Article in English Language Teaching · May 016 doi: 10. 5539/elt v9n7p120 citations 73 reads 23,812 author

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Using Games as a Tool in Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners
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English Language Teaching · May 2016
DOI: 10.5539/elt.v9n7p120
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Sahar G Ameer Bakhsh
University of Reading
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English Language Teaching; Vol. 9, No. 7; 2016 
ISSN 1916-4742 E-ISSN 1916-4750 
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 
120 
Using Games as a Tool in Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners
 
Sahar Ameer Bakhsh
1 
1 
English Language Institute, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 
Correspondence: Sahar Ameer Bakhsh, English Language Institute, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, P.O. 
Box 42890, Saudi Arabia. E-mail: [e-mail] 
Received: January 15, 2016 Accepted: April 29, 2016 Online Published: May 16, 2016 
doi: 10.5539/elt.v9n7p120 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n7p120 
Abstract 
Over the last few decades, teaching English become a phenomenon in Saudi Arabia, especially to young learners. 
English is taught as a main subject in kindergarten and elementary schools. Like any other children, Saudis 
accept new foreign languages easily, but they get bored very fast if the teacher is teaching them using the old 
conventional methods and techniques. The aim of this paper is to prove that games are effective tools when 
devised to explain vocabularies and they make it easier to remember their meanings. This paper deals with a 
literature review of teaching English vocabulary to young learners using games. Then it discusses the importance 
of using games in teaching vocabulary and in what way using them is helpful. After that it investigates the 
practical implications of using games to teach vocabulary that includes the implementation of vocabulary games 
and some examples of games that could be used to teach vocabulary to children. And finally it examines 
challenges teachers face when teaching vocabulary using games to young learners.