A.
Background
Now days,
people interests in learning English continuously increase. It is great news
but also becomes a challenge for the teachers. The teachers should be more
creative in teaching English because when they are not creative, it could
affect the people interests in learning English. In other word, Creative is a
must.
When we see
the fact, the way of teaching used by most of English teachers is monotone and
sometimes makes the students feel bored. The teacher rarely use or integrate
the technology in their teaching-learning activity. The result is some students
will lose their interest to learn English.
This problem
should be solved. How? The teachers should start to integrate the technology in
their teaching-learning activity. One of the ways is using game in the class. I
bet 90% of students like to play video game. There is one example for a game
that can be used in learning English, especially in procedure text material.
The game is “Cooking Academy 2”.
B.
Description
Cooking
Academy 2 is a game about cooking process and cooking competition. This game is
made for PC/Laptop. This game is great in helping student to learn English
especially in procedure text. The student
could learn the procedure in cooking some foods from another country. All you
need is to install this game in your PC then play it.
After you install
the game, open it and then you will see this screen.
Then,
click on the “Start Game” button and select the first level on this game. After
that, you will see the list of food you should make. For the first level, the
foods are Chinese food.
After that,
select the first food which is “Crab Rangoon”, the you will see the screen
below.
The screen
above shows the first procedure in cooking “Crab Rangoon”. Then, click on cook
and you will see the screen below.
The screen
above is the application of the first procedure that showed at the previous screen.
We need to click at the knife and dice the garlic. There is also a time limit
at the right top corner. We should complete dice the garlic before the times
over.
After we completed
the first procedure, there will be the next procedures that should be completed
until the cooking is finish. When all of the procedures are completed, the
screen below will be appeared.
The screen
above shows the food which we made by following the procedures which provided
before. We can move to the next food which listed at the food list.
From the
explanation above, it shows that when we play the Cooking Academy, we are not
just playing cooking game, but we also learn the procedure in making one kind
of food. When we integrate this game in our class especially in learning
procedure text, it could help the students in understanding the materials “Procedure
Text”.
C.
The Strengths
There
are some advantages in using this game:
- It is a free game. So, the teacher and students will be able to get this game without purchasing or buying this game.
- The size is not too large. It is only around 90 MB and could run in any type of Windows (XP, Vista, 7 & 8).
- It is an offline game, so we do not need internet connection when playing this game.
- There are more than 60 levels so the students will never feel bored.
D.
The Weakness
The weaknesses
of this game are:
- The recipes on the game are not familiar for Indonesian students
- The contents are limited to learn about cooking verbs only.
E.
Process in Class
Before using
this game at the class, make sure that the teacher already completed all the
levels so the student will be able to access whole levels in this game.
- Pre- activity
> Make sure that teacher’s laptop already connected to the
projector.
> Ask the students “what they know about procedure?”
> Ask the students “do they like cooking?”
2. Main
# Activity 1
> Explain about procedure text.
> Explain the common words used in procedure text.
> Explain about the game “Cooking Academy” and show how to play
it.
> Divide students into some group and every leader have to play
the game
# Activity 2
> Explain what the student will do in class for the next
activity.
> Divide the students into 4 groups and give a different food
theme to every group. E.g. Chinese food for group one, Italian food for second group,
and so on.
> Every group chooses 3 foods from their theme then using the
game to explain the procedure to other group.
> Other group writes the recipe played by other group in
procedure text form
> Collect the procedure texts which have written
by every group.
3. Post
The teacher
gives enforcement about procedure text.
F.
Conclusion and recommendation
- Conclusion
Cooking academy 2 is a fun and useful
game to help student in learning and understand English especially procedure
text. This game is also helpful for the teachers who always use monotone method
in teaching English. It will make the class become fun and increase the
students’ interest in learning procedure text.
2. Recommendation
I
highly recommended this game for English teachers who want to give material
about procedure text. If you want to download this game, just follow this link:
http://www.4shared.com/get/hzJIGu0d/Cooking_Academy_2_World_Cuisin.html
