Abstract:

The paper presents results of the research dealing with the games as a didactic means of didactic game, Englishteaching English tenses at the primary school level. The main objective of the research was to discover whether/to what extent learners acquired the learning content taught through the games. The research sample included the 3rd grade learners (8-year-old, beginners in English language) attending three types of primary schools specialized in extensive teaching of:
(1) English as a foreign language,
(2) Mathematics and
(3) applying Montessori principles in all subjects.

For the purpose of the research, two tenses were taught – the present simple and present continuous tense, and three games were used:
(1) the mime game to discover performed activities,
(2) the creativity game to describe the coloured picture learners were drawing,
(3) the matching game to make pairs of activities described in short sentences and pictures.

They were of traditional type, i.e. non-ICT enhanced ones, which brought a change into the currently frequent exploitation of modern technologies in teaching; it attracted learners´ attention and increased their involvement. For monitoring the process of instruction and collecting the data, two research tools were exploited:
(1) the didactic test to detect whether learners acquired the learning content and
(2) the open-answer questionnaire to get teacher´s feedback on the process of instruction.

The results proved using games in teaching English present simple and present continuous tenses to be appropriate approach for the 3rd grade learners. Moreover, within the teacher´s feedback the high level of learners´ activity and engagement during the lessons were emphasized.

Keywords:

Didactic game, English, primary school, present simple tense, present continuous tense.