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.