LITERATURE REVIEW – LEARNING THEORIES BEHIND ‘ALIEN JUMBLE’

Different learners have unique characteristics that require different methods of teaching. The process of imparting knowledge to a learner is just as important as the content of the knowledge itself. Games in the classroom were adopted by many language instructors in order to infuse the elements of fun, motivation, and comprehensive content. According to Larsen- Freeman (1986), communicative activities include games, role- plays and problem- solving tasks. These activities offer challenges to learners' ability to negotiate meaning using the target language given the input as well as challenge their spontaneity of the cognitive process.
Collaboration is a philosophy of interaction and personal lifestyle whereas cooperation is a structure of interaction designed to facilitate the accomplishment of an end product or goal (Panizt, T., 1996). In the classroom, group work assigned to students is a form of collaboration as students have to ‘join forces’ to produce an end product. Learning requires social interaction and collaboration. (Brown, J.S., Collins, A. & Duguid, S., 1989). Individual group members would have different abilities and skills. Students would naturally contribute and cooperate by using their unique abilities respectively. In ‘Alien Jumble’, the game that was introduced in class, a great deal of Collaborative Learning could be seen. Students had to work together to form a word, by using the jumbled- up letters provided. As the four players could not see their own letters, they were dependent on each other’s cues and responses, in order to guess the word correctly. A collaboration of skills was not only present among the four players of the game, but the other members of the game as well, as they could shout out the directions to help the players. The team members of a group was working with each other, not against each other, like how it would have been if activities were planned for individual students.
Next to that, the different talent in every member of a team is brought out in a Collaborative Learning session. Students tend to put their heads together, when they can see an end product that they are trying to achieve, in this context, either incentives such as prizes, or just the intrinsic motivation to have victory over the other teams. Theories in Multiple Intelligence theories state that there is a single intelligence in every individual that they are born with, and this intelligence cannot be changed. However, it can be nurtured, strengthened, ignored or weakened (Gardner, H., 1983). ‘Alien Jumble’ is a game that requires two groups of students. Therefore, students in a class are usually divided into two equal groups. With over ten students in each group, a large variety of talents, as claimed by the multiple intelligence theory, will be present. This game caters for students with visual/spatial intelligence because they are required to arrange the letters hung on the necks of the players to form a four- letter- word (organizing things spatially). Besides that, students with bodily/kinesthetic intelligence will benefit as well. The game involves much physical movement and creates a ‘hands- on’ experience for students. Students have to move around to play the game. Other than that, students with verbal/linguistic intelligence will definitely contribute tremendously when playing the game. Shouting out the correct direction to help their teammates form the words allow students to produce utterances that will function as good practice/ exposure to the language. The clues given for each word will help students with this intelligence put their talents to good use. Understanding the clues given will help them solve the jumbled –up letters faster. Learning will definitely be enhanced among students who combine their different abilities and function as one. Learning is facilitated when the student participates completely in the learning process and has control over its nature and direction (Rogers, 1969). Students’ motivation will be increased when they successfully unscarmble the jumbled words.

Experiential learning can be described as learning that arises out of reflection on experience, leading to purposive action in order to test out the 'hypotheses' that arise out of this reflection (Jaques, D., G. Gibbs, and C. Rust, 1993). The idea of exploring and discovering becomes the stem of experiential learning. In the game, students had to explore each other’s words, and then make their own guesses on what the word could be. They receive cues from other team members and send out signals to each other through body language (as the four players are not allowed to talk). All team members had a chance to experience it. Students are learning by doing in this game, in a sense that they are learning the words by trying to build the words, and later by using it in context when they form a sentence using the word they just built. Learning from context helps students make connections between new information and what they already know. (Miller, G.A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K.H., 1960)
All in all, games in the classroom like ‘Alien Jumble’ should adopt ideas from the different theories of learning mentioned in this paper.


Gardner, H. (1993a). Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. NY: Basic Books.

Jaques, D., G. Gibbs, and C. Rust, Designing and Evaluating Courses. (1993), New South Wales: Educational Methods Unit, Oxford Brooke University.

Larsen- Freeman, D. (1986). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching
England: Oxford University Press.

Rogers, C.R. (1969). Freedom to Learn. Columbus, OH: Merrill.

Miller, G.A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K.H. (1960). Plans and the Structure of Behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Brown, J.S., Collins, A. & Duguid, S. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42.