Topic 18

Functions of games and creativity in the foreign language learning process. Definition and typology of games. Games as a creative technique to achieve the Communicative Competence.

Functions of games and creativity in the foreign language learning process

Definition and typology of games

Games as a creative technique to achieve the Communicative Competence

Creativity is an essential feature of the individual, expressed in terms of imagination, open-mindedness and self-confidence. Disposition, aptitude to do something new and innovative, involving flexibility, originality and the ability to suggest new ideas and solve problems.

Games develop children’s creativity, since they imagine situations. Characteristics: spontaneous and free, have and end in themselves, educational value that contributes to the full development of personality, combine three essential elements of creativity (imagination, originality and expression).

The main functions in FLL are:

Linguistic function: new vocabulary, syntax structure reinforcement, improve pronunciation and suprasegmental phonemes, spelling, acquire the CC…

Pedagogical function: natural and enjoyable way of introducing and learning the L2, unconscious and meaningful learning, relaxed atmosphere…

Cognitive function: whole personality development, favours concentration, memory and coordination, increases critical-analytical thinking and reasoning…

Social-affective function: enhances collaboration and group work, socialization and communication, developing social skills…

Cultural function: students develop curiosity and positive attitudes towards the target language and its culture, awareness of other cultures…

Regarding the main functions of creativity in foreign language learning, research shows the importance of creativity when learning a language, Chomsky opposed the behaviourist idea that language is not just learnt by imitation and repetition, but generated from the learner’s competence and creative abilities.

Therefore, the main function of creativity is enabling learners to make utterances in a creative way. Thus, we will mention some principles from a psychological point of view that supports these notions: innate necessity, Krashen (affective filter), natural predisposition, creative and meaningful exp. Ausubel creativity is essential to develop cognitive and linguistic abilities.

Pedagogical and methodological reasons (Brewster, 1992): add varitety, change of pace, formal teaching is hidden, participation and communication is increassed, practice fluency, improve L and S skills...

Richard-Amato, put the emphasis on the fact that games promote both conscious learning and unconscious acquisition of the language

Other advantages: social interaction Vygotsky, learner-centred, diversity (Gardner).

Klauer (1998) presented several characteristics: Games are governed by rules. They have a particular and clear objective or task to accomplish. They do not need much supervision from adults. They have a component of fun.

Following Harve (1982), games and creativity are an inherent part of children's lives, and they provide them with a link with the real world. He argued that when they are used in a teaching environment, games are hard work themselves, and they can even be established as the core of a lesson.

Just to finish this part of the essay, I will present the main functions of games, according to Richard-Amato (1996): Recreation, rest, energy excess, functional anticipation and recapitulation.​​​​​​

Categories of games from various viewpoints: interaction of the students (cooperative and competitive), instructional focus (code-controlled and communicative), technique (information gap, information transfer or barter), grouping, medium (oral and written).

Types of games: according to Hadfield they can be:

Linguistic: aim to develop accuracy and practice items like vocabulary, grammar or pronunciation. Types: vocabulary games (lexical items, i.e., scrabble, bingo, crosswords, anagrams…), grammar games (syntactic patterns, find someone who, noughts and crosses…); pronunciation games (practice for sounds, rhythm and intonation, Chinese whispers, tongue twisters…), spelling games (awareness of phoneme-grapheme correspondences, hangman, word chains, crosswords…) .

Communicative: develop fluency and collaboration with others. Exchange info and ideas, the goal is to communicate fluently. They can be cooperative (they require teamwork, memory game, who am I?) or competitive (they can be done in groups, pairs or individually, there is always a winner, be careful with the group selections, quizzes and boardgames).

Principles in order to maximise the use of games: age, needs and interests, linguistic and stylistic level of difficulty. Appropriate moment (stage, Brewster). Uberman points out, games can be used as a way to revise and recycle previously taught language.

Decide about the groupings, taking into consideration the number of students who play together, which students constitute the groups. Balanced way. The groups can be organised: simillar or mixed level.

Decide about the way arranging the classroom in terms of space: in pairs, rows, groups or U-shape organization. In some cases, we can even take advantage of other facilities of the school, like the gym or the playground.

The role of the teacher is another important factor, in a communicative approach they should play a less controlling role and act as an organiser, a monitor, a prompter, a resource or a mere participant.

Teachers must encourage the students to participate and communicate freely.

The main goals and the kind of response must be explained, games must be success-oriented, and their difficulty must be adapted to the pupils' capacities. ICTS.

CC and Kagan.

Lee (1986) categorization of games for the improvement of the CC: Structure games: focused on grammar aspects. Vocabulary games: for the acquisition of lexical items. Pronunciation games: for improving oral comprehension and production. Spelling games: which work on the writing skills and on the grapheme and phoneme relationship. Action games: they incorporate Total Physical Response techniques that mix language and physical movements to enhance memorization. Miming and role-plays: they are drama-based activities that are meant to present the contents in a contextualised manner and to make students experience the language actively.

Other practical and concrete examples of games that I would suggest are: miming; questions and answers; memory games; brainstorming activities; finding the differences between images; board-games; cards; dominoes; crosswords; bingos...

Just to finish this point, I am going to argue in favour of the gamification of the whole learning-teaching process. In recent years, many pedagogues have experimented a significant increase in the motivation and the participation of the students when a consistent motivational plan and a reward system are used. Consequently, instead of playing games from time to time, we can give the students the opportunity to get points from any task carried out in the class, and eventually, to get fictional trophies and also real rewards. By doing so, we will be setting up an engaging teaching scenario that is close to our students' interests.