Computer and Video games

Nowadays Video and computer games are widely spread all over the world. These games can be divided into two major categories; serious games and commercial games. I believe that educational games can be very useful and effective tools to learn a foreign language and other subjects as well. They are interesting, fun and very motivating. Most of them include problem solving feature and this, of course, makes the player play more and more in order to solve the problems, and as they play, they will obtain the new vocabulary or the grammar point even without noticing, as it includes repetition, visuals and this makes them easy to remember. However, internet nowadays contains not only educational games but other games as well, which, according to a research study promote violence in young learners.

Though Dr. Christopher Ferguson, a psychology professor at Texas A&M International University argues, saying that these observations don't prove the cause and effect, and that media violence doesn't correlate with real-world violence, others believe that they do correlate. I agree that some games can be seen as a virtual rehearsal for later implementation in the real-world situations, however there is no distinct evidence which proves this for 100%. According to the article '' Violent video games and young learners'' while conducting a research it is very important to take into consideration different thing: like the personality of the students, the situation and the motivation.

However Mark Prensky points out that video games are
effective. Our young generation differs from the older generation in different ways. One of the reasons can be considered the use digital media. Young learners, according to Mark Prensky multi-task better, they are able to discover rules and patters on their own. He indicates that young learners are able to think inductively rather than deductively, they are considered as active learners, who are able to perceive activities as play rather than as a work.

I agree with the points made my Mark Prensky, and taking into consideration all of this, we as English language teachers, should try to be more aware about the games and the opportunities that they may provide and integrate them in our lessons as much as it is possible. This way learning for our learners will be more fun, effective and we we'll see the results in the nearest future…

Sources of the pictures:

 http://evidencebasedliving.human.cornell.edu/2011/01/video-games-helpful-or-harmful-for-children%E2%80%99s-brains/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/david_s_carter/3029984740/