USING LANGUAGE GAMES TO ENHANCE ORAL COMMUNICATION FORM 4 STUDENTS (WEAK CLASS)

RESEARCH QUESTIONS To achieve the objectives of this study, there are a few research questions that need to be answered. 1) How language games are effective in the teaching of oral skills in weak class? 2) How effective are language games in motivating the students oral skills?

1.Purpose Of Study Most of the students in upper secondary level (weak class) are reluctant to communicate or speak during English Lesson. This is because they are shy and lacking of exposure in the language. Moreover, most of them came from the vernacular schools such as Chinese and Tamil primary vernacular schools. By using the language games it can help to enhance and improve their oral communication skill in secondary school. That is why language games are chosen to help the teacher in their teaching and learning activities and also to motivate students in oral communication.

Rationale.

Why use language games for improving oral communication?

There are two reasons why language games are used .They are:1. To motivate and encourage students to learn English as well to make the lesson enjoyable. 2. To enhance the teaching impact.

AIMS 1. To encourage and motivate students performance in English 2. To create a friendly and enjoyable environment. 3. To make students feel more ease and relaxed to use the language. 1.1 OBJECTIVES. To prepare students for effective listening and speaking. To increase students interest in learning English language. To make students feel confident in using the target language. To enable teacher to access and improve the skills and ability the students to communicate in English.

At the beginning of my career 9 years ago as a primary teacher in rural school and 6 years in upper secondary, I taught English as the way Ive learned. I used most of the Structural Approach such as Grammar Translation, Audio Lingual Method, Drilling and practice in my teaching lesson. I found it most of my student feel exhausted due to this method. Although they able to write a few good sentences in English, when it comes to speaking skills they turn of their tongue. The English Language Syllabus (KBSM Form 4 2003) secondary school level has formulated to cover the four main skills, mainly Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. According to Gaudart (1996) the inability of second language children to interact orally is a major concern of researches to communicate in the English Language. This is because they are lack of confidence, probably due to their social background where English is seldom or hardly used as the medium of

communication. Apart from that their mother tongue or L1 plays important role in their daily lives. Literature review.

According to Pivec & Dziabenko 2010 The learning process should be interesting ,easy and it should be fun to learn, It also should fit with everyday task and the working environment in order to achieve optimum results. This means that it is important to give prominence on the games to make communication successful rather than on the perfection or accuracy of the language. Therefore game should be integrated as a part of the language syllabus because they can help student to sustain the effort of learning. Hence, this article is to show how language games can be used to teach oral communication more meritoriously. According to Gaudart (1996) the inability of second language children to interact orally is a major concern of researches to communicate in the English Language. This is because they are lack of confidence, probably due to their social background where English is seldom or hardly used as the medium of communication. Apart from that their mother tongue or L1 plays important role in their daily lives.

Decline.

Although using language games is a good strategy in the process of teaching the English Language, it has 2 disadvantages. They are:-

1. According to Lee,S.K. (1995), having fun and laughter is not really learning. As the common perception is that learning should be serious and solemn in nature. This is due to the fear that the classroom would be noisy and seems out of control when games are being carried out during the lesson. 2. Rixon, (1981) added that preparation of materials for games especially if the class is large; thus causing students to have very limited opportunities to take part. This may cause some disciplinary problems in the class. Games are handled with fun.