Author: Jimena Ramirez Montero
1
2
Hello! I'm a current student of English Teaching and Translation at ULACIT. This university is located at San Jose, Costa Rica. The reason I created this magazine was to show various activities that one could perform in teaching of pronunciation. I consider it basic to understand that kids learn in different ways. Not all human beings learn by listening, or reading a book. They need more. That's why I created this magazine. I believe that the beginning of progress is in education. And I believe that a passionate teacher is someone that causes impact on students, and therefore, in their lives.
This magazine is divided in several little articles, and a summary of the stages in teaching pronunciation. Also, there are 10 activities in both consonants and vowels. Feel free to use them in your classroom as long as the main source is clearly marked. 3
This is the part where students get in touch with
the target language pronunciation. It may be an oral media file (video, audio) or illustration showing when and where the feature is produced within speech. This part is really important. Students listen to the sound and repeat. It is a focused listening practice with feedback, where the student can discriminate the sound. In this stage, students practice with minimal pairs, or short dialogues, in a controlled environment, in order to maximize the attention on the designated feature. This is a stage where creativity may be increased, but not reach the climax. In this stage, students get in touch with dialogues and controlled guides to give emphasize to the selected sound or feature.
In this final stage, creativity has reached the climax. Students have less structured activities, designed to create fluency. (Role-play) that demands of the student not only the design of the feature inside spoken dialogue but also content. 4
Teaching Stage: Guided Practice Estimated time of activity: 20 minutes max.
Objective: Students will be able to relate the selected phoneme to a word. Materials: Sign with the vowel /æ/ and another with words that have the vowel but without it, for example “ct” (cat) Activity: The teacher holds the sign with the vowel, then another student holds the sign of the words. The rest of the students must guess the correct pronunciation and “dance” to recreate the word they completed. Assessment: The teacher will ensure that the correct words are being used, and also, the teacher will listen to the words while the students represent it in order to improve their fluency. Example: The Teacher holds the sign and the students complete the Word.“-nimals” equals “animals”, therefore, the students try to recreate the word, doing poses of “animals”.
5
Teaching Stage: Description and Analysis Estimated time of activity: 30 minutes max. Objective: Students will be able to experiment with physical stimulus the related sound and where it is located in speech Materials: Some vowels with their respective phoneme, different materials for textures (could be fabric, glue, glitter, pencils, pilots, maché paper, newspaper), papers with letters (and on the other side of it, or another page with the phonetic variety and examples)
Activity: In groups, the teacher handles a vowel, then the students sit and try to come up with texture, could be folded paper, or glue, glitter, colored on top of a texturized material, or cotton. After they finish, they present the vowel with the phonetic sounds and some examples. Assessment: The teacher will check that students comprehend the objective with the activity and offers them help in creating the vocabulary for the presentation. Example: Some students present the vowel “A”. They explain that the sound this letter does. It can be / æ/ as in “hat”, /a:/ as in “half” They texturize it to work in groups, remember and relate sound-texture and memorize the phonetic sound. 6
Teaching Stage: Controlled Practice Estimated time of activity: 15 minutes max. Objective: Students will be able to recognize the sound of a phoneme and find the correspondent character. Materials: Vowels written in flyers, a list of sentences with descrip-
tion of the vowels. Activity: The teacher handles around the vowels to certain students, then the teacher can read the description of the word. The teacher could use any kind of description and key words. The students must guess which letter it is and look for the student that has that letter. Assessment: The teacher will guide the students into finding the correct vowel and will assess the students into listening and producing at the same time.
Example: The teacher handles the vowel I. Then starts escribing it as: “Hello, I’m a vowel! I’m very useful and used to describe myself. I’m in words like “bike” “kite” and “ride”. Then the students raise their hands and say “It’s the long I” and the student that has the vowel stands up.
7
Teaching Stage: Listening and Discrimination Estimated time of activity: 10 minutes max. Objective: Students will be able to listen and recognize the minimal pairs. Materials: Minimal pairs of vowels, each in one paper. Classroom space and music. Activity: The teacher puts the minimal pairs distributed around the class. Then she instructs the students to stand up and get ready on the starting line. Then she pronounces the minimal pairs and they must follow the words in the correct order of phoneme sound. They must walk from one paper to the other, jumping and saying the word aloud. Assessment: The teacher will check that the students jumped into the correct word and will also demonstrate the difference between the minimal pairs. Example: Minimal pairs being “bed-bid”, “beg-big”, “bell-bill”, “bet-bit”, “check-chick”, “gem-gym”, “pet-pit”, they are distributed around the class. Then the teacher puts music to make the environment fun, and starts pronouncing the minimal pairs in the order they desire. The kids must follow the sound road and jump from one paper to another. 8
Teaching Stage: Guided Practice Estimated time of activity: 10 minutes max. Objective: Students will be able to listen the selected feature, the related sound and where it is located in speech or songs. Materials: Song lyrics, with words in blank and pencils. The song recorded or playable for the students. Activity: The teacher delivers the song lyrics to each student, then plays the song. The children must complete the song’s lyrics with the correct word. Also, circle the correct sound. Assessment: The teacher will check with the student at the end which were the correct words on the blank spaces.
Example: Play the song “Animaniacs - Yakko's World� with the song lyrics and the minimal pairs worksheet. Have the students fill the content and circle the correct sound written next to the verse. This activity has the variation that can be used either with consonant or vowels.
9
Teaching Stage: Guided Practice Estimated time of activity: 10 minutes max. Objective: Students will be able to compare the sound of a phoneme with the other three words and discriminate the odd one. Materials: Minimal pairs arranged in threesomes. Activity: The teacher prepares minimal pairs but adds one word per pair. The students will then have to read aloud the three words and select the word that does not belong on the minimal pair. Assessment: The teacher will listen the students and guide them into recognizing the correct consonant. Example: The teacher writes on the board 3 words: plays, pace, space. Then ask the students to read aloud the three words. After that, the teacher asks the students to choose which word is the one that does not belong with the minimal pair. Variation: The teacher may add as many words that sound very similar, but the challenge will be increasing, since the students will have to choose more than one word or, in the case that there’s only one, relate the minimal pairs. 10
Teaching Stage: Controlled Practice Estimated time of activity: 30 minutes max.
Objective: Students will be able to develop competitive skills, and, at the same time, learn to separate a minimal pair. Materials: Minimal pairs in flashcards or written on the board. Activity: The students create two teams. Then the teacher will match two students of opposite teams. They will be looking to the wall, not being able to look at the board. The teacher then will select one of the minimal pairs and say it, and the students will have to run to reach it, earning a point to the team. Assessment: The teacher will check which student selected the correct word, while also offering a fun, light activity.
Example: The Teacher has two minimal pairs, “town” and “down” in flashcards or written on the board. (As the game progresses the minimal pairs are changed) Then, she speaks the word and says “Go!”. The first one to reach the correct word earns a point for the team. 11
Teaching Stage: Description and Analysis Estimated time of activity: 15 minutes max. Objective: Students will be able to remember a minimal pair. Materials: Students and classroom space. Activity: The teacher selects a minimal pair, and then asks the students to sit around in a circle (the minimal pair selected will be a secret). Then the teacher wispers one of the words of the minimal pair to the student, and that student will whisper to the next, until the teacher has been reached again. Then, the teacher will listen to the whisper and speak out loud the word and correct it if necessary. Assessment: The teacher be able to explain the sound and the minimal pair chosen. Example: Select a minimal pair using the sounds [f] and [v], like “fan” and “van”. Whisper one of the selected words to the student next to you (the teacher), and watch the response when the student on the other side delivers the message at the end. 12
Teaching Stage: Communicative Practice Estimated time of activity: 25 minutes max. Objective: Students will be able to create the sound of a phoneme in order to complete a set of words. Materials: Minimal pairs written on cards. Activity: The teacher hands out a set of cards to a group. Then the teacher explain the rules; the students must create sets of minimal pairs, by asking the person closest to which card they have so they can help the student. The group that finds all the minimal pairs in their set wins. Variation: The teacher may make a bigger set, distributed into the four groups, then explains that exchange can be made between groups only if the person that asks for it elaborates a sentence. Assessment: The teacher will listen the students and guide them into recognizing the correct consonant. Example: One group have a set of cards, in which words like “berry”, “very”, “bury” and “vary” are all on one color. That happens several times with different words. Students have to take a card, see it, ask to see if they have a match and drop one. The only card that can be taken from the drop pile is the most recent one. The students left with no cards wins. 13
Teaching Stage: Guided Practice Estimated time of activity: 30 minutes max.
Objective: Students will be able to create words with the selected sound. Materials: Papers with the consonats /n/ and /ŋ/. Activity: Teacher will have a basket full of balls of paper with the / n/ sound or the /ŋ/ sound. Then, students will separate into groups. They will come and choose one paper, and upon grabbing it, they have to open it and create a words with the sound. The correct pronunciation earns a point. After that, the student will try to throw it into a bin/basket and if it gets in another point is earned. Assessment: The teacher will correct any pronunciation errors.
Example: There are 30 papers with either the /n/ or /ŋ/ sound. Each student will pass to the basket, grab a paper, open it and create a word. If a student grabs the /ŋ/ they can say words like “thing” and then throw it to the garbage can. If it enters and the pronunciation was correct, two points are earned per group. 14
I guess that when one thinks about education, the thought of being creative pops up immediately. But, what does being creative means? Is it dressing up for class, having music all the time or just being able to come up with any idea? Being a teacher may be equally creative as being an artist. But the art of teaching considers a lot of aspects art may not care about. We have a classroom of about 30 students. Not all of them learn by opening a book and doing the exercises. Then, 15 of them need to listen to songs while they do it. And then, a few of them can’t remain seated and need to be standing around, trying to learn what the book says. There is where creativity comes in. How can a teacher create a class that integrates all of these students? Easy! Thinking about them. Analyzing the student’s behavior can give clear answers as on how students learn and achieve the goals. The idea of being creative for teachers has not to be a challenge but something that can actually set a difference in class. Themed presentations, games that teach and much more are part of the art of creativity for a teacher, and must be a qualification for any type of lesson.
15