3. Methodology 7

3.1 Research questions 7

3.2 Research participants 7

3.3 Research instruments 7

3.3.1 Tests 7

3.3.2 Questionnaire 8

3.4 The procedures of experiment 9

3.5 Data collection 10

4. Data analysis and discussion 11

4.1 Data analysis of the questionnaire 11

4.2 Data analysis of the tests 12

4.3 Discussion 15

4.3.1 Discussion of the effect on the application of game teaching approach 15

4.3.2 Suggestions 15

5. Conclusion 17

5.1 Major findings of the study 17

5.2 Limitations 17

References 19

Appendix 1   Pre-test Paper 21

Appendix 2   Post-test Paper 22

Appendix 3   Questionnaire 23

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

With the rapid development of economy, English has gained more and more importance. As an important part of the national basic education, English learning in primary school is the first time for the majority of children to contact with English. In our country, the ability to learn English has gained more and more attention from both parents and students. With the awareness of winning on the starting line, many parents ask their children to learn English at a very young age. Therefore, English education in primary school has become the focus of parents’ attention.

In order to help students learn more effectively in class time, more and more English teachers in primary school begin to explore the game teaching approach and apply the approach in their English classes. The New English Curriculum Standards (2011) points out that interest is the best teacher. For the English teachers in primary school, it is an important task to stimulate students’ interest in learning English. Game teaching approach can help students get more interested in learning English and fully adapt to the psychological characteristics of students, making some boring learning become vivid and interesting. Therefore, game teaching approach plays an important role in improving the effects of classroom teaching.

But in practical teaching, many teachers hold that Grade 6 students are too mature to play games in class, so they usually cancel the game time and replace it with some summary of language rules which are taught in traditional teaching approach. Although it is beneficial for students to know some rules because of the development of their logical thinking ability, the importance of game teaching cannot be ignored.

In fact, although the students in Grade 6 have some psychological changes, they are 12-year-old kids and they still love games. The teachers need to choose some suitable games in accordance with students’ psychological characteristics to facilitate teaching and learning. What’s more, with the deepening of English learning, students need a lot of vocabularies as basis. They inevitably need to remember a large number of words. Vocabulary class has become an important part in their English learning, especially for students at higher level in primary school, who is going to enter junior high school. Game teaching approach can help students learn new words better and happily.

This study tries to sum up the influence of game teaching approach in English vocabulary teaching in primary school by experiment and then proposes some suggestions on English vocabulary teaching in Primary school.

1.2 Significance of the study

After observing the English classes in Grade 4 and Grade 6 respectively, the author found that the students in Grade 6 were not as active as the students in Grade 4. The younger students were more willing to raise their hands and take part in activities while the elders were more inclined to listen to their teachers rather than expressing their own ideas.

At the same time, the students in Grade 6 have to face the increasing demands on vocabulary which is a heavy burden for their English learning. Therefore, it is an important task for English teachers to help students learn more effectively in the class.