teaching pronunciation activities

Activity 1 -Crazy numbersAge: Primary or Junior High School.. Aims: To use pronunciation as a way of raising energy; to make the learning of numbers interesting and memorable Materials:

Activity 1 -Crazy numbers

Age: Primary or Junior High School.

Aims: To use pronunciation as a way of raising energy; to make the

learning of numbers interesting and memorable

Materials: None

Procedure:

1) Ask learners to work in pairs

2) Ask each pair to count to 20 between themselves

Eg

Learner A: one

Learner B: two

Learner A: three

etc

3) Now tell them to do this again but this time to say every third

number (3, 6, 9 etc) in a surprised way It may be a good idea to

demonstrate this with one pair in front of the class first of all 4) Now ask them to try saying every third number in other ways

Some good examples to use are in an angry way, very happily,

as a question, loudly, quietly, nervously, suspiciously etc

Note: With lower levels the instructions can be given in Chinese

as well as English This activity can also be done with days of the week, months etc

Activity 2- Working with a chant

Age: Primary or Junior High School

Aims: To make language memorable by exploring rhythm; to practise

connected speech

Materials: A chant written on the board, or in the learners’

coursebook The example below on the left is taken from PEP

Primary English Students’ book, page 7 (Lingo Media 2003) The example on the right is from Memory Activities for Language

Learning by Nick Bilbrough (CUP 2011)

Who is your teacher?

Mrs Heart

Is she kind?

Yes! And she is smart

Who is your teacher?

Mr Rice.

Is he strict?

Yes, but he is nice

One, two, three, I’d like a cup of tea Four, five, six I’d like a plate of chips Seven, eight, nine I’d like a glass of wine

1) Say the whole chant to the class in a loud and clear voice,

aiming for natural rhythm, and allowing words to link together where it seems right It may help to clap or tap on the table

while you do this to emphasise the rhythm

2) Now chant each line again and ask the whole class to repeat each line after you Repeat any lines which seem more difficult for the class

3) Now you perform half the chant (the questions in the example

on the left) and the class perform the other half (the answers in the example on the left) Then swap things around so that the class say the questions and you say the answers

4) Divide the class into two sides One side perform the questions and the other side perform the answers Now swap things

around and repeat it

Note: Clapping, tapping, or clicking your fingers, and encouraging

the learners to do the same will really help with the rhythm of the

chant, and make the language more memorable It will also help if learners can stand up, and can do simple gestures to go with what they are saying

Activity 3 - Back-chaining

Age: Primary or Junior High School

Aims: To facilitate smooth and natural repetition of drilled utterances Materials: None

Procedure:

1) Choose a sentence that is appropriate for the class, using the area of language that you have been focusing on Here’s one for

a secondary group

You’re going to the Asian Games, aren’t you?

2) Say the sentence naturally, and then ask the class to repeat it after you Repeat this several times Now choose an individual

to repeat the sentence on his or her own

3) Now just say the last part of the sentence and get students to repeat again, both chorally and individually Keep repeating this

process and adding on more and more of the sentence until it is complete again, like this:

aren’t you?

Games, aren’t you?

Asian Games, aren’t you?

the Asian Games, aren’t you?

to the Asian Games, aren’t you?

going to the Asian Games, aren’t you?

You’re going to the Asian Games, aren’t you?

Note: Working backwards from the end of the sentence is less

challenging in terms of memory than starting at the beginning It also allows learners to notice more about the way words flow together

Activity 4 - Memory Drills

Age: Primary or Junior High School

Aims: To raise awareness about connected speech and the

pronunciation of regular past verb forms; to develop working memory for language

Materials: A list of sentences using the same area of language but

which get increasingly longer The example below uses sentences with regular past verb forms

I shouted (2 words)

I jumped around (3 words)

I cleaned the kitchen (4 words)

I played football with George (5 words)

I watched the news on TV (6 words)

I decided to go for a walk (7 words)

I wanted to speak to my English teacher (8 words)

I listened to some music while I had breakfast (9 words)

I looked out of the window and it was raining (10 words)

I walked to the zoo and fed the monkeys some bananas (11 words)

I intended to swim in the sea but it was too cold (12 words)

I cooked a nice meal for everyone at home the day before yesterday (13 words)

Procedure:

1) Divide the class into two sides

2) Say the first sentence in as natural a way as possible, linking words together where appropriate Now ask for a volunteer from Side A to repeat it Keep going until you’re happy that the sentence has been successfully repeated by a learner

3) Now do the same with the second sentence with the other side of the class

4) Keep repeating this process, swapping from one side of the class

to the other with each new sentence As the sentences get longer

it becomes more and more challenging How far can they get before it becomes too difficult?

5) Now ask learners to do the same activity in pairs Display the sentences on the board or with a projector One learner in each pair looks at the board and reads out the sentences in turn The other learner turns away so he or she cannot see, and tries to repeat what the first learner says

Activity 5 - Rhyming poems

Age: Primary or Junior High School

Aims: To make language memorable by creating links between words

which rhyme

Material: You need to find or create a simple rhyming poem which

has lots of examples of the same sound The example below uses the character of Miss White from PEP Primary English Students’ book

A good source of rhyming words for creating poems is an online

rhyming dictionary such as http://www.rhymezone.com/

She’s Miss White She’s very bright She likes to turn on the light She doesn’t like the night She had a fright

But now she’s alright She’s Miss White

1) Display the poem on the board or with a projector Read it out

to the class and check understanding of the language using

translation or gestures Draw the learners’ attention to the

rhyming sound at the end of each line

2) Say it again line by line and ask the class to repeat after you 3) Now remove it from view and read it again, but this time stop

before the last word of each line Can the class supply the

missing word?

4) Go through it again this time only saying the first word or first

few words of each line Again ask them to supply the missing parts

5) Ask one or two learners if they can remember the whole poem.

Activity 6) Creating a poem (from Memory Activities for

Language Learning – CUP 2011)

Age: Primary or Junior High School

Aims: To make the pronunciation of words memorable by linking

them to the names of celebrities

Materials: Choose some celebrities that your students may know

and find some words that rhyme with their names A good source

of rhyming words for creating poems is an online rhyming

dictionary such as http://www.rhymezone.com/ See the examples below

Tom

Cruise

Britney

Spears Snow

Winnie the Pooh

Bill Gates

Barack Obama

Mariah Carey

/u:/ /ɪə/ White

/aɪ/

/uː/ /eɪ/ /ɑ:/ and

/ə/

/eə/ and /i:/

news

shoes

lose

choose

use

bruise

queues

ears

years

tears

beers

hears

cheers

fears

light

night

bright

bite

fight

tonight

alright

shoe

through

glue

knew

two

you

bambo o

hates

plates

weights

states

dates

creates

debates

farmer

drama

charmer

pyjamas

armour

calmer

llama

fairy

hairy

scary

dairy

canary

wary

vary

Procedure:

1) Give out the list of celebrities and rhyming words, or display

them on the board Using the pictures to help, check that the

He’s Tom Cruise He’s very confused When he buys new shoes But I’m the girl he’ll choose

He’s Tom Cruise

learners know who the people are and how to pronounce their names Ask the class to tell you anything they know about them

2) Put the learners into pairs, or small groups Ask them to create a

short simple poem which uses one of the celebrity’s name and some of the rhyming words Emphasise that the poem does not have to be true and could be funny or silly You may want to show this example created by some Spanish teenagers

3) Check the students work for accuracy, and help out by

improving the poems where necessary

4) Ask each group to learn their poem by heart to perform to the

rest of the class

Note: This activity works best if learners have already done the

previous activity (Rhyming Poems) Instead of using celebrity

names you can also just give the learners a list of rhyming words and ask them to make a simple poem, a story, or even a single

sentence using as many of them as possible

Activity 7 One word conversations

Age: Primary or Junior High School

Aims: To raise awareness about intonation as a way of expressing

meaning

Materials: None

1) Ask a confident learner to come to the front of the class Ask her

to imagine that she is a customer in a restaurant and that you are the waiter Tell her that you can each only say one word at a time each time you speak The conversation could go something like this:

A: Afternoon

B: Hello

A: Menu?

B: Thanks

A: Thirsty?

B: Yes

A: Tea?

B: Please etc.

2) Now swap the roles around so that the learner becomes the

waiter and you are the customer Try the conversation again this way

3) Now arrange the class into pairs and ask them to try having a one word restaurant conversation themselves

4) Ask one or two pairs to perform their conversations in front of the class

Dialogue interpretations

Age: Primary or Junior High School

Aims: To practice the use of intonation and word stress as a way of

expressing meaning

Materials: Choose one of the following short dialogues which is

appropriate for the level of your class

1) Write the dialogue on the board or project it

(1)

A: Did you do it?

B: No, I didn’t!

A: Who did it then?

B: I don’t know.

(3)

A: Would you like to go to the cinema?

B: Tonight?

A: You’re not doing anything else? B: No I’m not doing anything else.

(2)

A:What’s your name?

B: Chris Walker A: Where are you from?

B: Canada A: What do you do?

B: I’m a student

2) Ask the learners to work in pairs and to discuss different

contexts in which the dialogue could be said Ask them to try saying it in different ways

3) Ask two or three pairs to perform one of their versions in front

of the class Ask the rest of the class to interpret who the people are, and how each person is feeling at different parts of the

conversation