Pronunciation games 3

Make a Word
players in groups of 2-5

You'll need: 2 sets of cards (colour-coded) per group.

1. The aim of the game is to pick two cards, one from each stack or set, and make one word according to what both of the cards say. For example, one set of cards specifies the number of syllables, from one to four, while the other set specifies which sounds you need to use. Let's say a student has picked two cards:

Card 1 "Your word contains two syllables" and Card 2 "Your word begins with a /p/". The student says party and gets a point. 

2. Another option is to test just one category of sounds or features: particular vowels, consonants, weak and strong forms, words that rhyme etc. Use lexical sets or rhymes if your students don't know phonetic symbols. You can also have a set which specifies what speech part the word is. It is important, however, to keep the stacks or sets separate and make sure the cards don't contradict each other, so that no student picks for instance "Your word begins with a consonant" and "Your word begins with a vowel". Likewise, avoid requirements that would make the possible range of answers too narrow or even impossible, such as "Your word begins with /ʒ/" and "Your word contains /h/". For the same reason, avoid making three sets of cards, as they would make things too difficult.

You can add wildcards, such as any vowel or consonant, any number of syllables, any part of speech.

3. As always, if students disagree, they can ask you for help or use dictionaries on smartphones. Make sure they don't cheat by simply going to a word-searching website (or asking Siri).

4. When there's some time left and a group has used all the cards, the students can reshuffle them and continue.

5. You can also print out and distribute lists of all the tasks and simply give students cards with numbers and letters or dice. This is perhaps less exciting as a brief look at the list will reveal all the possible options. 

As a warm-up or a follow-up you can do an example in reverse, that is write a word on the board and ask the students to make rules that could be used on cards. For instance, if you write the word consider, the students will say things like "It has three syllables", "It begins with /k/" or "It contains /d/". 

Pronunciation games 2

Word Hunt 2-5 players (or more)

You'll need: sets of cards with questions or challenges (e.g. 15 cards for each group), a list of words for each group (e.g. 30 words)

1. The aim of the game is to pick a card and find the right words on the list. For example, the list contains the following words:

about, away, acorn, abacus, April, apricot, armour, attention

Card 1 says: "Find 3 words which begin with the schwa /ə/ sound". The student should select "about", "away" and "attention".

Card 2 says: "Find 3 words which consist of 3 syllables". The student should select "abacus", "apricot" and "attention".

Card 3 says: "Find 1 word which begins with the /ɑː/ sound". The student should select "armour".

Of course, if your students do not know IPA, use example words that illustrate the sounds tested.

2. Remind the students that some of the words can be used more than once; the students should not write on the list or cross out words.

3. Your cards can ask about many things: spelling and pronunciation, silent letters, minimal pairs, the number of syllables, word stress, words that rhyme etc.

4. A student who has answered a question correctly gets a point. If other players have doubts, they can ask you for help. Alternatively, you can allow them to use dictionaries or smartphones.

The cards can also ask about the meaning of words. For instance, a card says: "Fill in the gap in this sentence. 'He was a knight in shining ___.'". The answer is "armour".

This game is also an idea for a test: a list of words followed by a set of questions concerning their pronunciation. Needless to say, a written pronunciation test is similar to an exam for students of English attending a Linguistics class, so you need to decide if your students really need this form of testing.

Pronunciation games 1

With today's post I begin a series of simple ideas to use games in pronunciation classes.

Pronunciation race 2-4 players

You'll need: a blank board game template, pieces, dice

1. Download a simple blank board game template or draw one yourself. It should be a simple start-to-finish or Chutes-and-Ladders / Snakes-and-Ladders type of game. Make sure the colours are not too bright. Print it out in the A4 format.

2. In some of the spaces write the symbols that you want to revise. In my game I used symbols for English monophthong vowels.

2. Decide how many sets you want to use in your class. Copy the boards (one for up to four players) and give each team of players a die and up to four pieces.

3. Students are supposed to throw a die, move their pieces (a six does not mean they throw again) and if they land on a space with a symbol, they should say a word which contains the sound represented. Others listen and if they disagree, someone can challenge the player and use a dictionary/smartphone to check the pronunciation of the word. A player who says nothing for e.g. a minute or gives the wrong word misses the next turn.

4. The teacher should move between the groups and listen to them play, correcting mistakes if necessary. Note that the more teams, the more difficult it becomes to catch mistakes or make sure students do not cheat or use L1 to communicate.

5. The game works best with adults: it doesn't matter who makes the fewest mistakes or reaches the goal first. Children may treat the competitive aspect of the game too seriously and be unhappy if they 'lose'. If adult students insist on counting points, they may do so provided they write down the symbols and words as well. The teacher may then check their lists to correct any mistakes made during the game.

6. After some time or after everyone has reached the finishing line in the game, the teacher may ask which sound was the most difficult.

N.B. If you use a chutes-and-ladders template or one with many spaces, the game will last longer (Chutes and Ladders adds another element of chance - students who come up with correct words may not finish the game, and students who are worse at pronunciation may reach the goal first; a template similar to Ludo can make things too complicated and the gameplay too long). Of course the more students play using one board, the longer the game takes.

A more time-consuming variant is to mark some of the spaces with the same symbol or use a highlighter to colour it in and prepare one set of cards for each team containing phonemic symbols. In this way the boards themselves can be reused for other exercises and only the cards are replaced.

This is of course the most basic idea possible. I'll be referring to today's post in some of my later posts.