In recent years, the studies on the use of language games to help motivate learners’ participation and cooperation in learning foreign languages have been very popular among educational researchers in the world and in Vietnam. However, whether these innovative activities really enhance students’ competence in oral communication in the Northern mountainous region of Vietnam like in Thai Nguyen province has not been fully investigated by researchers. | Nguyễn Thị Quế Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ 94(06): 73 - 77 THE EFFECTS OF LANGUAGE GAMES ON ENGLISH ORAL COMPETENCE OF THE SELECTED FRESHMEN STUDENTS AT COLLEGE OF SCIENCES - THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Nguyen Thi Que College of Sciences – TNU SUMMARY In recent years, the studies on the use of language games to help motivate learners’ participation and cooperation in learning foreign languages have been very popular among educational researchers in the world and in Vietnam. However, whether these innovative activities really enhance students’ competence in oral communication in the Northern mountainous region of Vietnam like in Thai Nguyen province has not been fully investigated by researchers. Therefore, this paper introduces a preliminary study on the effects of language games on English oral competence of the selected freshmen students of University of Sciences - Thai Nguyen University in the second semester of the academic year 2010-2011. Two groups of students experienced two different teaching methods namely traditional teaching method and language games participated in the study. Pre-test means scores showed no significant difference between the control and experimental groups while comparisons of the post-test means scores showed significant differences in the achievement. The study concluded that use of various language games in teaching English helps improve EFL students' learning and mastery of English oral communication. Key words: Effects, significant difference, language games, oral competence, freshmen students, University of Sciences, Thai Nguyen University. INTRODUCTION* As globalization, mobility and communications are bringing the world ever close together, it is increasingly necessary for people to know other languages apart from their mother tongue. Indeed, knowing foreign languages nowadays is of great importance because it helps bridge the gap among cultures, increases global understanding, and offers more opportunities for not only .
