Using games and apps to practise English | Learn English with Cambridge

Hello, everyone.

Have you ever thought you could have fun

while learning English?

Today, I’m going to give you some tips on games,

apps and platforms you can play or use to improve your English.

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to improve your English.

When we play games,

we can practise our vocabulary, have contact with real English,

and with online games we can use them to communicate

with other players all over the world in English.

And all of this is done in a playful scenario,

so you might not even realise that you’re learning.

I once heard the author Herbert Puchta,

at a Cambridge University Press event,

say that for learning to happen there needs to be emotion.

So when we’re playing games,

we’re so engaged and motivated in the task

that we’re doing

that the learning happens more naturally.

If you are an English teacher,

you can incorporate these games in your classes as well.

So here are some tips for you.

Everyone loves a good quiz,

so here’s a platform where players can answer

questions through their cell phones or tablets.

Teachers can create Kahoots as a forum to review content,

or ask the students to create it themselves,

so they can practise the target language

that is being taught,

or you can even answer and play a quiz

that’s already on the platform.

Monkey Puzzles is a Cambridge English game for beginners.

Children can practise reading and writing

through eight mini-games.

It’s very good to practise for all the young learner's tests.

It’s available for download on the App Store.

Quiz Your English is another Cambridge

English app game for learners

to practise and test their knowledge in English.

It’s aimed at intermediate users from B1 to C1,

and it’s available for Apple and Android users.

You can compete with people from all over the world,

or challenge your friends through social media

and play against them.

Battle it out over a range

of general English topics and grammar,

or brush up to be ready

for your test by selecting an exam-specific topic.

Ruby Rei is a game app designed to help children learn English

through a very exciting narrative and tasks to complete

while you play.

It’s designed by teachers and has a lot of interesting

and engaging characters,

and besides teaching English it also teaches

emotional intelligence through character-building situations.

Once you start, you can’t stop playing.

You can also practise your English and learn

lots more by playing

regular games not specific to learning English,

like Fortnite and Minecraft.

If you’re a teacher,

you can check out Minecraft Education Edition,

where you can teach English and other subjects

through the game with activities for the classroom.

Something that’s become very popular among young people

that like to play games is watching walkthrough videos,

or creating one yourself.

These videos are made by gamers

and they show strategies on how to play.

They’re excellent for practising listening for detail

and gaining more vocabulary.

On both games, there’s a lot of construction vocabulary,

so you can learn the names of tools

and other building materials.

On Fortnite, you can learn lots of verbs while battling,

as well as talking to other players

from different countries and getting to know them

as you play.

Through these games,

you can get plenty

of opportunities to practise your English

and to communicate with people from all over the world.

I’ll bet there’s at least one of these games

or apps you can use to improve your English.

So how about trying them out on yourself or on your students?

After you do that,

please tell me in the comments section

what you thought of them,

or what you like to do to learn English

and have fun at the same time.

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please give it a big thumbs-up and share it with your friends,

family and colleagues.

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I’ll see you soon.

Bye.