Playing is Learning

As teachers, we need to always be thinking up ways to make learning more fun. Especially with ELL teachers, who have the enormous task of teaching something that most people haven't had to (consciously) learn. Some students may also oppose learning a language forced upon them or find the task too overwhelming. One tool that will help is Gamification; simply put, using games to teach. the wonderful thing about games is that people want to play them. Imagine a classroom of self-motivated,eager learners. An easy to use computer game can solidify and teach vocabulary while giving individual encouragement and assessment. This video explains all the wonderful ways games can reward your brain.
I played Griswold the Goblin 2 three times and once I understood the role of the walkthrough, I began to get the hang of it, and started to make some progress. The images were really cool and the walkthrough and playing the game; with the teacher available to translate unfamiliar terms and help give walkthrough instruction. The game was fun and had simple point and click motions with an interesting plot and images to keep me engaged. I knew I was getting better by how far I had gotten by my third try. Language students would be focusing on a set of 10-15 frequent vocabulary words and by one turn on the game and one as walkthrough coach, they would have seen the words dozens of times and have a visual attached. 
use of repetitive vocabulary would be very useful in a language classroom. I could see two students working in a group together, taking turns reading the