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