Incorporating language games to enhance grammar acquisition in the ESL classroom: an exploratory study / Rafhana Roslan

Grammar is essential in second language acquisition. However, English teachers tend
to focus on traditional grammar teaching which emphasizes more on the rules rather than
meaning. Therefore, language games is suggested as one of the techniques that can create
meaningful contexts of language use in the teaching of grammar (Vernon, 2010). As Brown
(2003) observes, most games require students to work in pairs or groups and this brings
advantage to them as it can create a student-centered environment. This study investigated the
effectiveness of language games in the acquisition of grammar among 51 Form One ESL
learners of a secondary school. They were divided into the experimental and control group.
Specifically, this study seeks to observe which types of language games enhance students’
grammar acquisition. Additionally, the study attempted to investigate the correlation between
the use of language games in teaching grammar and students’ test score in English. The
research design is an experimental research. Thus, the independent variable was language
games and the dependent variable was grammar acquisition of the students, measured in
terms of their scores in test. Data obtained from the tests were analyzed using independent
sample t-test. The findings of this study revealed that the use of language games did enhance
grammatical competence. In addition, there was significant relationship between English test
scores of students and the use of language games in teaching. The study concludes with some
recommendations to include language games in ESL classroom to enhance students’
grammatical competence.