Teaching pronunciation activities

Activity 1 -Crazy numbers
Age: Primary or Junior High School.
Aims: To use pronunciation as a way of raising energy; to make the learning of numbers interesting and memorable
Materials: None
Procedure:
Ask learners to work in pairs.
Ask each pair to count to 20 between themselves.
Eg.
Learner A: one
Learner B: two
Learner A: three
etc.

Now tell them to do this again but this time to say every third number (3, 6, 9 etc) in a surprised way. It may be a good idea to demonstrate this with one pair in front of the class first of all.

Now ask them to try saying every third number in other ways. Some good examples to use are in an angry way, very happily, as a question, loudly, quietly, nervously, suspiciously etc

Note: With lower levels the instructions can be given in Chinese as well as English. This activity can also be done with days of the week, months etc.
Activity 2- Working with a chant
Age: Primary or Junior High School
Aims: To make language memorable by exploring rhythm; to practise connected speech
Materials: A chant written on the board, or in the learners’ coursebook. The example below on the left is taken from PEP Primary English Students’ book, page 7 (Lingo Media 2003). The example on the right is from Memory Activities for Language Learning by Nick Bilbrough (CUP 2011)






Procedure:
Say the whole chant to the class in a loud and clear voice, aiming for natural rhythm, and allowing words to link together where it seems right. It may help to clap or tap on the table while you do this to emphasise the rhythm.

Now chant each line again and ask the whole class to repeat each line after you. Repeat any lines which seem more difficult for the class.

Now you perform half the chant (the questions in the example on the left) and the class perform the other half (the answers in the example on the left). Then swap things around so that the class say the questions and you say the answers.

Divide the class into two sides. One side perform the questions and the other side perform the answers. Now swap things around and repeat it.
Note: Clapping, tapping, or clicking your fingers, and encouraging the learners to do the same will really help with the rhythm of the chant, and make the language more memorable. It will also help if learners can stand up, and can do simple gestures to go with what they are saying.

Activity 3 - Back-chaining
Age: Primary or Junior High School
Aims: To facilitate smooth and natural repetition of drilled utterances
Materials: None
Procedure:
Choose a sentence that is appropriate for the class, using the area of language that you have been focusing on. Here’s one for a secondary group
You’re going to the Asian Games, aren’t you?
Say the sentence naturally, and then ask the class to repeat it after you. Repeat this several times. Now choose an individual to repeat the sentence on his or her own.
Now just say the last part of the sentence and get students to repeat again, both chorally and individually. Keep repeating this process and adding on more and more of the sentence until it is complete again, like this:
aren’t you?
Games, aren’t you?
Asian Games, aren’t you?
the Asian Games, aren’t you?
to the Asian Games, aren’t you?
going to the Asian Games, aren’t you?
You’re going to the Asian Games, aren’t you?

Note: Working backwards from the end of the sentence is less challenging in terms of memory than starting at the beginning. It also allows learners to notice more about the way words flow together.



Activity 4 - Memory Drills
Age: Primary or Junior High School
Aims: To raise awareness about connected speech and the pronunciation of regular past verb forms; to develop working memory for language
Materials: A list of sentences using the same area of language but which get increasingly longer. The example below uses sentences with regular past verb forms.
I shouted. (2 words)
I jumped around. (3 words)
I cleaned the kitchen. (4 words)
I played football with George. (5 words)
I watched the news on TV. (6 words)
I decided to go for a walk. (7 words)
I wanted to speak to my English teacher. (8 words)
I listened to some music while I had breakfast. (9 words)
I looked out of the window and it was raining. (10 words)
I walked to the zoo and fed the monkeys some bananas. (11 words)
I intended to swim in the sea but it was too cold. (12 words)
I cooked a nice