engleski

Vocabulary games in teaching EFL to young learners

Teaching vocabulary to young learners is both a challenging and a demanding task for an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher. It is considered that teaching vocabulary can be facilitated by applying game-like activities in the elementary stage of learning since game is a part of children’s everyday life. The beginning of the thesis focuses on the theory of game, its classification and application in the EFL classroom. The research was conducted in the primary school in Daruvar. The participants of the research were 32 second grade pupils, all between the ages of 8 and 9. The pupils were divided into two groups ; the control group, which underwent traditional teaching lessons, and the experimental group, which was exposed to games and game-like activities during the lessons. Two sessions were conducted in each group. The aim of the research was to examine the usefulness of vocabulary games and their impact on vocabulary retention, as well as to compare games with the traditional methods of teaching vocabulary. The results of the research showed that the effects resulting in the use of games and game-like activities were more prominently shown and felt after a certain amount of time had passed, rather than immediately after the lessons were conducted. The results proved that the usage of games is more effective than using traditional methods in teaching vocabulary to young learners. It is, therefore, recommended to use games as an effective educational tool for the primary stages in teaching English as a foreign language.

EFL; teaching vocabulary; games; retention

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