A Study On The Application Of Game Teaching Approach To English Vocabulary In Primary School

Under the general trend of globalization,more and more people are realizing the importance of English.At the same time,English learning has received unprecedented attention.As the primary stage of English study,English teaching in elementary school has become the focus of attention.The key of English teaching in primary school is vocabulary teaching.Mastering enough vocabulary is important for elementary school students,yet the current status of elementary students’ English vocabulary learning is not optimistic.Therefore,many English teachers are actively exploring the way to teach pupils vocabulary,thus the game teaching approach arises at the right moment.This study is based on the affective filter hypothesis and constructivism.The author selects the students as the subjects of the study,who are from Class One and Class Two of Grade Five of primary school in Shangqiu City.The author conducted a teaching control experiment on the application of the game teaching approach and tried to solve the following three questions:(1)Can the game teaching approach improve elementary school students’ interest in learning English vocabulary?(2)Can the game teaching approach improve elementary school students’ English vocabulary test scores?(3)What are the attitudes of teachers and students towards the game teaching approach?The whole experiment lasted for one semester(September 2020-January 2021).The experimental and control classes had approximately the same level of English with the same content of the materials and the same teachers,while the two classes used different teaching methods.The game teaching approach was used in the experimental class,while the previous vocabulary teaching method was used in the control class.In order to increase the credibility of the experimental results,the author conducted pre-tests,post-tests,questionnaires and interviews.The study found that:Elementary school students were more interested in the vocabulary teaching lessons after using the game teaching approach;students’ vocabulary scores were substantially improved after using the game teaching approach;teachers and students mostly had positive attitudes toward the game teaching approach.