The role and importance of game technologies on language lessons

Learning a foreign language is not easy. If learning itself feels like a game, and if the learners feel they are discovering a fascinating new world through games which they would also enjoy playing outside the classroom, it is much more likely that English will play a central role in their world. Not only the children, but also adults will find easier to learn a foreign language, if they practice it through interesting activities. Foreign language teachers are like the artists who try to appeal to more than just the intellect by exercising their imagination as well as their heart. They have to know that times are changing and the teaching process requires new techniques. Games represent a bridge between studying and fun, between mother tongue and target language and last but not least, between teacher and student. We can also add that they help students to get to know themselves and their classmates. These reasons suggest that games are indispensable in teaching English as a foreign language.

Games offer students a fun-filled and relaxing learning atmosphere. After learning and practicing new vocabulary, students have the opportunity to use language in a non-stressful way. While playing games, the learners' attention is on the message, not on the language. Rather than pay attention to the correctness of linguistic forms, most participants will do all they can to win. This eases the fear of negative evaluation, the concern of being negatively judged in public, and which is one of the main factors inhibiting language learners from using the target language in front of other people. In a game-oriented context, anxiety is reduced and speech fluency is generated--thus communicative competence is achieved.

Games are also motivating. Games introduce an element of competition into language-building activities. This provides valuable impetus to a purposeful use of language (Prasad 2003). In other words, these activities create a meaningful context for language use. The competitive ambiance also makes learners concentrate and think intensively during the learning process, which enhances unconscious acquisition of inputs. Most students who have experienced game-oriented activities hold positive attitudes towards them (Uberman 1998). An action research conducted by Huyen and Nga (2003), students said that they liked the relaxed atmosphere, the competitiveness, and the motivation that games brought to the classroom. On the effectiveness of games, teachers in Huyen & Nga's (2003)reported that action research reported that their students seem to learn more quickly and retain the learned materials better in a stress-free and comfortable environment.

The benefits of using games in language-learning can be summed up in nine points.

Games: are learner centered.

1. promote communicative competence.

2. create a meaningful context for language use.

3. increase learning motivation.

4. reduce learning anxiety.

5. integrate various linguistic skills.

6. encourage creative and spontaneous use of language.

7. construct a cooperative learning environment.

8. foster participatory attitudes of the students.

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