Mad libs and the parts of speech awareness

Abstract

Teachers are always in the hunt for new tools to develop certain skills of the English language inside the classroom. In the case of the parts of speech awareness, these are most often taught by traditional means of a wide array of exercises, drills, and whatnot. Enter Mad libs, this timeless phrasal template word game is a general staple of American children inside and outside the classroom. The nature of this tool in working specifically with parts of speech as a game mechanic made it ideal for this endeavor. This research endeavor has set to identify the influence of this tool in the awareness regarding the parts of speech, an important part of the English learning process. For this study, it was first necessary to give instruments to determine the awareness level regarding the parts of speech on a group comprised of fourteen 9 th grade students attending Unidad Educativa Atenas, then the aforementioned tool was applied on them, and finally, the instrument was further employed to observe the effects of Mad Libs in the parts of speech awareness of the group. The results within this research were promising and encourage the pursuit of more ways to develop this particular skill in learners.