Pronunciation gamesGames are often wrongly regarded as an end-of-term activity or something to fill in the last five minutes of a lesson. In fact, they can be used at all stages of introducing and practising new phonetic material. Thus, teachers can devise their own phonetic bingo to practise the discrimination of English sounds, which concentrate on specific areas of difficulty. For example: a) Mini-bingo for the vowels [æ], [α:] and [L] The students have cards with three or four of the following activities or objects depicted on them. The teacher reads out the words and the students cover the appropriate pictures if they have them on their cards: cap – cup – hat – heart – cat – cut – cart – track – truck – bag – bug – match – march – lamp – lump. b) Mini-bingo for numbers The same principle applies and this is particularly useful for the contrast between the tens and teens which often causes problems. E.g., forty and fourteen; fifty and fifteen, etc. Other than forms of bingo the teacher can adapt existing vocabulary games so that they practise a particular pronunciation point. One well-known vocabulary game is ‘ I went to the (super)market’. Teacher: I went to the supermarket and bought some eggs. Student 1: I went to the supermarket and bought some eggs and some oranges. Student 2: I went to the supermarket and bought some eggs, some oranges and some sugar etc. Each student adds something to the list and you must remember what the other students have said. This game can be adapted so that specific sounds are practised. It might be a good idea to write a list of suitable words on the blackboard first and practise saying them. For this purpose you could get your students to suggest the words containing, for instance, the sound [ò]: fish, sugar, shirt, shorts, shoes, dish, ashtray etc. With a weaker class you could leave the list on the board during the game. It is also possible to adapt certain of the more traditional guessing games. Very commonly used in elementary level classrooms is this very simple guessing game: the teacher hides something in his bag/ pocket/ drawer etc. and the learners try to guess what it is by asking ‘Is it a pen?’ etc. The teacher can adapt this particularly for consonants by saying it begins with [p], for example. To give himself more vocabulary to play with, it might be better to use a picture. Learners than practise the initial aspirated [p] intensively as they ask ‘Is it a pen/ pencil/ pointer/ pin?’ etc. Another example of a pronunciation game can serve the purpose of practising in the differentiation of similar sounds. Give your students a list of words that they have to sort out into sounds. For example, if you have been practising [i] and [i:] give your students a shopping list to be divided into two lists, one containing items which have the sound [i], the other - items with the sound [i:].
This is Jim. Jim only likes This is Eve. Eve only likes things containing the sound [i]. things containing the sound [i:].
Finally it is possible to turn simple recognition exercises into a game by simply dividing the class into two teams and introducing a competitive element by awarding points. Here is one example from Ann Baker’s Ship or Sheep? Having previously used exercises that practise the difference between a rising tone for a friendly suggestion and a falling tone for an unfriendly command, Ann Bakerintroduces the following as the final checking stage: Competition – Friendly or Unfriendly? Divide the class into two teams. Read the following sentences with friendly or unfriendly intonation. Students take turns to decide whether the teacher’s tone is friendly or unfriendly. Score a point for each correct answer. E.g.: Put these socks in the box. Don’t wash these socks. Put it on top of the clock. Don’t borrow Tom’s watch. Make the coffee hot. Don’t go to the wrong office. Go to the hospital. Don’t go to the wrong restaurant. See a doctor. Buy some binoculars.
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This is a more complicated extension of the same game:
