While I agree with Will that games must be selected carefully, so that they work with the students, I have to say I am sceptical about the idea of allowing students to choose which games to use by themselves. The question remains, what is the purpose of this activity? If you are organising peer teaching and monitoring the activities students will use very carefully, then fair play, but these questions needs to be asked: how does the inclusion of this game/activity facilitate the achievement of the aim(s) of this lesson? and is there anything better available to achieve this/these aim(s)? Are students the best people to answer these questions? For vocabulary learning they may be able to contribute some useful input, but imagine, for instance, trying to ask students to choose games/activities to practice the past perfect.
Regards
Stephen
Use of Games for ESL, Pros and Cons
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