teaching pronunciation activities

English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
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:
1) Ask learners to work in pairs.
2) Ask each pair to count to 20 between themselves.
Eg.
Learner A: one
Learner B: two
Learner A: three
etc.
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
3) 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.
4) 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.
English Teachers’ Network

Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
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)
Who is your teacher?
Mrs Heart
Is she kind?
Yes! And she is smart.
Who is your teacher?
Mr Rice.
Is he strict?
Yes, but he is nice
One, two, three,
I’d like a cup of tea
Four, five, six
I’d like a plate of chips
Seven, eight, nine
I’d like a glass of wine
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010

Procedure:
1) 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.
2) 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.
3) 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.
4) 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
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
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.
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
Activity 3 - Back-chaining
Age: Primary or Junior High School

Aims: To facilitate smooth and natural repetition of drilled utterances
Materials: None
Procedure:
1) 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?
2) 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.
3) Now just say the last part of the sentence and get students to
repeat again, both chorally and individually. Keep repeating this
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
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.
English Teachers’ Network

Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
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)
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
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 meal for everyone at home the day before yesterday.
(13 words)
Procedure:
1) Divide the class into two sides.

2) Say the first sentence in as natural a way as possible, linking
words together where appropriate. Now ask for a volunteer
from Side A to repeat it. Keep going until you’re happy that the
sentence has been successfully repeated by a learner.
3) Now do the same with the second sentence with the other side of
the class.
4) Keep repeating this process, swapping from one side of the class
to the other with each new sentence. As the sentences get longer
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
it becomes more and more challenging. How far can they get
before it becomes too difficult?
5) Now ask learners to do the same activity in pairs. Display the
sentences on the board or with a projector. One learner in each
pair looks at the board and reads out the sentences in turn. The
other learner turns away so he or she cannot see, and tries to
repeat what the first learner says.
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
Activity 5 - Rhyming poems
Age: Primary or Junior High School
Aims: To make language memorable by creating links between words
which rhyme
Material: You need to find or create a simple rhyming poem which
has lots of examples of the same sound. The example below uses the
character of Miss White from PEP Primary English Students’ book.

A good source of rhyming words for creating poems is an online
rhyming dictionary such as />
She’s Miss White
She’s very bright
She likes to turn on the light
She doesn’t like the night
She had a fright
But now she’s alright
She’s Miss White
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
Procedure:
1) Display the poem on the board or with a projector. Read it out
to the class and check understanding of the language using
translation or gestures. Draw the learners’ attention to the
rhyming sound at the end of each line.
2) Say it again line by line and ask the class to repeat after you.
3) Now remove it from view and read it again, but this time stop
before the last word of each line. Can the class supply the
missing word?
4) Go through it again this time only saying the first word or first
few words of each line. Again ask them to supply the missing
parts.
5) Ask one or two learners if they can remember the whole poem.
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010

Activity 6) Creating a poem (from Memory Activities for
Language Learning – CUP 2011)
Age: Primary or Junior High School
Aims: To make the pronunciation of words memorable by linking
them to the names of celebrities.
Materials: Choose some celebrities that your students may know
and find some words that rhyme with their names. A good source
of rhyming words for creating poems is an online rhyming
dictionary such as . See the examples
below.
Tom
Cruise
Britney
Spears

Snow
Winnie
the
Pooh
Bill
Gates
Barack
Obama
Mariah
Carey
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
/u:/ /ɪə/ White

/aɪ/
/uː/ /eɪ/ /ɑ:/ and
/ə/
/eə/
and /i:/
news
shoes
lose
choose
use
bruise
queues
ears
years
tears
beers
hears
cheers
fears
light
night
bright
bite
fight
tonight
alright
shoe
through
glue
knew

two
you
bambo
o
hates
plates
weights
states
dates
creates
debates
farmer
drama
charmer
pyjamas
armour
calmer
llama
fairy
hairy
scary
dairy
canary
wary
vary
Procedure:
1) Give out the list of celebrities and rhyming words, or display
them on the board. Using the pictures to help, check that the
He’s Tom Cruise
He’s very confused

When he buys new shoes
But I’m the girl he’ll choose
He’s Tom Cruise
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
learners know who the people are and how to pronounce their
names. Ask the class to tell you anything they know about them.
2) Put the learners into pairs, or small groups. Ask them to create a
short simple poem which uses one of the celebrity’s name and
some of the rhyming words. Emphasise that the poem does not
have to be true and could be funny or silly. You may want to
show this example created by some Spanish teenagers.

3) Check the students work for accuracy, and help out by
improving the poems where necessary.
4) Ask each group to learn their poem by heart to perform to the
rest of the class.
Note: This activity works best if learners have already done the
previous activity (Rhyming Poems). Instead of using celebrity
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
names you can also just give the learners a list of rhyming words
and ask them to make a simple poem, a story, or even a single
sentence using as many of them as possible.
Activity 7 One word conversations
Age: Primary or Junior High School

Aims: To raise awareness about intonation as a way of expressing
meaning
Materials: None
1) Ask a confident learner to come to the front of the class. Ask her
to imagine that she is a customer in a restaurant and that you are
the waiter. Tell her that you can each only say one word at a
time each time you speak. The conversation could go something
like this:
A: Afternoon
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010
B: Hello
A: Menu?
B: Thanks
A: Thirsty?
B: Yes
A: Tea?
B: Please etc.
2) Now swap the roles around so that the learner becomes the
waiter and you are the customer. Try the conversation again this
way.
3) Now arrange the class into pairs and ask them to try having a
one word restaurant conversation themselves.
4) Ask one or two pairs to perform their conversations in front of
the class.
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation

Nov 2010
Dialogue interpretations
Age: Primary or Junior High School
Aims: To practice the use of intonation and word stress as a way of
expressing meaning.
Materials: Choose one of the following short dialogues which is
appropriate for the level of your class.
1) Write the dialogue on the board or project it.
(1)
A: Did you do it?
B: No, I didn’t!
A: Who did it then?
B: I don’t know.
(3)
A: Would you like to go to the
cinema?
B: Tonight?
A: You’re not doing anything else?
B: No. I’m not doing anything else.
(2)
A:What’s your name?
B: Chris Walker
A: Where are you from?
B: Canada
A: What do you do?
B: I’m a student
English Teachers’ Network
Workshop
Teaching Pronunciation
Nov 2010

2) Ask the learners to work in pairs and to discuss different
contexts in which the dialogue could be said. Ask them to try
saying it in different ways.
3) Ask two or three pairs to perform one of their versions in front
of the class. Ask the rest of the class to interpret who the people
are, and how each person is feeling at different parts of the
conversation.