Study of the Application of iPad-based Digital Learning Games in English Game Teaching in the Primary School

—Game teaching can promote children's cognitive development, emotional development and social participation. This paper bases its analysis on features digital learning English games and feasibility of such games in English game teaching, and proposes an iPad-based two-dimensional target system for game teaching, and layout for teaching plan and teaching practice. English game teaching in Grade 3 is taken as an example where setting deployment, resource synchronization, skill training and class application are described in detail aided with case study. Finally, application effect and common problems are identified to provide reference for further study.


INTRODUCTION
With the advancement of science and technology, iPad has been widely applied to elementary education and teaching. Two forms of application have taken shape. One is the design, development and application of e-Textbook on iPad, and the other is educational games and subject tools on iPad. Considering the fact that there is still short of systematic e-Textbooks for all subjects and all stages of education, e-Textbook teaching based on iPad is far from mature and poses high demand on its realization, such as coordination between the professional design team, development team and production team. Generally speaking, the design and development of e-Textbook ask for human, financial and material support. Whereas, educational games and subject tools facing all ages and involving all subjects are popular among elementary school students, given that they are interesting and instructive. Thus, they become the primary digital learning resources for elementary education and teaching. But currently, there are many misunderstanding or mistakes about enjoying digital learning games on iPad. For example, teachers are not restrained from traditional teaching concepts, and teacher-oriented approach is still dominant. Class management is the biggest concern of teacher. Such concern not only affects teaching efficiency, but also distorts the principle of "combining education with recreation". To address such problems, this paper takes English game teaching in Grade 3 as an example to study the application of iPad-based digital learning games to teaching.

B. Features of iPad-based digital learning games for
English teaching in elementary school (1) Openness of game resources Any one can publish his own works on iPad through App Store. The openness of game resources makes it possible to update excellent games for different subjects.
(2) Outstanding teaching style App Store can provide various subject tools and educational games, such as English pronunciation, word recognition, listening and speaking, combinatorial game, sentence training, situation application, etc. These games target at different ages and different subjects. Thus, they can be well combined with teaching goals and facilitate the combination of teaching and learning in various forms, such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, acting, singing and performing.
(3) Supporting human-computer interaction experience iPad allows for full-screen touch and supports humancomputer interaction experience. Digital learning games for English teaching in elementary school are presented in rich-media which allows users to mobilize visual, sound and touch sense to interact with the computer and create necessary condition for students' intelligent development.

C. Feasibility of applying iPad-based digital learning games to English teaching in elementary school
The newly released English Curriculum Standards of Compulsory Education (hereinafter refer to as "curriculum standard") proposed that English courses in elementary education and learning aim at using various teaching resources such as video, TV, books and magazines and internet to expand channels of learning and applying English. The major task to equip students with fundamental knowledge and basic English skills, including listening, reading, speaking and writing, cultivate comprehensive ability of language application, and nurture students' ability of observation, memory, thinking, imagination and creation.
Consider the English teaching practice in elementary school, though wide application of educational games upholds the thinking of "combining education with recreation", there are flaws to amend. These flaws lay obstacles for English game teaching in elementary school and should be addressed. For example, some games has much blindness in that they are lack of innovation and diversity and the game is too simple to be challenging, which undermines student's engagement. App Store on iPad contains updating educational games and subject tools. Integrated with texts, graphs, videos and animation, these games can provide good human-computer interaction experience and meet the need of teachers and students in form and content of games. Games from App Store are in line with ideal, reform request and direction of curriculum standards and drive the reform of English teaching and learning in elementary school.

III. The application of iPad-based digital learning games to English game teaching in elementary school
A. Teaching design 1. Teaching goal of iPad-based games Anderson proposed in Taxonomy of Educational Objectives revised in 2001 that the cognitive process includes memory, understanding, application, analysis, evaluation and creation, ranked from the least complicated one to the most complicated one. This method can help teachers make better actions and set up teaching goals in a scientific way. Therefore, based on Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and with three-dimensional goals for the new curriculum reform in elementary school, the iPad-based two-dimensional target system for game teaching is designed, as shown in Table 1. 3. Teaching process for iPad-based games Game loops can be designed according to different teaching goals. But it is necessary to clarify the tasks and resources or tools to fulfill the task, which are quite flexible. Table 3 shows the design for teaching practice of iPad-based games. B. Teaching application 1. Setting deployment (1) Deploy iPad terminals Initialize settings iPad (eg: iOS initialization, Apple ID registration) and install common software and apps (such as iTunes, iBooks, Keynote, wps).
(2) Deploy wireless device Based on 802.11n wireless network technology, connect iPad to Wi-Fi and make sure the network request.
(3) Connect iPad with wireless projector Connect iPad with Apple TV produced by Apple. Inc., so that in the Wi-Fi environment, iPad can be connected to wireless projector (or connect with the projector or through VGA) 2. Resource synchronization iTunes is a free application deployed on Mac and PC. Batch synchronization can be realized through iTunes in order to make sure that teachers and students share the resources.
3. Skill training The iPad operation training is conduced according to how familiar teachers and students are to information technology. The training includes: iPad human-computer interaction experience (iPad keyboard and Muti-Touch), preference settings (such as brightness and voice of the screen), Apple ID registration and App Store usage, Airplay Wireless Projectors, etc.

Class application
Color (PEP Edition) for English teaching in elementary school is taken as an example to account for how to integrate iPad-based educational game into teaching and learning. Details are shown in Table 4.

IV. CONCLUSIONS
Through teacher comment, iPad test tool, mutual comment and class monitoring, it is found that iPad-based game (digital learning games) can motivate students' interest to learn, help them identify, classify, summarize and use new words and sentences, and encourage them to think deeply about certain phenomenon. In terms of recognition, students can achieve the ability to memorize, understand, use, analyze, evaluate and create, as proposed in Anderson's Taxonomy of Education Objectives. However, some problems present themselves, among which teaching organization and management is a key concern. After a deep analysis, it is found that the root cause is teaching layout. It is easy to create chaos if the content, time and rules of the game are not clear. What's more, if the content of the game, knowledge points and learning goals do not comply with each other, the teaching effect may also be undermined. The application of iPadbased digital learning games should address course content, learning conditions and characteristics of students and be combined with traditional games so that students' eyes would not be worn out and less negative effect would be posed on their health.