Games as a tool for teaching English vocabulary to young learners

The purpose of the thesis is to analyse the issue of vocabulary teaching with the use of games and plays. The main aim of the paper is to examine the effectiveness of the use of games in vocabulary teaching. Chapter one, first of the two theoretical chapters, defines basic terminology related to vocabulary. It is based on research literature, and it focuses on the understanding of ‘vocabulary’ and ‘the word’, provided by various researchers. Chapter one also reports the role of L1 in the language teaching, and an impact of the corporal studies, on the development of the vocabulary teaching practices. Chapter two provides the definition and classification of games. Games have been divided in terms of their structure, function, the use and the required L1 proficiency of the students. The Chapter presents the way teachers introduce games during their lessons, and highlights the factors that contribute to choosing games by the teachers. Moreover, certain possible dangers resulted from playing games have been presented in the Chapter two. Detailed analysis of research literature confirmed previous hypothesis that games constitute a crucial element of teaching English in young children. The empirical Chapter provides the description of three games used for teaching English, and compares their effectiveness. The games have been tested on different age groups. The thesis ends with the conclusions on the theoretical and empirical chapters.