Pronunciation with a twist of Dogme

     For my conversation class last month, only two students showed up - an upper-intermediate and an advanced student. I had planned an elaborate series of grammar-focused communicative "gamey" activities, but when the students came in, I had the feeling that they wanted to do something else. So, I asked them if they had anything in particular they wanted to do. Usually when I ask this question (which I try to do as often as possible) the students don't have anything specific in mind. But this time, the student said, "Pronunciation. I'm having trouble with the difference between "ee" (as in "tree") and "i" (as in "fish")."

This is a very common area of difficulty for Spanish speakers, as the "i" ("fish") phoneme doesn't exist in Spanish. That combined with the fact that unlike Spanish, English pronunciation is not consistent with its spelling and different combinations of vowels can produce different sounds, so it's no wonder that Spanish people are baffled by the popularity of spelling bees.

So, I did a lesson on the go to practice the difference between three vowel sounds. It went surprisingly well, but I don’t think it had to do so much with what I did but with the fact that we did something they suggested and practiced something they needed (which is the best motivation, I think).

Pronunciation lesson plan (without a book)

Level: B2 +

1. Draw three columns on the board with the following vowel phonemes and an example for each. Drill the students in pronouncing each sound. (I like saying that for the middle sound, try not to move your lips and make a sound between /ei/ ("a") and /i:/ ("e")).

/iː/	/ɪ/	[aɪ]
tree	fish	bike

2. Ask the students to work in pairs to write as many words as they can in 4 minutes for each column. Here are some examples:

/iː/	/ɪ/	[aɪ]
bee, queen, see, sea, tea, read, key, sheep	fish, publish, trick, ship, win, king, live, wish	life, try, time, rhyme, wine, bike might, high

3. Go through all the words, writing the students’ words up on the board into the columns. Drill the words, making sure everyone is pronouncing them correctly.

4. Tell the students that they are going to write a story that’s probably not going to make a lot of sense. Their goal is to write three sentences that incorporate as many of the words in the chart as possible. Set a time limit.

e.g. “The queen bee lives in the sea with the fish and the king. In her life, she tries to trick the sheep whose lives might seem high….etc.”

5. While the students are working, write out an example story. When they are finished, demonstrate with your story and tell the students to write down all the words they hear from the table. Then, the students read their stories in turn while the class writes down the words. (Having the students write the words strengthens the connection between the auditory input and the visual representation on the paper. It also encourages the speakers to focus on correct pronunciation).

This lesson can be used for any set of vowel sounds or consonants and in my experience is more motivating for the students to provide their own words and create their own sentences rather than mindlessly repeating sentences in a course book.

Pronunciation can be a tricky area and according to some, the key to unlocking a language’s difficulties. I saw a language specialist called Robin Walker talk at a conference this spring at the Andalucía IH Conference in Seville and he emphasized the crucial role that pronunciation plays in all areas of language learning, including auditory input and speaking. For more about the role of pronunciation in language learning, see his blog.

Note: the pronunciation is RP (received pronunciation) British English, not American

First day of (summer) school!

Yesterday, I listened to an interesting radiolab podcast about numbers. It talked about a mathematician who used to get so bothered upon delivering a complex lecture and then being asked "What's your favorite number?" that he finally spit the question back at the asker and got the answer, "Why 8 of course, because it's the month when I was born." He was so surprised that people attached emotional explanations to something he considered so rational (his daily tools) that he conducted a study and found that the most popular number all around the world is 7.

Why 7? Well, it's the only number between 1 and 10 that cannot be divided by or multiplied by a number in the same range to output a number between 1 and 10. It's also the only number from 1-10 that has two syllables and it sounds nice to say in any language (go ahead and say it out loud in Spanish). There are 7 days of the week, 7 visible celestial objects (aka planets) in the night sky, 7 colors in the rainbow, 7 is the most common sum when playing dice, and the average person can visualize 7 objects, digits, etc. but not 8 (which is perhaps why the U.S. phone system is based on 7 numbers?).

I realized that I actually don't have a favorite number either but I, too, am fascinated by the ways in which people justify their answers. So today, on the first day of summer school, I decided to ask every one of my students if they had a favorite number and why. Surprisingly, more than half of them said it was 7 and had a different reason for why. One of them said that she liked writing it the most compared to other numbers. Another student said her favorite number was 3 because 3 is the number of points necessary to compose a perfect triangle. Another student said she liked even numbers because they represent the female and odd numbers represent the masculine.

Here is a picture of some numbers.

        I've taught "the first day of class" so many times that I finally decided to type up a template to save myself the trouble. It might not be the most intelligible, but I hope it can be of use to someone out there.

Level: B1 and above
Objective: For students to get to know each other through icebreaker activities and games, for students to be introduced to communicative and learner-centered teaching
approaches, for the teacher to gather information about individual learning style/preference, error sets, strengths, and personality.
 

Stage	Aim/procedure	Interaction pattern	Time
Intros/ icebreakers	Star of David or cloud - The teacher gives examples of things related to him/her and elicits open questions to find the answers. Students do their own and share with partner. “2 truths, 1 lie” - the teacher demonstrates with 3 sentences as an example. Hand out list of random questions, ‘speed dating’ ‘Find someone who’ (material provided by teacher) Design your own logo – elicit common ‘get-to-know-you’ questions or look at well-known logos.	s-s	30”
Review what to bring to class	Elicit what should students bring to class? Give students time to brainstorm together. Pen/pencil, eraser, notebook, coursebook, dictionary or smartphone app, an active mind	s-s t-s	2-3”
Curriculum overview	(If exam class, exam overview or introduction. If not, a brief description of the course and its aims.)	t-s-s	10”
Discussion – needs analysis	What are your strengths/weaknesses? What skills do you find easier/more difficult? Why? What advice would you give to someone who is preparing for an English exam? (Study outside of class, watch series/movies, listen to podcasts/the radio, read books/newspapers/blogs, language exchange or practice speaking/writing with a penpal/friend)	t-s s-s	5-10”
Error Correction	Write sentences that students have said during the class on the board, both with and without errors. Can be played as a game with bets and in pairs, or as a straightforward exercise. Students discuss which sentences they think have errors and how to correct them. Group feedback	t-s s-s	5-8”
Needs analysis	Fill out forms (in class or at home) Share feedback with each other and explain answers about learning style, types of intelligence, speed, personal goals, etc. Discuss how to measure progress and what students should do to improve on their own (see above)	t-s s-s	10-15”
End games/start course material	Taboo (Teacher or students prepare word cards) Pictionary (Teacher or students prepare word cards) Sherades (with words, language chunks, or sentences) Tic-tac-toe (with words, language chunks, students make sentences with the words to win a square. Can also be played with a balled-up piece of paper thrown at the board.) Toss ball, say word with last letter of previous word (e.g. “tiger” , “rat” , “tortoise”) ‘Guess who?’ Power point or cards (famous people/places, students stand with backs to board. OR elicit well-known people and other students asked closed questions to the student with the card) Tongue twisters (teacher provides material) Jokes – matching/telling (teacher provides material) “20 questions” – elicit famous people, characters from films, etc., OR hand them out on slips. Can be things or people. “Logo taboo” - Logo cards provided by teacher. The students draw a card and the other students in the group ask closed questions ('yes/no' answers) to guess the logo. For lower levels, the student with the card can give descriptions without saying the logo.	s-s	15-20”