Individual psychological factors and student-teacher chemistry may also raise the stress level to a point at which it interferes with student attention and efficiency and weakens motivation. We can say that stress is a major hindrance in the language learning process.

There have been many attempts to solve this problem. One idea is to develop activities to make students forget that they are in class, that is, to relax students by engaging them in stress-reducing tasks. That is why games are so important in the English-teaching world today.

Games are a natural, playful means of learning and expression enjoyed from childhood. We can all remember games from our childhood – games that we loved and played again and again. Games are an important part of play activity, so essential to human development in all cultures.

There are several games that can be played online, and I would like to recommend one that is really fun and helps students to review question formation. It is called “Akinator” (https://en.akinator.com/).

Akinator is a genie and he can guess what you are thinking. Think about a real or fictional character. The genie will try to guess who it is. He will ask you a question. You click on one of the five possible answers – Yes, probably / partially, I don’t know, probably not / not Really or No. After 20 questions, he guesses who the person is, and even shows their picture. It’s really amazing, because he is almost always right. When he is wrong, you can declare yourself the winner, or you can have a second round of questions.

Although all you have to do is click on one of the answers, the game is an excellent opportunity to review question forms, because the genie asks you all sorts of questions. You can play this game at school if you have a computer with Internet connection in your classroom, and students can also play it at home. They will practice their English and also have a lot of fun.

Carlos Gontow is an English teacher, actor and teacher trainer. He has had about 25 years of experience teaching children, teenagers and adults. He’s involved with teaching English through theater, games and songs. He’s the author of the books “The Classroom is a Stage – 40 Short Plays for English Students” and “101 Dicas Para Você Aprender Inglês Com Sucesso,” both published by DISAL. He’s also the author of the blog “Dicas Para Aprender Inglês”