Review in Form of a Game: Practical Remarks for a Language Course

Authors

  • Snejina Sonina

Keywords:

language teaching; technology and PowerPoint; game-based approach; final review, review game in the classroom

Abstract

The article summarizes my own experience of conducting
reviews for exams in French language courses. Through more than ten
years of teaching French language and linguistics, I have developed preexam                                                                                                                 review sessions based on game models to help my students repeat
term lessons in an engaging and memorable atmosphere. The article is
intended as a practical guide for creating and organising such a review
game. It is constituted of seven parts with subtitles, which should make
it easy to navigate. After a short introduction describing challenges
encountered in end-of-year reviews, the reader will find a general
description of the game in part 2 and examples of one complete round of
it in part 4, while the interceding part 3 will provide practical tips on
support materials, which themselves make up part 5. These supports
deal with ways of formulating questions and displaying answers using
animations in PowerPoint presentations. The final section, part 6, will
offer advice on using a course website and classroom aids to increase
student attendance and encourage more effective classroom
participation. The brief conclusion enumerates the beneficial effects of
the game, underlines the value of a well-prepared PowerPoint
presentation, and gives examples of students’ positive feedback on this
format of material review.

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Published

2017-01-30