Pronunciation/ listening games (minimal pairs)

These ideas help give variety to what would otherwise be a boring pronunciation drill.

1. For open vowels, mouth them, so students "lip-read" by noticing the shape of you mouth. This will raise awareness as to how the sounds are produced. For example, you read out "I need a ..."
and then you either mouth "pin" or "pan".

2. With minimal pairs, such as /i/ and /e/, get them to raise their left hand if you say a word with /i/, and their right hand if you say a word with /e/.
Alternatively, divide the class into two groups, each group standing up when they hear one vowel.

3. Dictate (and get students to dictate) sentences such as "Draw a hut next to a track", while the SS draw. They might just end up drawing a hat next to a truck! This helps make them more aware of how improtant it is to pronounce clearly.

4. Picture cards: There are so many ways to use cards! One is to give out pictures representing "pin", "pen", "chick", "cheque", then get students to find their "partner"- a word with the same consonants but different vowel. Then, you can dictate sentences containing those words, and the students put up their picture when it's mentioned. Other Ss can also read out sentences.

You can also have a mad dash, with all the cards in the middle, and students trying to be the first to grab the cards when you call out the word.

While not all these activities get students pronouncing, they do raise awareness and improve receptive skills. This is important because many of the pronunciation problems are due to a lack in listnening ability rather than in production - students can't "hear" the right sound in the first place, let alone produce it!


Thanks to http://www.eslflow.com/pronunciationlessonplans.html for some of these ideas!