Game as a Method in Language Teaching: Findings of a Teacher Survey
Ilka Lyubenova Birova *
Department of Russian Language, Sofia University St. Kl. Ohridski, Bulgaria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This article focuses on the game as an important method in foreign language teaching. The author analyses results of her investigation conducted in 2015 with 125 teachers of second / foreign languages in Bulgarian schools. Bulgarian teachers of Russian constitute a predominant segment of the teachers investigated, but teachers from Great Britain, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Serbia have taken part as well. The results indicate a strong positive attitude to using games as a teaching method by all the teachers. But at the same time, there is insufficient use of game technologies in teaching practice and a deficit of playful exercises in foreign language textbooks. The author comments on some possible reasons for this and argues that the game method has to be actively used at all stages of second language teaching in combination with other teaching methods.
Keywords: Game, teaching method, foreign (second) languages, investigation.