The Summary of “Effectiveness of Using Games in Teaching Grammar to Young
Learners”
by Yolageldili and Arikan (2011)
In the journal of “Effectiveness of Using Games in Teaching Grammar to Young
Learners,” by Yolageldili and Arikan (2011), a game is one way to teach grammar to
young learners. The statement is supported by some reasons which are the enjoyment
of games, the student-centered learning, the real-life situation, and others. Moreover, as
the trend of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), a game can be an alternative for
teaching grammar to young learners. Thus, this study is mainly focused on the
effectiveness of the use of games in teaching grammar to young learners. To accomplish
the aim of the study, there are four research questions which are “What are Turkish EFL
teachers’ beliefs about the pedagogical value of using games in foreign language
classrooms? “What are the teachers’ attitudes towards using games in grammar
teaching?” “What do teachers think about the effectiveness of using games in teaching
grammar to young learners?”, and “To what extent do the teachers of EFL make use of
games while teaching grammar?”
The participants of this study are fifteen EFL teachers who are chosen through
purposive sampling. The participants’ age is around 24 to 54 years old which two of
them are still at the beginning of their teaching career. The participants are mostly
female which are about 73% women, and 27% males who are working in six different
state primary schools. The instrument of this study is the questionnaires which are
given to the participants. To achieve the aim of the study, the authors have three
procedures in collecting the data. The first procedure was explaining the purpose of the
questionnaire. Then, the participants were being led in answering the demographic
question. After that, they were directed to fill regarding their opinion toward the
effectiveness.
The result of the study was revealed that 86.67% teachers are believed in the
pedagogical value of the games. Moreover, 93.33% agree with the idea that there should
be a special role for a game in teaching programs. Also, the teachers also believe that
games can be an alternative to give instructions for the teachers. Furthermore, this
research revealed the result regarding the teacher’s attitude toward games which
63.33% do not share the same opinion that games prevent the teachers in measuring
the students. Besides, teachers also believed that games are not time-consuming and
distracting the students’ focused. However, the problem is to find the proper games for
the entire grammar field.
The third problem is to determine the effectiveness of games for teaching
grammar to young learners. Then, the result showed that most of the teachers were
believed that games could help to decrease the students' anxiety because of the
enjoyment in playing games. Besides, games also beneficial because of the
entertainment which helps in promoting fluency. Moreover, by playing games, students
unconsciously learned the structure of the grammar. Furthermore, the teacher did use
games as much as possible when teaching the students. However, teachers do not
frequently use it. In conclusion, games can be an alternative to learn grammar for young
learners which is also supported by the teachers’ perspectives toward the game.
Comments:
This study is interesting since it provides new perspectives for teaching young
learners which is games. Besides, the topic is current which becomes another positive
point for this study. In teaching young learners, teachers usually use games or video to
introduce the language to the students. Nonetheless, this study proposes another
beneficial term that can be effective to the teachers. There are some advantages of using
games in the classroom that the author put in the literature review. Then, this study
discusses the teachers’ perspectives to support the idea that games can be used for
teaching the students.
However, this study is lack of instruments, which it cannot go deeper. This
study used a questionnaire to gather the data which only discuss the surface. If this
study added the interview as the instruments, the result could go deeper regarding the
teachers’ opinion of the game. Thus, this study needs a further study regarding the
deeper reason for why using games to teach young learners. Moreover, this study stated
that teachers frequently used games because they did not know the suitable games to be
used. Thus, this can be the field for the further research to discuss the appropriate
games to be used in teaching young learners.
This study is more on for the people who are in charge in material
development. The reason is the focus of the games which is about the importance of
using games for teaching young learners. Thus, it is more suitable for the people who
work on making the lesson and materials because it gives the ideas or perspectives that
games have some crucial points for young learners in learning the language.
Furthermore, it also provides a further insight for the readers to see that games do not
only consist of playing but also learning. Besides, this study is a start point to do other
research regarding the use of games in teaching young learners. To be concluded, this
study is good to open the people’s mind as well as starting a new point to research about
games.