How to expland vocabulary acquisition through games. A study with children from thrid level of basic education in Fray Gaspar de Carvajal School

Abstract

Due to the fact that the students, who were enrolled in a rural school of Cuenca, were acquiring English vocabulary in a traditional way (transcribing and repeating the words several times in their notebooks), and they did not feel motivated to learn, we decided to do a research in order to help them to acquire words by using games in an English class. As we know games,are an important part in the children’s life. The aim of using games was to encourage students to learn vocabulary in a fun way. This project was carried out in Fray Gaspar de CarvajalElementary School, which is located in Sayausi. The participants of this project were 31 children from the third grade of Basic Education. During the development of this project we looked for amusing and entertaining activities according to the students’ level so that they could perform vocabulary games without any problem. This project was a proposal to incorporate games in an English class where the teacher and students could have fun, participate actively, work cooperatively, and learn at the same time. Vocabulary learning is an important and indispensable part of any language learning process. The authors of this thesis focus on effective vocabulary teaching strategies in the English Foreign Language classroom. One of the effective vocabulary teaching strategies is the use of games.