English Audio Request

Have you ever tried interactive studying of English? No doubt watching some educational videos or films are effective ways but have you ever thought about non-trivial way? Maybe you want to be in a good shape or just be in a good health but do not have enough time to go to gym? Or maybe you are just lazy and prefer stay at home watching TV instead of playing sports? I know a decision. Just play Video Games.
Tom A.F. Anderson and his colleagues from the Institute of Network Learning Technology, report that “Video Games are receiving much attention from educators”. Some other researchers confirm that “Using Active Video Games may be an effective strategy to promote physical activity and healthy weight among overweight and obese people”.
Nowadays the pace of life is too fast. People have to do many things per day and coming home they just want to relax. So it is out of the question to learn something or to do physical exercises. Imagine, when playing Video Games you are relaxing and at the same time you can learn English and reduce weight.
It was confirmed by many researches that Video Games are an effective way of learning English as a foreign language and Video Games can help to reduce weight for both children and adults.
Today I would like to talk about two main points: Video Games can help to learn English and Video Games can help to reduce weight.
Recent investigations have shown that Video Games are an effective way of learning English as a foreign language. Tom A.F. Anderson says that in most video games, you can hear what the characters are saying and read it at the same time. As a result, the sentences stick in your head more strongly. Playing video games gives you benefits similar to watching movies with subtitles:
Firstly, Video games provide mostly informal, conversational input, which is very useful for producing your own sentences. If you do not know some words use a dictionary. You will understand more of the game, and of course you will learn some English vocabulary. Secondly, you improve your understanding of spoken English. Also you learn the correct pronunciation of English words and sounds. If you want to improve your pronunciation, pause the game frequently and try to repeat English sentences as well as you can. Video games are a good choice for this because the pronunciation in those games is usually clearer than the pronunciation in movies. And finally, you increase your motivation. When you play a video game, you are in a situation where knowing English makes you feel good. It’s simple. If you can understand the dialogue, you know what is going on in the game. This helps you solve the puzzles and understand the humor. You have fun. You teach your brain that “English is equal to pleasure”, and your motivation increases!
One may argue that it’s not a good enough way to practice your English.
Yes, maybe it is true, but technology has made the game playing experience even better with online games. Some online Video Games can be played in teams with people from all around the world. With this technology, people are communicating with other teammates from different countries, working together to complete the game, and practicing a lot of English at the same time.
Video Games are worth playing not only because they help to learn English but also that they can help us to reduce weight.

According to Alec Kubas-Meyer, playing Active Video Games using an Xbox system and a Kinect help to reduce weight. There was a research that demonstrates that including active video gaming in a 16-week weight loss program resulted in significant increase in physical activity and a reduction in excess weight among overweight and obese people. Half of the participants completed the 16-week program as usual; the other half also received Xbox consoles with Kinect. All participants lost weight. However, providing participants with an active gaming console resulted in a significantly greater (more than 100%) reduction in weight. Ravyn Hill, a 12-year-old who participated in the Xbox study, lost nearly 8 pounds over the four-month program. Healthy foods and Active Video Games helped Ravyn be more active.
One may argue that video games are bad for health because if people spend all day sitting on the couch playing video games, that's not good for their health. Yes, it is bad, but it is impossible to play Kinect games sitting on the couch, it makes get you up off the couch and moving around. Although screen time is often said to contribute to childhood obesity, this study shows active gaming can be considered "constructive screen time" that can benefit children..
We live in the 21st century – it is time of great changes. And changes are seen. There are NEW ways of learning foreign languages. There are NEW ways of reducing weight. You cannot deny the fact that NEW technologies sometimes are even better than previous. Of course, learning English and reducing weight is a difficult process and takes a lot of time and efforts. It is in people’s minds that doing smth difficult is always boring. But everything you should do with pleasure. You should learn languages with pleasure. You should reduce weight with pleasure. You can do these things with pleasure with a help of Video Games. So Video Games are a doorway to learn English and get less active people more involved in exercise. Video Games provide a window onto the world, a resource that can and should be tapped for learning.