 How games can boost your lessons? One of the repeating themes of this TEFL course, has been the games a classroom may participate in, and the many variants of games appropriate for the learning of English. Examples are Hangman, crossword puzzles, word jumbles, 20 questions, and many more to mention. The games can often serve very specific purposes, which were perhaps not the original intentions for the games, however within the classroom they can perfectly fit into their role. Learning twisters are an excellent choice when practicing pronunciations on students in the fluency stage of the lesson, as it allows them to make mistakes without the fear of embarrassment from failure, and forces them to apply the words quickly without much time for hesitation and consideration. Developing skills? Games can be a useful tool for the students to develop their skills in English, but also a tool which can improve the teacher's effectiveness on their students. Games like crossword puzzles or hangman can be used as a method to elicit vocabulary from a student, and to gauge the depth of their knowledge. Pair work or group work games will force the students to communicate with each other, and the teacher can pair the students with whom they best deem appropriate, pairing weaker students with stronger students, to bolster their confidence and skills. If the game does not require constant monitoring, then it will also allow the teacher some time to write down the next board work. Types of games? There are two game types to consider which are cooperative games and competitive games, both serving appropriate functions within the classroom. Cooperative games are those which the students will team together and work cooperatively, while competitive games are the opposite allowing the students to engage in friendly competition with one another. As a teacher, it would be good to understand which games create a stronger learning environment for each of your classes, knowing which class is more competitive, and which class is less. Linguistic games and communicative games are other factors to consider, thus the teacher must understand which is the goal of their next lesson, to either improve the student's linguistic knowledge or their fluency and speech. Lesson stage? It is also appropriate to consider which game will fit into which section of the lesson, whether it's in the engage, study, or activate stage, and which game will best support the section's purpose. For example, Pryor was mentioned the Game of Tongue Twisters, which can improve the fluency of the students, and may best fit within the activate stage of the lesson. Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course today. Overall, games serve an important function in teaching, it's unrealistic to imagine a classroom, which only provides a pure study with nothing to break up the monotony of the lesson. Students will become unengaged, and soon tire of their studies and fail to learn as effectively. Games can also fill a necessary function, providing an angle of the studies, which allows the students to improve their understanding of the topic. Games are a means to express creativity, to promote social interaction, and increase to overall enjoyment and attention of the classroom. Thanks so much for watching. We are ITTT the leading provider for TEFL and TESOL training courses. If you like this video, please subscribe by clicking that button down here, and click on any of the videos here on the left for more interesting teaching tips for getting certified to teach English abroad and online.