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Designing Christmas Board Games to Motivate Young Learners in Learning Vocabulary

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Designing Christmas Board Games to Motivate Young Learners in Learning Vocabulary 元培醫事科技大學應用外語系專題報告 指導老師：林雪如 Designing Christmas Board Games to Motivate Young Learners in Learning Vocabulary Student：連思璩 Christine、傅語婕 Niki、杜氏明玉 Lisa 學號：1042417008、1042417005、1042417004 1 中 華 民 國 108 年 5 月 22 日 Special Topic Report Signature Page Topic: Designing Christmas Board Games to Motivate Young Learners in Learning Vocabulary Student: 連思璩 Christine Lien、傅語婕 Niki Fu、杜氏明玉 Lisa Do Special Topic Approved: Name of Committee Member Name of Committee Member Advisor May,/2019 2 Power of Attorney for Yuanpei University of Medical Technology Title: ______________________________________________________________ Advisor：_____________________ I □ agree□ disagree to grant Yuanpei University of Medical Technology Library (herein referred as Party A) the rights to, without limitation of time, territory, numbers of usage, either in paper or in digital form, edit and / or publicly distribute the listed work throught store, duplication, issuance, web transmission, for individual, non-profit, and educational purposes, to let user(s) search, browse, download or print the listed work to exchange and circulate academic information. Advisor：_____________________(Signature) Copyright Owners: Class： Student ID： Student’s name： (Signature) Class： Student ID： Student’s name： (Signature) Class： Student ID： Student’s name： (Signature) Class： Student ID： Student’s name： (Signature) Class： Student ID： Student’s name： (Signature) Class： Student ID： Student’s name： (Signature) Class： Student ID： Student’s name： (Signature) May./2019 3 Designing Christmas Board Games to Motivate Young Learners in Learning Vocabulary Abstract Learning English is a long period of process. Just like we learned Chinese, our mother tongue, we started with English listening and speaking. We need to practice and practice, so as to speak it out like the native speakers. However, English listening and speaking skills are the weakness of most students in Asia, including Taiwan. Owing to the popularity of the digital devices and multimedia, people now use various ways to practice their speaking ability. Even though people have more chances to practice and improve their speaking skills, the helps of the digital devices and multimedia are still limited. In my opinion, the key is peer interaction and learning. In other words, students need the partners and the environment that close to a real world when learning. Without interaction with other people, the latest devices or Apps would be just other forms of textbook. In order to solve this problem, there are numerous studies and researches regarding the advantage of board games. Using board games during class can improve student’s listening and speaking skills. These researches also encourage many frustrated teachers and inspired new teachers to enrich their teaching materials. In this research, we design a series of board games about Christmas. Christmas board games are designed to teach students about the western tradition and the story about this holiday. Christmas board games offer the useful teaching resources such as drawing Christmas carol and read a story about Santa and Jesus which can meet the needs of both the students and teachers. Key words: board game, Christmas 4 Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction …………………………………………… 6 1. Literary Reviews 2. Motivations of the Study Chapter 2: English Education in Taiwan ………………………… 11 1 Comparing Taiwan Education System (In the Past and Nowadays) 2 The Problems of English Education in Taiwan 3 Solutions of English Education in Taiwan Chapter 3: Board Games as A Language-learning Tool………….16 1 Benefits of board game for Listening skill 2 Benefits of board game for Speaking skill Chapter 4: Lesson Plans of Christmas Board Games ……………18 1. Lesson 1: Who Has the Bell 2. Lesson 2: Where is Santa 3. Lesson 3: Santa Clause is on Christmas Tree 4. Lesson 4: What will you do on Christmas Day 5. Lesson 5: The birth of Jesus Chapter 5: Conclusion………………………………………………29 Reference…………………………………………………………….30 5 Chapter 1 Introduction The aim of this study is to design a series of self-made Christmas-themed board games for the first-grade and second-grade students in the elementary school. In Chapter 1 of this study, the literary reviews about Christmas tradition and how board games play a significant role in education will be specifically illustrated. In Chapter 2, we will prove how student-centered teaching method suit for modern students. The evidences which prove that board game is the beneficial teaching tool for the language learners will be presented in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, we display the sample of Self-made Christmas board games. 1. Literary Reviews 1.1 History of Board Games 1.1.1 The Origin of “Board Games” Long time ago, board games were designed for the royal family. The aristocratic played board games if they want to have some fun. These board games were not only entertaining but it also very educational. The world’s oldest known board game was Royal Game of Ur. Royal Game of Ur, which was the popular race game, was invented in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) 4,400 Years ago. Besides the Royal Game of Ur, Senet is another ancient board game that originally created in Egypt. Playing Senet is quite popular among the aristocratic. One anonymous painter recorded a picture about Queen Nefertari, the queen who ruled Egypt from 1304 to 1237 B.C, playing the Senet on the interior wall of a pyramid in the Valley of Queens in Egypt. In medieval India, people from the upper class played Pachisi to kill time. Pachisi was designed as the the royal game of India. It was made of carved ivory and ruby gem stones. The last example was Go, the strategy board game. Go was invented by the Chinese Emperor Yao (2346 to 2255 BC) and was considered one of the four cultivated art that Chinese scholars and gentlemen should develop. To sum up, the ancient board games only stayed on exclusive leisure for the upper class. 6 1.1.2 Define “Board Games” According to Werriam-Webster Dictionary, board game in 1854 was define as a game of strategy,such as checkers, chess, or backgammon, played by moving pieces on a board”1(“Board game”,def.). Gobet in the first systematic study about psychology and board game declared that “Board games are games with a fixed sets of rules that limit the number of pieces on a board, the number of positions for these pieces, and the number of possible moves”2(Gobet, Retschitzki and Voogt 2). From the words above, Gobet implied that board game will provide the basic training of the brain. In Wide Awake, a monthly American Children's magazine in 1892, Lewis, an American game designer, once mention that board game was popular because of its convenience and mobility.3 She mentioned that board game can be set like the portable blackboard, and varied size from one to two in a half feet square, the shape depended upon the figure represented 4(Lewis 434). In conclusion, we know that board games are made in different sizes, shapes, and materials of objects; and they can be carried and traveled around easily. At the beginning, board games were created for the aristocratic to kill time, but soon they are designed for the educational purpose. Nowadays, board games became commercial goods by bringing much more fun for people. 1.1.3 Types of “Board Games” After the Industrial Revolution, board games became more and more popular. One of the reason is that board games can be made by machines, instead of handmade. The other reason is that people had more money after industrialization, so people at that time have less work to do and more time to play. The first American board game publisher was found in the US in1823. Since then, there have been hundreds of smaller companies producing countless board games in this country. The board game publishers produced many significant board games. Many people had played board game in their childhood. In A Board Game Education, Hinebaugh mentioned that “board games are classified into three categories” 5(Hinebaugh 4). They are war 1 Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: https: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/board%20game 2 Gobet, Fernand , Jean Retschitzki and Alex de Voogt. “ Moves in Mind: The Psychology of Board Games” Psychology Press, 2004:2 3 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Awake_(magazine) 2018,12,30 ( Wide Awake was a monthly American children's magazine, founded in 1875 by Daniel Lothrop.) 4 Lewis, A. G. ”The Easter-Tree.” Wide Awake, Apr.1892:434 5 Hinebaugh, Jeffery. A Board Game Education. US: R&L Education, 2009. 7 game, race game, and alignment game. In Hinebaugh’s definition, the aim of war game is to capture or desotry your opponent. The best example of the war game is Go. Speaking of the race game, Chutes and Ladders is the typical example. The purpose of the race game is to reach the destination. When it comes to the alignment game, the target of this game is to create a specifics pattern (4). Tic-Tac-Toe is the typical example of the alignment game. 1.2 Origins of Christmas 1.2.1 The Birth of Jesus Christmas is the most famous holiday in the world. It commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, and is annually celebrated on December 25th. Gresham notes the myth of the virgin birth of Christ. he states that “In the year of Rome 743 was born Jesus of Nazareth, a man in whom, because of his moral and thaumaturgic pre-eminence, his followers, so far s they were Aramaic-speaking Jew, quickly recognised their promised Messiah”(Gresham 310)6. According to New Testament and the belief of Christian Church, Jesus of Nazareth was born without human father. The churches believe that Jesus was conceived by Holy Spirit and given birth by the Virgin Mary.
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