Language games.

Language games are activities that are used to promote and improve communication. As we can see, “language experience activities involve planned, purposeful “doing and talking” together, which will be followed by writing and reading about the experience”, so with these games course is given for different activities of another area, like writing and reading. Children must speak during the game with their classmates. The aim is to make sense of what they are talking about and to have a conversation with the others.

     Language games are useful for everyone who wants to speak another language, because they will get on with it. It is better to use games, specially with children, when you are teaching something that will be difficult for them, as the writers say in Games for Language Learning “games help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest and work”(Andrew Wright, David Betteridge, Michael Buckby, Cambridge University Press, 2006). With these language games they will talk in an interesting and funny way. These activities will help the pupils to work the grammar, the vocabulary and mainly the fluency of the new langauge. It is not difficult to find books that can help a teacher in this field, for example 101 Language Games for Children, Games for Language Learning or Games for Second Language Learning. Language games have some objetives, “encourage appreciation for language, foster creativity, increase vocabulary, develop fluency and improve speaking skills”(Paul Rooyackers, Hunter House, 2002) For me the most important aim is, to improve speaking skills, they must know how to express their ideas when they are talking. But in the other hand I must say that all of them are essential aims for learning a new languge.

     To sum up, language games are done for learning in an enjoyable and funny way the communication area. In my opinion, these games must be work in class because it is  a way where the children learn and improve their second language.

References:

- http://literacyonline.tki.org.nz/Literacy-Online/Teacher-needs/Reviewed-resources/Reading/Comprehension/ELP-Years-1-4/Language-experience-activities

- Paul Rooyackers: 101 Language Games for Children. Hunter House: 2002.

- Andrew Wright, David Betteridge, Michael Buckby: Games for Language Learning. Cambridge University Press: 2006.

 

 

 

Co-operate.

The word co-operate is defined as “together; joint or jointly; mutual or mutually”. This word used in the subjet of CLIL wants to say that all the children must work in groups or together, not alone. According to Johnson, Maruyama, Johnson, Nelson and Skon, “cooperative learning has also proved favourable to social cohesion and collaboration within the group, allowing students to overcome fear in front of other students or teachers.”  It is a word to be employed at all the subjects, not only in CLIL.

     If we focus in CLIL subjet, co-operative work is something very important because the children will learn as a whole. It is true that the word co-operate has a broad range, as we know we can talk about co-operative work with different number of children and that will have different level of difficulty. Small groups, in my opinion, are the best ones that is because all the group is going to work and contribute, not like in a big group where only some of them are going to do the work and they are not going to complete tasks collectively. And in CLIL must work everyone equally, it is a new subjet for them so all of them start in the same level. In this book they talk about a work of “the whole-class or in groups” (Ana Llinares, Tom Morton, Rachel Whittaker; Cambridge University Press; 2012) but they not talk about an individul work, that is because the best way to teach CLIL is by a co-operative learning. Other authors repit the same; group work is a “useful teaching method” (Lydia Sajda; GRIN Verlag, 2008).

     In CLIL, one of the most important aim is to learn science vocabulary and children will learn those words by speaking, reading, writing or listening. Those methods will be work in groups and not individually. Because in my opinion, it is more interesting for the pupil to work with their classmates and not in their own. In addtion, with a co-operative work, children will learn about the others and they will help each other. It is true that with this co-operate learning, it is easier that children get distracted. But on the other hand, “effective cooperative learning experiences increase the probability of children's success throughout their school years”.

References:

- http://www.wordreference.com/definition/co-%20operate

- http://englishc1.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/turin_paper_casal.pdf

- Ana Llinares, Tom Morton, Rachel Whittaker: The Roles of Language in CLIL. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

- Lydia Sajda: CLIL. Content and language integrated learning. GRIN Verlag: 2008.
 

- http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0302-cooperative.html