One attempt to conduct the game "Marvelous Cone Hat" (the Vietnamese television version of the American "Wheel of Fortune") in a class at the Distance Education Center was not successful. "I divided my students into three groups, each group was a team. While members of two groups were enthusiastic to join with others to win the game, members of the third group did not cooperate with each other. As a result, the third group lost the game." (Nguyen, Teaching journal, November, 2002)
Another issue related to using games for language teaching is while playing games, students usually speak in their mother tongue to discuss instead of the language they are learning. From our own experience and HUFS teachers' comments, it is hard to control the use of first language (L1) in classrooms when we use games as a tool to have students practice more their communicative skills in a foreign language. One unavoidable thing in utilizing games in English classrooms is that students, especially those who speak the same language, prefer using their first language to English. Even advanced students in our classes at the Distance Education Center still discussed with each other in L1. Note Dash (2002) suggests this approach must be allowed.