If your adult students refuse to play games in class, they probably think they are a waste of time. Students might be right, because it all depends on the game. There is a difference between just fun and useful fun, and in this workshop we will find out how to make fun meaningful and help you choose the right games to cater for your students' needs.

1. Useful Fun in the English
Language Classroom
Olga Connolly
Director of Studies for BKC-IH Moscow
CELTA, Delta trainer

2. Activities
A ball name game
Singing a song together
Playing a tic-tac-toe
“Broken telephone”
 A role-play (a parent and a teenager)
A team competition (e.g. who can
remember the most vegetables?)

3.  The reaction depends on the meaning
particular situation or event has for an
individual (Gross, 2007).
 What is fun for the teacher is not
necessarily fun for the students.
 The brain prioritises emotions over
cognitive processes (Williams, et al,
2015).

4. Appraisal of events
1. Novelty
2. Pleasantness
3. Goal conduciveness — in harmony with
one's purpose or objective
4. Coping potential - challenge
5. Self-compatibility — in harmony with
social and cultural norms, self-concept
(Schumann, 1999)

5. ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

6. q u a g m i r e

7. Positive emotions
«Broaden-and-build» theory — Barbara
Fredrickson (2009, 2013):
 think in more diverse, creative ways
 broaden people's attention
 broaden the way we think and act
 bring happiness

8. Fun
•Enjoyment, especially from an activity
that is not important or serious
(Macmillan)
•Pleasure, enjoyment, amusement
(Cambridge)
•A source of enjoyment, amusement,
diversion, pleasure, gaiety, merriment
(Collins)

9. Enjoyment
•The pleasure you get from an activity
or experience (Macmillan)
•A feeling of happiness or pleasure; of
benefit and use (Cambridge)
•Use or possession of something that is
satisfying or beneficial (Collins)

11. Flow Experience
 they are completely involved;
 their concentration is very deep;
 they are sufficiently challenged;
 they have a purpose;
 they know how well they are doing;
 they are not worried about failing;
 they develop their strengths
 they lose the ordinary self-conscious worry
that characterizes daily life
Csikszentmihalyi (1997)

12. Novelty
 Drilling with different intonation (e.g. food)
 Doing an activity (e.g. a role-play)
standing up/ outside the classroom
 Repetition with eyes closed

13. Coping potential
Challenge
 doing a gap-fill orally
 turning a sentence transformation
exercise into a memory drill

14. Make one sentence from 1 – 4, using non-defining
relative clauses.
1.My arm is better now. I hurt it last week.
My arm, which I hurt last week, is better now.
2. My aunt works in the hospital. She’s a doctor.
My aunt, who
is ..................................................
3. The lake was very cold. I went there for a swim.
The lake,
where ...................................................
4. Ricky is my best friend. His sister is a nurse.
Ricky,
whose ........................................................
Complete PET, Heyderman & May, CUP

15. Goal conduciveness
a “banana” dictation for revising
vocabulary
“broken telephone” with a story
a running dictation with true/false
statements about the following listening
activity
memory activity with a video to practise
questions/answers

16. a)The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer
heart attacks that the British or American.
b) On the other hand, the French eat a lot of fat and
also suffer fewer heart attacks that the British or
American.
c) The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer
fewer heart attacks that the British or American.
d) On the other hand, the Italians drink lots of red
wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks that the
British or American.
e) The conclusion is “Eat and drink what you like. It’s
speaking English that kills you!”
Memory Activities for Language Learning, CUP, 2011

17. Pleasantness
Compete against the teacher!

18. Quiz questions
 Which theory claims that positive
emotions help us to think in a more
diverse, creative ways, broaden people's
attention and the way they think and
act?
 What does Schumann call the process of
evaluating life events?

19. Bibliography
 Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Finding flow: The psychology of
engagement with everyday life. Basic Books, 1997.
 England D. Talk at IH AMT Conference presentation
‘Fun’ and ‘Enjoyment’: the same thing, right? Wrong!
 Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Positive emotions broaden and
build. Advances in experimental social psychology,
47(1), 53.
 Gross, J. J., & Thompson, R. A. (2007). Emotion
regulation: Conceptual foundations.
 Schumann, J. H. (1999). A neurobiological perspective
on affect and methodology in second language
learning. Affect in language learning, 28-42.
 Williams M., Mercer S. & Ryan S. (2015). Exploring
Psychology in Language learning and Teaching, OUP

20. Thank You
Moscow, 3-5 Gazetny pereulok, office 602
www.bkc.ru
+7 (499) 372 – 14 – 04
t-training@bkc.ru
oconnolly@bkc.ru