Previous part of Teaching pronunciation.

Practice lessons

Task 3. Look through the list of techniques and say which of them are the most appropriate and useful for you? (Appendix)

Answer key

Task 1 There is no clarity in pronunciation of sound in words boss and buss, living and leaving, work and walk.

Task 2

Phonology the study of how speech sounds are produced and used and distinguished in a specific language
Phonetics the study of speech sounds and sound production in general
Phoneme the smallest element of sound in a language which is recognized by a native speaker
Stress the greater emphasis of some syllables or words over others during speech
Vowel a vocal sound made without the audible stopping of breath
Consonant a sound made with audible stopping of breath
Rhythm the regular repetition of stress in time
Intonation the rise and fall of the voice when speaking as making a difference in meaning

Appendix

Classroom ideas for teaching pronunciation

Minimal differences
In this activity, students are exposed to closely-related sounds in words that are similar. Only the target sounds should differ from word to word, while the other sounds remain the same. The words are written on the board in two columns, A and B. For example, with the target sounds [e] and [æ] the table will look like this: The teacher reads the words out one by one, varying the column each time and the students have to identify the correct
column.

For example:
Teacher: Pet.
Students: C olumn A. (etc)

Finally, the students practise the sounds with the teacher and then in pairs.

Recognition test
Students tick the words they hear in the sentences read by the teacher or recorded on cassette.

Same or different?
In this activity, the same word lists as above can be used. This time, words are read out together in pairs. The students have to say if the words they hear are the same or different.

For example:
Teacher: Bet—bat.
Students: Different.
Teacher: Mat—mat.
Students: Same.

Odd one out!
In this activity, the students have to distinguish which word in a series of four is different from the other three. Using words with a minimal difference (e.g. pet, pat), four words are read out, only one of which has a different sound. Students have to say which word in the sequence is different.

For example:
Teacher: Pet, pet, pat, pet.
Students: Number three.

Repetition
Repetition of useful phrases or dialogue readings can be done by individuals, students in pairs, or, if led by the teacher, with the whole class in chorus or in large groups, with each group taking one part. It is fun to begin slowly and build up speed, to see how fast they can do it.

Listen and complete
Team or pairs write a list of useful phrases or sentences. One learner says half or a little more of each item. The first team or pair to complete it successfully gets a point. Or you can play a recording and press the pause button in mid-phrase – which team or pair can continue. Don’t give the answer yourself but, after several attempts, play the tape and let the class identify who was correct (allow four or five seconds – if no one can do it, you get the point).

Gapped examples
Learners (individually or in pairs) write out a list of five or ten useful phrases or sentences from the text or transcript, omitting one word or phrase from each one. They exchange lists with a partner or another pair, who has to complete them from memory, and keep a note of their scores. Or they can read them out to the whole class for completion. They can also be written on OH P transparencies and done with whole class in teams.

Musical soundabout
This is a mingling activity with music. Split the class into four teams and give each one a different coloured board pen. Divide the board into columns and write a phoneme at the head of each one. One member from team has to walk around the room while the music is playing. When the music stops, these students run to the board and write as many words as they can in the columns. The words they write must contain the phoneme at the head of each column. When the music starts again, the pen is passed to another team member and the game continues. At the end of the game, distinguishing by pen colour, count up the number of correct words for each team to see who is the winner.

Phonemic tombola
This is a quick game for revising vocabulary and can be used as a warmer at the start of a class. Write out the words you want to revise in phonemic script on small pieces of paper, which you then place in a box or a hat. Split the class into teams. A member of the first team draws out a piece of paper and says what the word is; if it is correct, the team is awarded a point; if it is wrong the word goes back into the hat. The game continues until all the words have been guessed, and the team with the most points wins the game.

Spelling caterpillar
This activity can be used to focus on how the pronunciation of letters changes as they are combined with other letters. Split the class into two teams and draw the caterpillar on the board. Choose a target letter (e.g. the letter ‘a’) and write a word containing the letter at the beginning of the caterpillar. The idea of the game is that the teams take it in turns to add a word containing the target letter, but every new word must start with the final sound of the previous word (this means discarding silent letters such as ‘e’ in tape). A point is awarded for each correct word and the game continues until students run out of words.
An example of a spelling caterpillar might be:

Rhyming dominoes
This game is played in exactly the same way as traditional dominoes, except that rhyming words are used instead of numbers. Lay the dominoes face down on the table and ask each player to take three (or four) dominoes, which they keep concealed from the other players. The new game begins with one player (the quickest) placing a double domino in the middle of the table face up. The next player has to follow by adding a domino with a word that rhymes. If the player cannot add a domino then he or she must pass or pick up an extra domino from ones left over at the beginning of the game. Monitor to make sure that students are making the right matches. The game continues round the players and the first person to get rid of all his or her dominoes is the winner. The beginning of the game might look like this:

Tapping it out
This activity helps students to count the syllables and to recognize stress and weak syllables. First, select a group of words that the class knows and get them to count the syllables and mark the stress on the words. Make sure you choose words with different stress patterns and different numbers of syllables. Write the words on the board and explain that each tap represents a syllable, with a strong tap for the stress of the word.

Tap out some examples with a board pen on your desk, as shown in the examples:

postman      electrician                architect
TA P-tap      tap-tap-TA P-tap      TAP-tap-tap

The students have to guess which word you are tapping. The activity can then be extended into a team game either with the class or in groups.