Gordon Lewis, Günther Bedson
GAMES FOR CHILDREN
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Illustrations by: David Eaton
Cover illustration by: Andrew Wright
Acknowledgements
First and foremost I would like to thank Katja Prößdorf-Lewis for her tireless efforts in reviewing the manuscript. In addition, a great thank-you goes out to all the teachers at Lewis Languages in Berlin, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, and Cologne who contributed ideas and tested the games in their classes. In particular I would like to mention Lauri Smith, Laura Shaffer, Claire Coles, Gretchen Iverson, Martha Parsey, and Dee Leckie: all great and creative teachers. Many of their ideas were the sparks which triggered off nished games.
Finally, I would like to thank Julia Sallabank for leading us successfully through the editing process and helping us broaden our focus from Germany to a whole world of children.
This book is dedicated to Nicholas and Kira-Sophie Lewis
The authors and series editor
Gordon Lewis studied languages and linguistics at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. (B.S.) and at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California (M.S.). He began teaching English in Vienna, Austria, where he taught numerous private clients of all ages and worked in the company service of Inlingua as well. In 1988 he moved to Berlin, where he continued to teach privately. In December 1989, together with an East German partner, he founded Atlantic Connections, the rst private language school in the GDR. Today the Children’s Language School has branches in Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Heidelberg, and Cologne. Gordon Lewis currently lives in Munich, where he concentrates on teacher training and curriculum development. He also taught in Russia and was a member of the EC Commission Team of Experts visiting Moscow State University, where he was responsible for evaluating the Philological Faculties and the Faculty of Modern Languages for the TACIS Program.
Günther Bedson is the director for the North-East region of Germany of the Children’s Language School. He also conducts teacher training seminars with Gordon Lewis throughout Germany. Günther Bedson is from Wolverhampton, England, but studied English at the Free University of Berlin, where he was awarded a German teaching degree. He has been with Lewis Languages since 1993.
Alan Maley worked for The British Council from 1962 to 1988, serving as English Language Ofcer in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, and China, and as Regional Representative in South India (Madras). From 1988 to 1993 he was Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust, Cambridge. From 1993 to 1998 he was Senior Fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature of the National University of Singapore. He is currently a freelance consultant and Director of the graduate English programme at Assumption University, Bangkok. Among his publications are Literature, in this series, Beyond Words, Sounds Interesting, Sounds Intriguing, Words, Variations on a Theme, and Drama Techniques in Language Learning (all with Alan Duff), The Mind’s Eye (with Françoise Grellet and Alan Duff), Learning to Listen and Poem into Poem (with Sandra Moulding), and Short and Sweet. He is also Series Editor for the Oxford Supplementary Skills series.
Foreword
The pedagogical value of games in language learning at all levels has been well documented. Apart from their motivational value as an enjoyable form of activity, they provide a context in which the language is embedded. This context is ‘authentic’ in the sense that the game creates its own world: for the duration of the game, it replaces external reality. Games also create the circumstances for meaningful repetition. Furthermore, the ‘same’ game can be played many times yet never produce identical outcomes. Needless to say, games also ensure that the players interact with each other, and this interaction is usually played out in language.
For younger learners games have even greater appeal. Children are curiously paradoxical. They can be both committed to co-operation and, at the same time, ercely competitive. They love the security of routine and the predictability of rules, yet they are often amazingly unpredictable and creative. They love to have fun, yet they dedicate themselves with deadly seriousness to the activities they engage in. It is not surprising therefore that games are so popular with children; games too involve both co-operation and competition, rules and unpredictability, enjoyment and serious commitment.
This new book of games for younger learners amply demonstrates these qualities. The authors have put together a rich and varied selection of games for children. Many of them have been devised by the authors and are therefore completely original. Some well-tried favourites have also been included, often with a new twist. All the games described here have been thoroughly tested with real learners. This collection is likely to prove to be the authoritative text on games for young learners for some years to come.
Alan Maley
Introduction
This book is for