SECTION 1 SEGMENTAL PHONETICS
Phonetics as a part of the science of linguistics.
In linguistics, function is usually understood to mean discriminatory
function, that is, the role of the various elements of the language in the
distinguishing of one sequence of sounds, such as a word or a sequence of words,
from another of different meaning. Though we consider the discriminatory
function to be the main linguistic function of any phonetic unit we cannot ignore
the other function of phonetic units, that is, their role in the formation of syllables,
words, phrases and even texts.
Phonetics is an independent branch of linguistics like lexicology, grammar
and stylistics. It studies the sound matter, its aspects and functions.
Phonetics is connected with linguistic and non-linguistic sciences: acoustics,
physiology, psychology, logic, etc.
The connection of phonetics with grammar, lexicology and stylistics is
exercised first of all via orthography, which in its turn is very closely connected
with phonetics.
Phonetics formulates the rules of pronunciation for separate
sounds and sound combinations. The rules of reading are based on the relation of
sounds to orthography and present certain difficulties in learning the English
language, especially on the initial stage of studying.
Through the system of rules of reading phonetics is connected with
grammar and helps to pronounce correctly singular and plural forms of nouns, the
past tense forms and past participles of English regular verbs, e. g. [d] is
pronounced after voiced consonants (beg — begged), [t] — after voiceless
consonants (wish — wished) . It is only if we know that [s] is pronounced after
voiceless consonants, [z] after voiced and [iz] after sibilants, that we can
pronounce the words books, bags, boxes correctly. The ending - ed is pronounced
[id] following [t] or [d], e. g. waited [weitid], folded ['f«uldid]. Some adjectives
have a form with [id], e. g. crooked ['krukid], naked ['neikid], ragged ['rQgid].
One of the most important phonetic phenomena — sound interchange — is
another manifestation of the connection of phonetics with grammar. For instance,
this connection can be observed in the category of number. Thus, the interchange
of [f— v], [s — z], [T — D] helps to differentiate singular and plural forms of such
nouns as: calf— calves [f—v], leaf— leaves [f— v], house — houses [s — z].
Vowel interchange helps to distinguish the singular and the plural of such
words as: basis — bases ['beisis — 'beisi:z], crisis — crises ['kraisis — 'kraisi:z],
and also: man — men [mᴂn — men], foot —feet [fut — fi:t], goose — geese [gu:s
— gi:z], mouse — mice [maus — mais].
Phonetics is also connected with stylistics; first of all through intonation and
its components: speech melody, utterance stress, rhythm, pause and voice tamber
which serve to express emotions, to distinguish between different attitudes on the
part of the author and speaker. Very often the writer helps the reader to interpret
his ideas through special words and remarks such as: a pause, a short pause,
angrily, hopefully, gently, incredulously, etc.
If the author wants to make a word or a sentence specially prominent or
logically accented, he uses graphical expressive means.
Phonetics is also connected with stylistics through repetition of words,
phrases and sounds. Repetition of this kind serves the basis of rhythm, rhyme and
alliteration.
The repetition of identical or similar sounds, which is called alliteration,
helps, together with the words to which they belong, to impart a melodic effect to
the utterance and to express certain emotions.
Onomatopoeia, a combination of sounds which imitate sounds produced in
nature, is one more stylistic device which can serve as an example of the
connection between phonetics and stylistics. E. g.: tinkle, jingle, clink, ting, chink;
chatter, jabber, clatter, babble; chirp, cheep, twitter, chirrup; clap, dab, smack;
crash, bang.
The study of phonetic phenomena from the stylistic point of view is
phonostylistics. It is connected with a number of linguistic and non-linguistic
disciplines, such as: paralinguistics, psychology, psycholinguistics, sociology,
sociolinguistics, dialectology, literary criticism, information theory, etc.
Phonetics as a part of social sciences.
Further point should be made in connection with the relationship between
phonetics and social sciences. Language is not an isolated phenomenon; it is a
part of society. No branch of linguistics can be studied without taking into
consideration at least the study of other aspects of society. In the past two decades
we have seen the development of quite distinct interdisciplinary subjects, such as
sociolinguistics (and sociophonetics correspondingly), psycholinguistics,
mathematical linguistics and others. As their titles suggest, they are studied from
two points of view and thus require knowledge of both.
Sociophonetics studies the ways in which pronunciation functions in society.
It is interested in the ways in which phonetic structures vary in response to
different social functions. Society here is used in its broadest sense, it includes
such phenomena as nationality, regional and social groups, age, gender, different
situations of speaking - talking to equals, superiors, on the “job”, when we are
trying to persuade, inform, agree and so on. The aim of sociophonetics is to
correlate phonetic variations with situational factors. It’s obvious that these data
are vital for language learners who are to observe social norms and to
accommodate to different situations they find themselves in.
One more example of interdisciplinary overlap is the relation of linguistics
to psychology. Psycholinguistics covers an extremely broad area, from acoustic
phonetics to language pathology, and includes such problems as acquisition of
language by children, memory, attention, speech perception, second-language
acquisition and so on. Phonosemantics studies the relations between the sound
structure of a word and its meaning. There is some data proving that the sounds
that constitute a word have their own “inner” meaning, which causes certain
associations in the listener’s mind. For example, close vowels produce the effect of
“smallness”, and voiceless consonants sound more “unpleasant” and “rude” than
their voiced counterparts, etc. Some sounds are associated with certain colours.
These data may be helpful in teaching, for example, “tying” together the sound
structure of a word and its meaning, thus facilitating the process of memorising
new words.
Scientists have always been interested how children acquire their own
language without being taught. They hope that these data might be useful in
teaching grown-up people a foreign language, too.
Pragmalinguistics is a comparatively new science, which studies what
linguistic means and ways of influence on a hearer to choose in order to bring
about certain effects in the process of communication. Correspondently the domain
of pragmaphonetics is to analyse the functioning and speech effects of the sound
system of a language.
Phonetics is closely connected with a number of other sciences such as
physics (or rather acoustics), mathematics, biology, physiology and others. The
more phonetics develops the more various branches of science become involved in
the field of phonetic investigation. Phonetics has become important in a number of
technological fields connected with communication.
Phoneticians work alongside the communication engineers in devising and
perfecting machines that can understand, that is respond to human speech, or
machines for reading aloud the printed page and vice versa, converting speech
directly into printed words on paper. Although scientists are still dissatisfied with
the quality of synthesized speech, these data are applied in security systems,
answering machines and for other technical purposes.
How to teach Phonetics in class.
Pronunciation in the past occupied a central position in theories of oral
language proficiency. But it was largely identified with accurate pronunciation of
isolated sounds or words. The most neglected aspect of the teaching of
pronunciation was the relationship between phoneme articulation and other
features of connected speech. Traditional classroom techniques included the use of
a
phonetic
alphabet
(transcription),
transcription
practice,
recognition/discrimination tasks, focused production tasks, tongue twisters, games,
and the like.
When the Communicative Approach to language teaching began to take over
in the mid- late - 1970s, most of the above-mentioned techniques and materials for
teaching pronunciation at the segmental level were rejected on the grounds as
being incompatible with teaching language as communication. Pronunciation has
come to be regarded as of limited importance in a communicatively-oriented
curriculum. Most of the efforts were directed to teaching supra-segmental features
of the language -rhythm, stress and intonation, because they have the greatest
impact on the comprehensibility of the learner's English
Today pronunciation instruction is moving away from the segmental/suprasegmental debate and toward a more balanced view [Morley 1994]. This view
recognizes that both an inability to distinguish sounds that carry a high functional
load, e.g. list— least, and an inability to distinguish supra-segmental features (such
as intonation and stress differences) can have a negative impact on the oral
communication - and the listening comprehension abilities - of normative speakers
of English.
Teaching pronunciation with
phonemic symbols
The letters of the alphabet can be a poor guide to pronunciation. Phonemic symbols, in
contrast, are a totally reliable guide. Each symbol represents one sound consistently. Here
are five good reasons why students should know phonemic symbols.

Students can use dictionaries effectively. The second bit of information in
dictionaries for English language learners is the word in phonemic symbols. It comes
right after the word itself. Knowing phonemic symbols enables students to get the
maximum information from dictionaries.

Students can become independent learners. They can find out the pronunciation of a
word by themselves without asking the teacher. What is more, they can write down
the correct pronunciation of a word that they hear. If they cannot use phonemic
symbols for this, they will use the sound values of letters in their own language and
this will perpetuate pronunciation errors.

Phonemic symbols are a visual aid. Students can see that two words differ, or are
the same, in pronunciation. For example they can see that 'son' and sun' must be
pronounced the same because the phonemic symbols are the same. They can use
their eyes to help their ears and if they are able to hold and manipulate cards with
the symbols on, then they are using the sense of touch as well. The more senses
students use, the better they will learn.

Phonemic symbols, arranged in a chart, are part of every student's armoury of
learning resources. Just as they have a dictionary for vocabulary and a grammar
book for grammar, so they need reference materials for pronunciation: the phonemic
symbols and simple, key words that show the sound of each symbol.

Although speaking a language is a performance skill, knowledge of how the
language works is still of great value. Here is another question to ask students: How
many different sounds are there in English? Usually, students do not know.
Phonemic symbols on the wall in a classroom remind them that there are 44. Even if
they have not mastered all of them, they know what the target is and where the
problems are. The chart is a map of English sounds. Even with a map, you can get
lost but you are better off with a map than without one.
Is it important for teachers to know the phonemic symbols?
To be frank, yes. Every profession has specialist knowledge that is not widely known
outside the profession. If you are a doctor, you will be able to name every bone in the
human body, which most people can't do. If you are a language teacher, then you know
phonemic symbols, which most people don't. Students can learn these symbols by
themselves and one day you might meet a student who asks you to write a word on the
board using phonemic symbols. It is best to be prepared.
Is it difficult to learn phonemic symbols?
Absolutely not. 19 of the 44 symbols have the same sound and shape as letters of the
alphabet. This means that some words, such as 'pet', look the same whether written with
phonemic symbols or letters of the alphabet. That leaves just 25 to learn. Compare that with
the hundreds of different pieces of information in a grammar book or the thousands of
words in even a small dictionary. It is a very small learning load. Moreover, it is visual and
shapes are easy to remember. Anyone who can drive is able to recognise more than 25
symbols giving information about road conditions. Even if we go beyond separate, individual
sounds and include linking, elision and assimilation, there is still a limited and clearly
defined set of things to learn.
Integrating pronunciation into
classroom activities
In my work as a teacher trainer I have been surprised at how often experienced teachers
are reluctant to tackle pronunciation issues in class. I can think of at least two reasons why
pronunciation tends to be neglected: firstly, the lack of clear guidelines and rules available
in course books, and secondly the fact that isolated exercises once a month do not seem to
have much of an effect. This is not surprising, however; like all other areas of language
teaching, pronunciation needs constant attention for it to have a lasting effect on students,
which means integrating it into daily classroom procedures. I find that addressing issues
regularly during the language feedback or group correction stage of a lesson helps to focus
learners' attention on its importance and leads to more positive experiences.

Using student talk to teach pronunciation

Word stress

Vowel sounds

Diphthongs

Weak forms

Sentence stress

Conclusion
Using student talk to teach pronunciation
Pronunciation work can be kept simple and employ exercises which are both accessible
and enjoyable for students, whatever their level. Whenever students do a freer speaking
activity, the main aim is usually for them
to develop their spoken fluency in the language. However, the activity also serves to work
on students' accuracy through the feedback we give them on their use of language.

When my students do such a group or pair work activity at any level I listen in and
take notes which are divided into three areas of language: pronunciation, grammar
and lexis. Within the latter, as well as unknown lexis I will also include areas such as
register, function, set phrases…and within the former I will include notes on any area
of pronunciation that leads to miscommunication. This includes diphthongs, vowel
sounds (including weak forms), consonant sounds, word stress and sentence stress.
All of these areas can be dealt with quickly and efficiently by having some simple
exercises ready which require nothing more than the board and a basic knowledge
of the phonemic chart.

If learners are introduced to the phonemic chart one phoneme at a time, it can be
introduced from beginner level and students are quick to appreciate its value. A rule
for when 'ea' is pronounced /e/ (head) and when it is pronounced /i:/ (bead) will not
necessarily aid production, whereas the activities I propose here will. Once your
students get used to the exercises, pronunciation work becomes even more efficient
and, dare I say it, effective.
Word stress
Here is a simple exercise I repeat regularly for work on word stress and individual sounds.

I hear a pre-intermediate learner say: 'I suppose (pronounced with stress on first
syllable) I will see her tonight'. The listener doesn't understand because of the
mispronunciation and asks the other student to repeat until finally they write it down
and we see what the word was.

After the activity, on the board I put a column with two bubbles to represent word
stress, the first small, the second much larger. I write 'suppose' under the bubbles
and drill it before asking students to think of other two-syllable words with secondsyllable stress.

I get 'outside', 'today', 'below' and 'behind', which I accept as correct before asking
for verbs only. I then get 'accept', 'believe', 'forget'….and these go in the same
column.

If a student asks for rules during this exercise, in this case 'Do all 2-syllable verbs
have this stress pattern?', for example, I either ask them to think of examples that
contradict their rule to give myself time to consider it or I tell them we will look at
rules for this the following lesson. As a general rule I find that this procedure
encourages learner autonomy by having learners form their own hypotheses which
are then confirmed or disproved by the teacher in the following lesson.
Vowel sounds
I hear a pre-intermediate learner say: 'Not now because he is did (dead)'.

After the activity, on the board I draw a column with the heading /e/. In this column I
write the word 'dead' and have students repeat it. I then ask for examples of words
which rhyme with this, which students find easy ('red', 'bed', etc.).

I do not write these, however. I then ask for words which rhyme and have the same
vowel spelling, i.e. 'ea'. I put students in pairs or groups to think of words, giving
myself some thinking time, too. In this case, depending on the level I will get 'head',
'bread', 'read', 'lead',… and we end up with an extendable list of words with the same
spelling and sound.

It is the cognitive work of trying to think of similar words, writing them down and their
organisation into columns that helps learners retain sounds and spellings, rather
than their simply revising the lists. This is why all students should be encouraged to
copy the list into their notebooks.

If the classroom allows it, it's also a great idea to have students pin posters with
sound columns up on the wall and add to them whenever a new item comes up for
that sound, particularly if it is a strange or different spelling.

The idea is to get a basic poster with a phoneme at the top and various columns with
different spellings.
/e/
'e' 'ea' 'ai'
bed dead said
pen head
Diphthongs
I hear an intermediate learner say: 'I didn't find (pronounced / f i: n d /) it anywhere'.

I make a column with /ai/, drill 'find' and my students give me 'fight', 'bike', 'buy',
'eye','my', etc. for the sound.

I accept these without writing them and then encourage students to think of other
words spelt like 'find'. I get 'mind' and 'kind'.

There may be only one or two for any given pattern. If I have thought of any other
words myself I add them to the column, ensuring that they are not obscure words or
too high for this particular level (in this case I might choose to introduce 'bind' and
'grind', but probably not 'rind' or 'hind').
Weak forms
I hear an elementary learner say: 'I will buy vegetables (pronouncing 'table' at the end)'. I
note that this is also an opportunity to work on word stress.

I make a column with a schwa, and drill 'vegetable', marking the word stress.

With an elementary class there is a case for simply teaching this point rather than
eliciting known words, so I point out the number of syllables and the stress on the
beginning of the word, explaining that this makes the final syllable weak and not
pronounced as the word 'table'.

I add to the list 'comfortable' and 'presentable' as further examples, but avoid adding
more so as not to overwhelm students at this level.

For the second example I point out that the stress is on the second syllable. I can
think of objections teachers have made to my suggesting this, such as students'
confusion at the lack of a steadfast rule or the non-uniformity of the examples, for
example, but to cater to this merely serves to reinforce students' belief that a
language always obeys a strict set of rules. In my experience this approach is not a
useful one. The only way to learn these fundamental pronunciation points is to notice
them, note them down and practise them regularly.
Sentence stress
I use fluency drills to work on sentence stress. I hear an intermediate learner say:
'He told me I couldn't have
a holiday' (bold words are stressed). This causes confusion due to the stress being placed
on the wrong words
in the sentence, i.e. the pronouns, or grammar words, as opposed to the content words.
1. The activity is simply a choral drill, but of the whole sentence and maintaining an
English rhythm. 'He told me I couldn't have a holiday'.

The trick here is not to over-exaggerate on the stressed words, but keep the stress
and rhythm natural. Think in terms of modelling a rhythm, rather than a stress
pattern. Using gesture like the conductor of an orchestra or tapping on the board to
show the rhythm is especially helpful for students who cannot hear it easily.
Admittedly, this latter exercise on sentence stress does seem to take longer to have an
effect, but if highlighted early on and practised relatively often, students do seem to
internalise how English stress differs from their own language and helps overcome what in
later stages of learning becomes a fossilised way of speaking. Sentence stress causes
more communication problems for a fluent speaker than any number of grammatical errors.
Conclusion
One of the beauties of using student speech for pronunciation work is that it directly
addresses students' problems. I have attempted to provide a couple of very simple
exercises here to help teachers integrate pronunciation into their classes on a regular basis.
Regular work in this area helps learners to develop their own hypotheses and gut-feeling for
English pronunciation, something experts and researchers have long emphasised as an
essential skill of a good language learner.
Practical assignment. Phonetics as a part of linguistic and social sciences.
Practical assignment. Teaching phonetics in class.
1. Read the description of the Pronunciation whispers game. State the aim of
the game. Practice the game in class.
Procedure





Demonstrate the game of 'whispers'. Separate the class into two teams and
have them stand or sit in a row one behind the other. The student at the front
should be able to write on the board or have a pen and piece of paper in front
of them.
Dictate a word or sentence suitable for the level and age that you're teaching
to the two students at the end of each line.
They then whisper the sentence to the person in front of them who in turn
does the same. This is repeated until it reaches the two students at the front
of each line who then write what they heard on the board. The aim is for
the word or sentence to be the same as the teacher's.
Correct any mistakes. Points can then be awarded both for which team was
first and for which team was the most accurate.
Now write words or sentences on the board depending on their stress
pattern. Make two sets for each group. For example if dealing with the stress
of individual words such as countries you might write the following (without
the answers in brackets):
0O (Japan)
O0 (Thailand)
00O00 (Indonesia)
0O00 (Australia)
O (Spain)
O00 (Mexico)

Now without drilling any pronunciation beforehand repeat the activity as
above but now students must write the dictated word next to the stress
pattern.
Extension and adaptations



Dictate only the word or sentence and students write the stress pattern.
Dictate the stress pattern and students write the word
Do the same activity as a pair dictation. Dictate a sentence but say one word
with the incorrect stress pattern. Students dictate and write down the word
pronounced incorrectly.
2. Read the description of the Sound and spelling correspondence game. State
the aim of the game. Practice the game in class.
The chart can be used to highlight both patterns and variations in sound and
spelling correspondence.
As a discovery activity to help learners notice the effect of adding an 'e' to the end of
a word, you could give the learners some of the words from the following list:
cap cape
matmate
pin pine
not note
pet Pete
kit kite
sit site
win wine
hat hate
cut cute

Learners use the chart to help them write the phonemic transcription for each word,
checking with a dictionary if necessary. The teacher then asks them to formulate a
general 'rule' for the effect of adding an 'e' to the end of a word. (It makes the vowel
sound 'say its name', i.e. the 'a' in 'cape' sounds like the letter A as it is said in the
alphabet.)

It is not advisable to over-emphasise the irregularity of English spelling, given that
80% of English words do fit into regular patterns. However, speakers of languages
such as Spanish, Italian or Japanese where there is a very high correspondence
between sound and spelling may need to have their attention drawn to the different
possibilities for pronunciation in English.

One way of doing this is to give them a list of known words where the same letter or
combination of letters, normally a vowel or vowels, represent different sounds.
Learners will have at least some idea of how these words are pronounced, and can
categorise the words according to the sound represented, using the chart to help
them, before holding a final class check. For example, you could give learners the
following list of words including the letter a, which they categorise according to how
the as are pronounced. Where the word contains more than one a with different
sounds, underline which a you want them to use to make their categorisations.
3. Read the description of the Telephone number pronunciation game. State
the aim of the game. Practice the game in class.
This activity practises discrete vowel sounds. It practises both speaking and listening skills.
It works well in pairs or in groups and usually generates lots of fun.
Procedure






Draw the face of a mobile telephone on the board.
Elicit the numbers and then dictate a number to the students.
One by one, erase the numbers and replace them with the words on the worksheet,
drill the pronunciation as you do this.
Dictate another number to the students this time saying the words and not the
numbers.
Students then work together as a class, in groups or in pairs and repeat the
procedure with their own telephone numbers.
If they have given their real numbers, you could get the students to actually phone
the number and check.
Adaptation
To practise scan reading skills.



Give out a classifieds section of a newspaper.
Students choose a number and dictate it using the procedure above.
Students then scan the newspaper page to find the corresponding classified and
either write it on the board or shout it out. This could be done as a team game.
4. Read the description of the Shadow reading game. State the aim of the
game. Practice the game in class.
This activity uses a text from the course book, and involves listening and
pronunciation practice. This task is challenging and motivating and can be used at any
level.
Procedure:
 Teacher reads the text aloud and students follow, marking the text for stress
 Teacher reads the text a second time and the students mark for linking
 Individual chunks that show good examples of linking or problematic pronunciation
can then be drilled
 Students practise these aspects of pronunciation by reading the text to themselves
before the teacher reads the text aloud again and they listen
 Then the students read the text with the teacher and they have to start and finish at
the same time as the teacher, who reads the text at normal speed
5. Read the description of the Using poetry game. State the aim of the game.
Practice the game in class.
The reasons for using poetry are similar to those for using songs and many activities that
you do with songs can be adapted to poetry.
Any authentic material exposes students to some 'real English' and can be very motivating
for your students, provided they are supported throughout the task. The other great thing
about poems is for students to have the opportunity to see the language work creatively and
freely. Poems can be used in many different ways and the more you use them the more
uses you’ll find for them.
Where can I get the poems from?
Finding poems to use is very easy online. You can find lots of poems by simply typing in the
author and the first line or title. Try:
https://www.poemhunter.com/
If you make worksheets using the poem be sure to acknowledge the author's name and the
source.
How do I choose the right one for my class?
The first thing to consider when you're selecting a poem for your class is the level of
language. If you end up having to explain every single word then the poem may well lose its
spark. On the other hand, students won't need to understand every word to get the general
idea of most poems so don't be put off if you think the language level is slightly above what
they would normally be able to handle. As with songs, if the students are supported
throughout and are pre-taught some of the vocabulary, or given some visual aids to help
them, they will be able to tackle more challenging texts than they are used to.
What activities can I do with a poem?
Introduce a topic


Poems can be a really nice way into a topic. A colleague recently recommended
using a poem called The Ghoul by Jack Perlutsky as a way to introduce a Halloween
lesson. He had made a gap fill by taking out the rhyming words. The students loved
the poem and later on took it in turns reading out the verses with the correct
intonation and taking care to make the rhyming words rhyme. (Thanks to Johnny
Lavery for this idea.)
To introduce the topic of old people and talking about grandparents in a class I've
used Jenny Joseph's poem called Warning. The language is simple and the ideas
are clear and can easily be supported with visual aids for very low levels.
These are just a few examples of linking a poem to a topic. By using a poem as a spring
board into a topic you will make the class memorable for your students.
Ordering the poem

When you have chosen a suitable poem for your class, copy it onto a worksheet and
cut up the verses. If the poem tells a story and the order is logical, ask students to
read the verses and put them into the correct order. If the order isn't obvious, you
can read out the poem and they can listen and put it into order as you read. From
here you can go onto to look at the vocabulary, the rhyming words or to talking about
the meaning of the poem.
Rhyming words

Obviously, some poems lend themselves well to looking at pronunciation. Whether
you want to focus on individual sounds, rhyming pairs, connected speech or
intonation patterns, poems can be a great way into it. Getting students to read out
chunks of a poem as they copy the way you say it can be excellent practice for their
pronunciation.
Learn a verse

Once you have chosen the poem and have worked with it with your class, encourage
the students to learn one verse by heart. It can be really motivating for younger
students to be able to say a whole chunk of English perfectly. Ensure that they want
to learn it and that it has some useful language in it which will be helpful in the future.
Try not to get students to memorise chunks of language just for the sake of it or
because you want to fill in the last few minutes and have run out of activities!
However it can be really satisfying for students to be able to say a nice chunk of
language and to be sure that their pronunciation is good, as they will have practised
it with you.
Record the students

Getting students to record themselves saying a poem can be a nice way to help
them improve their pronunciation. You could put students into pairs or small groups
and get each student to read out aloud one of the verses of the poem. Then listen
back to it in the class.
Write a new verse

If you are teaching higher levels you could ask the students to create a new verse for
the poem or to change one of the existing verses. This would be a challenging
activity for most students so make sure you offer ideas and help to support students
through the task. Be ready to give an example verse to show them that it's do-able!
Role play dialogues

If the poem you are using has any dialogue, you could use it as a springboard into a
role-play. Poems with characters can also be used to inspire role plays. An example
of a poem that would be good for this is A Bad Habit by Michael Rosen.
For most teachers poems are an under-exploited resource that we have available to us.
Although introducing your students to a poem or two throughout the course will take a lot of
thought and a bit of preparation time on your side, I think it will be worth it.
Internet links
BBC Bitesize has some great resources for teaching poetry:
https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/topics/zmbj382
https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/topics/zs43ycw
6. Read the description of the Pronunciation of past simple verbs game. State
the aim of the game. Practice the game in class.
Preparation
You will need to produce a set of around 12 cards, with a (regular) past simple verb on
each. Make sure they're large enough to be seen from the back of the room. You can find
an example below.
Procedure

Start by holding up the cards for students to say what the words have in common.
Once they've identified that they're verbs, past simple and regular (i.e. all with '-ed'
endings), drill the verbs.

Then write up three categories on the board:
-ed = /t/ -ed = /d/ -ed = /Id/
liked learned wanted

Point out that these represent different sounds and ask the class to read them out.
Then show the first card, e.g. liked and ask students to say it aloud and decide which
category it goes in.

Once they indicate the correct category, stick the card to the board. Repeat this for a
second card, e.g. wanted.

Then elicit that the two verbs, like and want, have the same past simple ending, but
the pronunciation is different. Tell the students that you're going to give them the
cards to put in the right category. Depending on the size of the class, hand out two
cards per pair or group.

You can then sit at the back of the class and observe as the students decide where
their verb goes. Remind students to say the verb aloud to help them.

Usually, within minutes, one of the more confident students goes to the board; the
others soon follow.

Once you feel students have done what they can, tell them how many verbs are not
placed correctly, e.g. three, but don't tell them which ones. Encourage students to
make changes, then again tell them how many are now not correct. Continue until all
the cards are in the right place, helping where necessary.

Then ask the class to read all the verbs aloud. Praise them for successfully
completing the task!

With older or more analytically-minded students, the rule for when the verb is
pronounced /Id/ (i.e. when the verb already ends in a /t/ or /d/ sound) can now be
elicited.

Students then have a few minutes to copy their work into their notebooks, adding
one verb of their choice to each category.