Pronunciation Competition (vowels)

This was written up by my colleague, Doris. We joined both our classes for this game, and the students really enjoyed it. It takes a bit of preparation though.

Vowel Sound Pronunciation Bee/Games

Divide class into 4 groups. Each group has to choose as its name one of the vowel phonemes (e.g “We are the /I/ group”).

On OHP, put a Snakes & Ladders game board. Project on wall. Each group has a different colored post-it note that they move around the board (projected on the wall) as a playing piece. The first group to reach the finish point will win.

Having two teachers present (or else a teacher and an assistant) makes this flow better.
Have a dice on hand. Each number corresponds to a type of activity. Roll the dice to select the activity.

All teams play all the time for all the activities. The dice is also rolled by the two teams winning each activity to determine how many spaces on the game board they get to move.

Games/Activities

1. Many Words: The teacher assigns a vowel sound to each group (or uses the team name for the first round). The teams have 1 minute to write on the whiteboard as many words with that sound as they can think of. The 2 teams with the most correct words get to throw the dice and move on the board.

2. Sound Chain: Two teams line up facing each other. The teacher says a vowel sound. The first person on the A team has to say a word that contains that phoneme. Next, the first person on the B team also says a word with the same phoneme. The same word cannot be repeated. This continues, back and forth between the two teams, until one team makes a mistake, repeats a word that has already been said or can’t think of a word fast enough (5 second rule) and loses. The winning team gets to roll the dice to advance on the board. (With two teachers present, all four teams are playing at the same time, A against B, C against D).

3. Fake Words: (prepare a list of nonexistent words that follow the spelling rules/phonemes the class has been studying-ahead of time). The teacher writes a “fake” word on the board for each team (or a representative from each team) to pronounce following the patterns they have studied before. If they are correct, they get to roll the dice and advance.

4. Find it-Bring it: (prepare cards with minimal pairs before hand. Mix them up and put them in bags to be handed out to each team). The teacher calls out two or three words (ex. Cat , chicks). Students must rummage through their cards, select the ones the teacher said, and run to the teacher with the cards in hand. The first two teams to bring the correct cards get to roll the dice and advance. (In their sets, they would have had to make the decision between the “cat “or the “cut” card, or the “chick” or “cheek” card).

5. Rhyme it: Two teams line up facing each other. The first person on the A team has to say a word. Next, the opposing person on the B team has to say a word with the same vowel sound. The second person on the A team can choose to change the vowel sound and say a different word for which the second person on the B team must find a rhyming vowel sound word. The same word cannot be repeated. This continues, back and forth between the two teams, until one team makes a mistake, repeats a word that has already been said or can’t think of a word fast enough (5 second rule) and loses. The winning team gets to roll the dice to advance on the board. (With two teachers present, all four teams are playing at the same time, A against B, C against D).

6. Sound Sentence: The teacher assigns a vowel sound to each group (or uses the team name for the first round). The teams have 1 minute to write on the whiteboard a sentence which contains as many words with that sound as they can think of. The 2 teams with the most correct words get to throw the dice and move on the board.

Pronunciation Drill

For a class of 12 students or less (although you can always adapt it!).

1. Divide students into groups 6. Give each student a number from 1- 6.

2. After reviewing a minimal pair combination of sounds (pat - pet), roll the die. If the die rolls to, say, 2, both number 2 students should get up front.

3. The student from the first group reads the words from the first column (pat), and the other student reads the words from the other column (pet). After they finish the list, roll the die again for another pair of students to come up.

4. You can also have a number which means "all participate", so students line up in two rows and each one gets to read a word from their column.

This activity keeps them moving and on their toes, but it must be done only if students feel comfortable coming up front- otherwise it could be tortuous, especially if they still don't feel comfortable with the target sounds.

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!