COMPUTER-BASED INTERACTIVE GAMES AS LEARNING AIDS

Abstract

Children like games, whether in traditional formats or computer-based. Because of their intrinsic entertainment value, games constitute an effective tool for educators to engage students. Basically any game can be adapted to help teachers in what they are doing in the classroom. They do not just reinforce social skills but enable students to learn how to focus, put together strategies, and solve problems. As learning aids, games can play an important role to develop critical thinking skills in children. The integration of learning with games makes any subject more enjoyable and also motivates students to learn. This results in students becoming immersed in the learning material. This paper shows different applications which are available to help English teachers introduce games into their teaching methodology with a focus on content application. Teachers are provided guidelines to build an interactive game for teaching English; the requirements are to build an effective game to support teaching a lesson. The paper covers when to use games as a supporting learning aid and how teachers can edit and manipulate available games to support classroom instruction. The focus demonstrates how students learn the language in an attractive and fun way using the curriculum guideline and benchmarks provided by the Curriculum Development Department of the Ministry of Education Malaysia. This paper also acts as a plea for national school teachers to be supported and encouraged in the use of the Internet as educational tools to improve their creative skills in teaching.