The Application Of Games To English Vocabulary Teaching For Higher-grade Primary School Students

Vocabulary ability is an important index to test students’ English ability.The English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2011 Edition)sets second-level goals for vocabulary learning of primary school students.In the second-level goals,not only are primary students required to acquire vocabulary based on the pronunciation,meaning,and form of words,but also can express the corresponding topic with the vocabulary they master.It can be seen that vocabulary learning is an important task of teaching English language knowledge in the higher grades of primary schools.According to the personality characteristics and learning styles of higher-grade students,it is particularly important to adopt suitable learning strategies and learning resources to stimulate their learning motivation,cultivate their learning interest,and improve their vocabulary learning efficiency.However,relevant research shows that the effect of English vocabulary teaching in the higher grades of primary schools is not good,mainly reflected in the following aspects:(1)The vocabulary teaching method is single or improper,resulting students are not active to learn vocabulary.(2)Primary school students recite and memorize vocabulary out of context which leads they can’t understand the meaning of the vocabulary.(3)With the increase of vocabulary and difficulty of vocabulary in the high grades of primary school,students are afraid of learning vocabulary.What’s more,their interest in learning decreases and their motivation for learning is insufficient.(4)The lack of vocabulary awareness training results in poor vocabulary learning.In view of these things,although they have explored the feasibility of applying games to the English vocabulary teaching of primary schools in previous research,due to the single type of games,fragmented instructional design,and vague teaching content which have been failed to improve the learning interest and effects of primary school students effectively.Therefore,this study intends to design a comprehensive game activity based on vocabulary meaning and form to explore its effectiveness in teaching English vocabulary for high grades in primary schools which may improve the effectiveness of teaching English vocabulary in high grades of primary school.The students of two classes in the sixth grade of a primary school in Chengdu were chosen as the object of the study.According to the voluntary principle,class(1)was selected as theexperimental class and class(2)was selected as the control class.In the experimental class,the game teaching method was adopted,and in the control class,the traditional vocabulary teaching method was adopted to start teaching research.However,irrelevant variables need to be controlled.First of all,the author made a comparative analysis of the results of the questionnaire survey before and after the experiment to discuss whether games can can effectively improve higher-grade students’ interest in English vocabulary and stimulate their English vocabulary motivation;Secondly,the author made a comparative analysis of the results of two class students’ vocabulary data from before and after the experiment to discuss whether games can improve the English vocabulary ability of higher-grade students of primary school effectively.The entire experiment was carried out from October 8,2019 to January 15,2020.(including vocabulary tests and questionnaires).After the experiment,the results of the questionnaire showed that comprehensive game activities which were designed on the basis of vocabulary meaning and form promote the initiative,participation and enthusiasm of vocabulary learning among primary school students,increase their satisfaction with vocabulary teaching and cultivate their interest in vocabulary learning.After the end of the experiment,the vocabulary test results showed that: after comprehensive game activities which were designed on the basis of vocabulary meaning and form were applied in vocabulary teaching,although the accuracy of the morphology of the students in the experimental class wasn’t improved significantly,the accuracy of the vocabulary scores and the meaning of the words was significantly improved.Based on the relevant theories and the results of research that games are applied to English vocabulary teaching in primary school,the author draws the following conclusions:(1)Comprehensive game activities which are designed on the basis of vocabulary meaning and form can effectively increase the interests and motivation of primary school students in learning English vocabulary.(2)Comprehensive game activities which are designed on the basis of vocabulary meaning and form can effectively improve the English vocabulary ability of higher-grades students in primary school.To sum up: The comprehensive game activities which are designed according to the cognitive personality characteristics and learning styles of higher-grade students in primary school systematically and gradually guide higher-grade students to use and master vocabulary learning strategies,cultivate effective vocabulary learning habits and promote the initiative andenthusiasm of higher-grade students in primary school.And it leads to achieve the goal of primary school English teaching,and also enriches the theory of vocabulary teaching to a certain extent.Therefore,there is certain theoretical and practical significance for primary school English teaching.Due to the lack of theoretical level and practical ability,the design of this comprehensive game activity is not comprehensive enough,and it is not obvious enough to improve the accuracy of the morphology.And the experimental objects also have limitations.These problems need to be studied and improved in the later period.