Appendix 1: Sample Pronunciation Exercises and Activities

(Appendix to ICCT FAQ: How can I improve my pronunciation skills?) Lonna J. Dickerson, Ph.D. Director, Institute for Cross-Cultural Training (ICCT) W heaton College, W heaton, IL 60187 http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/icct/

The first two exercises are particularly useful for independent learners who need to focus on pronunciation learning but dont want to spend a lot of tim e constructing m ore elaborate exercises and activities. However, teachers and tutors who plan to work with groups of learners or with a num ber of individual learners will want to go beyond these first two exercises, constructing a variety of exercises and activities for listening and production at the word, phrase and sentence levels.

Basic Word Level Exercises

1. Listening and Production (M imicry, Reading) Make a list of words containing a sound (consonant or vowel) that is difficult. For consonants, if you have enough words containing a problem sound, form colum ns with that consonant in initial, m edial, and final positions in a word. The English Consonant /2/ Initial think thumb thin thank three through thread Thursday M edial method Kathy Athens nothing everything athlete author birthday Final path tooth mouth math Smith growth north fourth

a. b. c.

d.

Listen: Going down the colum ns, the language helper pronounces the words while the class listens. M imic as class: Going down the colum ns, the language helper says each word; the class (or group) m im ics after each word is pronounced. M imic as individuals: As the language helper says each word, individuals m im ic. (You m ay have the language helper call on individuals in a set order or he/she m ay call on individuals in random order.) Produce as individuals: an individual produces a word (usually this m eans reads, but at tim e you m ay be able to use pictures or real objects), the language helper corrects, and the learner repeats. The words can be dealt with in a set order (e.g., down the colum ns, across the colum ns) or they can be handled in random order. Likewise, individuals can be called upon in a set order (e.g., going around the class) or in random order.

Variations in content focus: Instead of a single consonant or vowel, you can focus on a sound sequence (e.g., consonant clusters in English such as /sp/, /st/, /sk/) or a single tone, intonation or stress pattern (e.g., the falling intonation pattern in the English sentences Hes going. Hes working. Hes thinking.)

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2.

Listening and Production (M imicry, Reading) Make lists of words containing two sounds (or, tones, intonation patterns, stress patterns) that you confuse with one another. If you can, try to find minimal pairs, that is, words that are exactly the sam e except for one feature that is different, and that difference causes a difference in the m eaning of the two words. (For exam ple, Arabic speakers have trouble distinguishing English /p/ vs. /b/. A useful m inim al pair for these two problem sounds is pit vs. bit. These two words constitute a m inim al pair because they differ in only one sound contrast, /p/ vs. /b/.) If you cant find m inim al pairs, try to find words that are as sim ilar to each other as possible except for the one problem feature. The English Consonants /t/ vs. /2/ /t/ tank taught tin true pat debt fate tent a. /2/ thank thought thin through path death faith tenth

b.

c.

d.

Listen: The language helper pronounces the words in each colum n while the class listens. For particularly difficult contrasts, first go down the colum ns and then across; for less difficult contrasts, go across the colum ns only. M imic as class: Going down the colum ns, the language helper pronounces each word and the class m im ics. For particularly difficult contrasts, first go down the colum ns and then across; for less difficult contrasts, go across the colum ns only. M imic as individuals: The language helper says each word and one individual m im ics. The words m ay be used in a set order (e.g., if the class [in b. above] has m im icked going down the colum ns, you m ay want individuals to m im ic going across the colum ns) or random order. Also, the individuals m ay be called upon in a set order or in random order. Produce as individuals: An individual reads a word, the language helper corrects after each item , and the learner repeats. The words can be dealt with in a set order (e.g., down the colum ns, across the colum ns) or they can be handled in random order. Likewise, the individuals can be called upon in a set order (e.g., going around the class) or in random order.

Variations in content focus. Instead of contrasting a pair of consonant or vowel sounds, you can contrast (a) three or m ore confusing sounds (e.g., English /s/ sank vs. /2/ thank vs. /t/ tank, or Korean /pV/ vs. /p/ vs. /p/), (b) two or m ore confusing tone, intonation or stress patterns (e.g., in English, we can contrast the intonation patterns for Hes going. vs. Hes going?)

Listening Exercises: Discrimination

These exercises (#3 - 8) require learners to listen carefully to hear sound distinctions (or tone, intonation or stress differences). Note that #3 - 7 do not require m im icry or production of the problem distinctions. If discrim ination exercises are used before m im icry and reading (or other types of production), learners are likely to m im ic and produce m ore accurately. To construct discrim ination exercises like those listed below for the English /iy/ sound as in see, feed, eat, start with a list of m inim al pairs that contrast the two sounds likely to be confused. For exam ple, those learning English often confuse the / iy / in beat with the / x / in bit.

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3.

Same/Different. (Target: vowels / iy / and / x /. Helper reads, going down the colum ns; group or individuals respond with same or different. Learners do not see the item s.) bid - bead hid - hid eat - eat hit - heat jeep - jeep cheap - chip (D) (S) (S) (D) (S) (D) feet - fit cheek - cheek peach - pitch leak - lick slip - sleep list - list (D) (S) (D) (D) (D) (S) rich - reach field - field deal - dill meal - meal Tim - team still - still (D) (S) (D) (S) (D) (S)

4.

W hich is Different 1/2/3. (Target: vowels / iy / and / x /. Helper reads, going down the colum ns; group or individuals pick out the word that is different from the other two and respond with one, two or three. Learners do not see the item s.) bead - bid - bead fizz - fizz - fees lead - lid - lid leave - leave - live feet - fit - fit lip - leap - lip chip - chip - cheap peak - pick -peak (2) (3) (1) (3) (1) (2) (3) (2) seek - sick - sick reach - reach - rich leak - leak - lick sill - seal - sill dill - deal - deal pill - peel - pill sin - seen - seen rim - rim - ream (1) (3) (3) (2) (1) (2) (1) (3)

5.

One/Tw o. (Target: vowels / iy / and / x /. Helper reads, going down the colum ns; group or individuals pick out the word that has the / iy / sound, W ord 1 or W ord 2, and respond with one or two. Learners do not see the item s.) deed - did (1) deep - dip (1) fill - feel (2) bit - beat (2) fist - feast (2) teen - tin (1) peak - pick (1) reap - rip (1) green - grin (1) seat - sit (1) sick - seek (2) rim - ream (2) wick - week (2) slit - sleet (2) bin - bean (2)

6.

Yes/No. (Target: vowel / iy /. Helper reads, going down the colum ns; group or individuals decide whether the word has an / iy / sound or not, and respond with yes or no. Learners do not see the item s. ) did leave each ship bit (no) (yes) (yes) (no) (no) jeep leak list hit heap (yes) (yes) (no) (no) (yes) heel peel sill knit seen (yes) (yes) (no) (no) (yes)

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7.

Colum n One/Colum n Tw o. (Target: vowels / iy / and / x /. This activity can be used m ost easily after listing on the board sets of m inim al pairs that contrast the two problem sounds. Use the pairs for Listening (e.g., across colum ns) before Column One/Column Two . Listening: (Helper reads across colum ns [or down and across] as group listens.) [1] /iy/ bead heed deep heat sleep feel steel neat teen [2] /x/ bid hid dip hit slip fill still neat tin

Colum n One/Colum n Tw o: (Helper reads, going down the colum ns; group or individuals decide which colum n the word com es from , and respond with one or two. Learners do not see the item s. Note that the first item s are identical to those used for listening [above], but the last item s have not been used in the listening exercise.) bead hid lid hip heat peak (1) (2) (2) (2) (1) (1) rip deep slip filled steel peel (2) (1) (2) (2) (1) (1) hill dill neat teen green skim (2) (2) (1) (1) (1) (2)

8.

Repeat the word with the target sound. (Target: vowel /ow/. Helper reads phrase, learners repeat words with /ow/. Learners do not see the item s. This exercise can be used for discrim ination only, which m eans the helper judges the item correct or incorrect based on selection of correct word, not on how that word is pronounced. Or, it can be used as a com bination of discrim ination and production, which m eans that the helper corrects not only for choice of word, but also for its pronunciation.) Repeat the word with /ow/ long ago snow shovel bowling ball phone number laundry soap both cultures (ago) (snow) (bowling) (phone) (laundry) (both) across the ocean my only brother a funny joke a stone wall a well-known author Please come home. (ocean) (only) (joke) (stone) (known) (home)

Production Exercises and Activities

Learning tends to be m ore effective when the learning experiences gradually increase in difficulty. Since som e exercises and activities are inherently easier (or m ore difficult) than others, it m akes sense to arrange them in order from easy to difficult. To determ ine level of difficulty, determ ine the dem and placed on the learner. For exam ple, its usually easier to m im ic words than phrases or sentences, and its usually easier to read than to construct sentences from clues, etc.

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These production exercises and activities are generally arranged from easy to difficult. However, som etim es two exercises are of sim ilar difficulty (e.g., # 11 and #12). Also, #18 is m ore difficult than #19, but #19 and #20 are listed in sequence because they are sim ilar in type (both dialogs).

9.

M imicry (w ords, phrases). (Target consonant / /. Note that the phrases include m any of the words just practiced and that the target consonant, / /, appears in initial, m edial and final positions. These item s m ay also be used for reading.) thank think theme thick thin thousand thief thunder method anything nothing Kathy Athens athlete author ethical cloth both math Smith mouth growth beneath north

Thank you. Think about it. theme paper thick and thin a thousand miles Hes a thief. a new method

Do you need anything Think nothing of it. Shes a popular author. a red cloth both of you Do you like math? Kathy Smith

10. M imicry (phrases, short sentences). (Target: / e / and / /. Note that each item contains at least one occurrence of each of the target sounds. These item s m ay also be used for reading.) next Saturday next January West Africa national election medical practice grammar lesson stamp collector a well-known fact stamp collector a black sweater a special package a leather jacket an accurate evaluation Is Nancy ready? Wheres Jack? Did you cash the check?

11. M atching: W ord Association. (Target consonant / /. Learner finds a word in Colum n 2 that can be associated with each word in Colum n 1.) Column 1 (helper cue) essay finger book lightning child movie steal dentist skinny church die Column 2 (list of choices) thunder cathedral youth author thin theme teeth death theater thief thumb

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12. M atching: Opposites. (Target consonant / e /. Learner finds a word in Colum n 2 with the opposite m eaning from each word in Colum n 1.) Column 1 (helper cue) positive remember alive sickness dry worst answer east more entrance buy no tomorrow Variations: a. synonyms (learners choose word with approximately the same meaning as the cue word) (/iy/) inexpensive (cheap) bad (evil) to yell (scream) to stop (cease) categories (learners choose all the words that match a category) (/ w / - / v /): natural features (river, valley, waterfall) appliances (dishwasher, stove, vacuum cleaner) states in U.S. (West Virginia, Nevada, Wisconsin) occupations (waitress, taxi driver, veterinarian place and activities (plural noun endings) post office (mail packages) bank (cash checks) supermarket (buy groceries) Column 2 (list of choices) wet exit less west yes best dead yesterday sell question negative forget health

b.

c.

13. Sentence M atching. (Target : / ey / and / e /. This works especially well with two or m ore learners, with one reading a sentence from the first colum n and the second locating and reading the appropriate response from the second colum n.) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What are you taking to Eds party? My favorite bakery is on Second Street. I always get up too late to eat breakfast. Fresh vegetables are on sale today at the corner market. Have you tried the new restaurant on Main Street? a. b. c. d. e. You can pick up bagels and coffee at that new deli on Race Street. Is that the place where they have really good steaks and a salad bar with lots of veggies? I hear they make really good cakes and their whole wheat bread is fantastic. A bag of potato chips, a bag of pretzels, and a bottle of Pepsi. We could use some lettuce and maybe also a few tomatoes.

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14. Reading/Completion. (Target / c /. The learner chooses an item for the list to com plete each sentence) pup lunch months drugstore gloves Monday dozen uncle funny subway oven 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. When we buy twelve apples, we buy one dozen .

We can buy medicine at the ____________. An underground transportation system is a ____________. We bake food in an ____________. A young dog is called a ____________. My mothers brother is my ____________. An noon we eat ____________. Clowns are supposed to be ____________. The next day after Sunday is ____________. Each year has twelve ____________. When my hands are cold, I wear my ____________.

15. Substitution. (Target / ey /. These exercises can range from quite easy (single-slot substitution, in which words are always substituted into the sam e colum n) to fairly com plex (m ultiple-slot substitution, in which words are substituted into different colum ns). To m ake the exercises m ore interesting as well as m ore challenging, you can at tim es use pictures or drawings for the cues.) Situation: Next Sunday some friends are going to have a picnic to celebrate Jays birthday. Each person will bring something to the picnic. Single Slot Substitution: Kay will take steaks potato chips baked beans lemonade a birthday cake paper plates M ultiple Slot Substitution: Kay David Jane baked beans lemonade a birthday cake Ray paper plates will take steaks potato chips

16. Transform ation. (Target / ey /. Two com m on types of transform ation drills often used either in teaching gram m ar or used for teaching stress and intonation are (a) changing affirm ative statem ents to negative statem ents and (b) changing statem ents to questions. For each of these, the helper (or another learner) can give the first sentence and the learner m akes the transform ation. a. Affirmative to negative: Kay will take steaks. Kay will not take steaks. David will take baked beans. David will not take baked beans. Jane will take lemonade Jane will not take lemonade. Kay will take steaks. Will Kay take steaks? David will take baked beans. Will David take baked beans? Jane will take lemonade. Will Jane take lemonade?

b.

Statement to question:

The first exercise can be m ade m ore com plex by beginning with either an affirm ative or a negative statem ent, and the learner m ust supply the opposite. Likewise, in the second exercise, the helper can begin with either a statem ent or a question, and the learner m ust supply the opposite.

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17. Arranging activities: sequencing sentences. (Target: / s /, / z / and / cz / verb endings. Learner reads the sentences as written and then rearranges them into a logical sequence and reads them again.) He puts the letter in an envelope. He mails the letter. He puts a stamp on the envelope. He seals the envelope. He writes a letter. He addresses the envelope.

18. Sentence Construction. (Target: / b / - / v /. For each item , the learner constructs a sentence using the words provided, supplying additional words as needed.) Example: Bill / Dave / movies Possible answers: Bill and Dave are at the movies. Bill and Dave like to watch old movies. Are Bill and Dave going to the movies? 5. 6. 7. 8. movie / begins / 7:05 Bob / arrive / 5:45 library / close / 11:00 breakfast / serve / 7:00

1. gloves / brown 2. vase / valuable 3. vacation / November 17 4. beets / favorite vegetables

19. Fixed dialog. (Target / v / and / w /. These are m ore natural when used either by two or m ore learners, or when the helper takes the role of one speaker.) Two friends discussing volunteer work. Wayne: Dave: Wayne: Dave: Wayne: Have you done any volunteer work, Dave? I work in a hospital every weekend. I visit with about six or seven patients each time I go. (That) sounds like a rewarding thing to do. You must enjoy it. I really like it. How about you, Wayne? Are you involved in volunteer work, too? Once a week I teach English to refugees. I do it every Wednesday evening from 7 to 9.

20. Controlled dialog. (Target / /. The first two exam ples below (fixed dialogs) provide the m odel for the last two dialogs (controlled dialogs).) A. John: Jim: John: Beth: Mary: Beth: Learner 1: Learner 2: Learner 1: Whens your birthday? July third. Is your birthday in July, too? No, its the fourth of December. Whens your birthday? November sixteenth. Is your birthday in November, too? Yes, it is. Its the tenth. Whens your birthday? ____________ (month, day). Is your birthday in ___________ (month), too? No, its the ___________ (day) of ___________ (month). (Yes, its the ____________ (day).)

B.

C.

D.

With a larger group, such as a class, one person can ask another: Learner 1: Learner 2: Whens ___________ (class members) birthday? Its ___________.

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21. Controlled Questions/Answ ers. (Target / /. These are m ore natural when used either by two or m ore learners, or when the helper takes the role of one speaker.) Use the data from the charts below to make us questions and answers. Examples: Learner 1: Learner 2: Learner 1: Learner 2: Record of Births 1995 Thunder City Thornton St. Catharine 323 38 163 1996 230 26 128 1997 253 23 133 Thunder City Thornton St. Catharine How many births occurred in Thunder City in 1995? 323 In 1997, were there more births or deaths in Thornton? More births. Record of Deaths 1995 133 43 86 1996 139 23 92 1997 136 29 73

22. Information Gap In this activity, each learner has inform ation not shared by the other learner(s). For com m unication to take place, learners m ust interact verbally so that the inform ation that each knows can be com m unicated clearly to the other(s). Learners m ust listen carefully and speak clearly and accurately for com m unication to occur. This activity type is particularly valuable because (1) it fosters m eaningful interaction and (2) it involves both the listening and speaking skills. Although the interaction is highly controlled, it resem bles actual com m unication between two or m ore speakers. The following inform ation gap activity involves two learners of English. In this exam ple, the learners are practicing / e / and / / with nam es of people and nam es of food item s. One has the card for Learner A and the other has card for Learner B. Neither is allowed to see the others card. All com m unication m ust be verbal. Situation: Each person listed is supposed to bring two items to a church picnic. Learner A knows what some of the items are; Learner B knows the other items. As each asks questions of the other person, he or she fills in the blanks. Questions might be: What is _______ bringing?, Who is bringing ______? or Is he (she) bringing anything else? Learner A Ed Cheri potato chips Betty David Ted paper plates baked beans baked beans cake pretzels 7-UP Ed Cheri Debbie Betty David Ted cherry pie lemonade Pepsi tablecloth Learner B baked beans steak cake

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