2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Why is pronunciation important?
2. Video
3. Bingo
4. Activities to work with children
4.1The bell game
4.2 Minimal pairs
4.3 Tongue - twister
4.4 Jolly phonics
4.5 The telephone
5. Conclusions
3. 1. WHY IS PRONUNCIATION
IMPORTANT?
● Pupils must understand spoken English, as well as be
able to make themselves understood with it.
● It is one of the most difficult aspects of the English
language.
● It is learnt by imitation, but be careful, this capacity
decreases with age!
● Pronunciation varies depending on location.
6. 4. ACTIVITIES TO WORK
WITH CHILDREN
THE BELL GAME
ACTIVITY: Competitive bell game.
AIM : Word form recognition together with pronunciation.
OUTLINE:
- Divide students into two teams.
- Two opposing players come up to a desk at the front of the room. Place two bells on
the desk, one for each player.
- The teacher shows a card with a word. The first one to ring his/her bell must say the
word.
- If one of the two players reads the word incorrectly, the player on the opposite team gets
a chance to read the word
- One point for each well pronounced word.
- If both players miss the word, choose someone else in the class to give the players a
hand.
- A new set of players come to the desk every round.
7. 4. ACTIVITIES TO WORK
WITH CHILDREN
MINIMAL PAIRS
AIM : Improve pronunciation and recognition skills.
ACTIVITY : The use of minimal pairs to help students
distinguish minor differences between English vowel or consonant sounds.
OUTLINE :
- Write a list of minimal pairs on the board.
- Practice comprehension skills by using the provided lists of minimal pairs.
- Read sentence examples using one word of the pair provided. Ask students to
identify which word of each pair was used.
- Each pair of students have to create their own list of minimal pairs.
- The teacher will exchange these lists of minimal pairs between the students so they
can repeat the activity again in pairs.
9. 4. ACTIVITIES TO WORK
WITH CHILDREN
TONGUE-TWISTERS
ACTIVITY : Tongue twisters are especially useful in
pronunciation when focusing on a specific,
related phonemes or sounds. Children have fun with it.
AIM : Improve students knowledge of the specific
physical movements required for that particular
phoneme set.
OUTLINE :
- Students can work in twos.
- They have to read the tongue-twister for 10 minutes with rhythm and intonation,
understanding the words.
- The teacher goes around each pair to check the pronunciation.
- Each pair should be able to say their tongue-twister as well as possible in front of the
class.
10. TONGUE-TWISTERS:
EXAMPLES
She sells sea shells by the seashore.
The shells she sells are surely seashells.
So if she sells shells on the seashore,
I'm sure she sells seashore shells.
http://esl.about.com/library/media/audio/sea_shells.mp3
A flea and a fly flew up in a flue.
Said the flea, "Let us fly!"
Said the fly, "Let us flee!"
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
http://esl.about.com/library/media/audio/flea_fly.mp3
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could,
and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would
if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
http://esl.about.com/library/media/audio/woodchuck.mp3
11. 4. ACTIVITIES TO WORK
WITH CHILDREN
JOLLY PHONICS
1.Learning the letter sounds
2.Learning letter formation
3.Blending
4.Identifying the sounds in words (Segmenting)
5.Tricky words
12.
13. 4. ACTIVITIES TO WORK
WITH CHILDREN
THE TELEPHONE
ACTIVITY : The telephone it's an activity designed
not only to improve the students pronunciation skills,
but also, it helps pupils to improve in their comprehension
skills. Therefore it's a useful, funny and complete activity
that we consider essential.
AIM : Improve students pronunciation and comprehension.
OUTLINE :
- Students would work in groups of 4 to 6 people.
- Initially students will seat forming a circle. Afterwards the teacher will say a phrase to
one of them. That student will say that exact phrase to the partner next to him, and the
others will do the same until the it reaches the last student, then he/she will say the
p`hrase out loud.
- The teacher goes around each group to check the pronunciation.
- The teacher can go around the class listening to each group or he/she can do the
activity one by one.
14. 5. CONCLUSIONS
● Unlike grammar and vocabulary, pronunciation is not usually
specifically taught in the classroom.
● Native speakers are more likely to understand you, even if you make
grammatical mistakes rather than if you make mistakes in
pronunciation.
● There are many activities and resources to work on pronunciation.
● English pronunciation is not the same everywhere. Normally a Standard
English pronunciation is taught. If not, it is good to contextualise videos
or listenings in order to associate the pronunciation with the country to
which it is associated.
