Pronunciation Activities

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas The following activities may be adapted for use as warmers, engage activities, structured practice or free practice style activities. They may also be adapted for level and age. Watch the video about this topic Are you ready to teach English as a foreign language? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! The first one is really simple but can be one of the best activities to improve grammar. Some students even at the higher levels are lacking automatic habits, which are really important for grammatical skill. Basically this activity is a grammar drill and it is supposed to be used as a warmer or as an ice-breaker activity. The main objective is to help your students automate some grammatical...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences It is not a secret that pronouncing English sounds easily and correctly is a big challenge for non-native speakers. Of course, the complexity of English pronunciation consists not only of particular sounds but also of several other aspects such as intonation, stress, rhythm, and timing. I would like to analyze one of the biggest and most obvious pronunciation problems for Ukrainian speakers of English which, in my opinion, is sound differences and the way of pronouncing sounds. Sound System Articulation Aspiration Are you ready to teach English abroad? Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Hanna H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There are a number...  [Read more]

The activities listed below are a combination of ideas that are physically and/or mentally stimulating. Games such as ‘What’s The Time Mr. Wolf?’, ‘Basketball’, ‘Volleyball’, ‘Can You …?’, ‘Stand Up Please’ and ‘Blindfold Obstacle Course’ all encourage the students to use English while moving about. They are great for getting the students using English while expending their energy in positive ways. Activities such as ‘Odd One Out’ and ‘Mastermind’ are mentally stimulating and are excellent ways for the students to use and think about the language creatively. The majority of these ideas have a competitive element to make them more exciting and they can be completed in a short amount of time to ensure students don’t get bored by the end of the...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Having to organize and hold a winter camp is a daunting task, especially for new teachers who haven't done it before. For these kinds of English camps, teachers typically create up to 10 lesson plans for the duration of the camp. Winter camps can last anywhere between one week to a month or even longer. The main goal of an English camp is to have a fun and memorable time with the students while practicing their English. Listen to this blog post: It's all About Fun… and Props! Making Sock Snowmen! Making Christmas or New Year's Cards Have Handouts Ready Powerpoint/Computer Games Board Games When Your School Doesn't Have a Budget or Supplies Are you ready to teach English abroad? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas 5 activities with flashcards it's one way to make a class more interesting especially when teaching kids. 1. Missing card 2. Jump over 3. Tower building 4. Sit on the flashcard 5. Pass the flashcard 6. Hide and seek Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Manling Z. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. This activity you will have to teach first the words and make sure the kids know the words and when they see the picture they can be able to identify what it is, so what you have to do is spread all the flashcards on the floor and tell them to look carefully if possible you can read with them the words one...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas When teaching young learners, it's important not to spend too much time on any one activity as they can soon lose interest. It is also a good idea to have activities that give younger learners the chance to move about and use the boundless energy they have at that age. Below we present a list of short activities suitable for young and very young learners of English. Listen to this blog post: What's the Time Mr. Wolf? Telephone Basketball Volleyball Bingo Can you …? I Spy Odd One Out Stand Up Please Mastermind Blindfold Obstacle Course Are you ready to teach English abroad? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! This is a good activity for practicing time with small classes. Clear a space in the center of...  [Read more]

  In this video we'll be looking at the international phonemic alphabet and how it's used in the classroom. There are other phonemic alphabets but this is the most popular and the system, which is most widely used. You may have seen some of these symbols before as any good dictionary will supplement standard English spellings with the phonemic spellings to aid in pronunciation practice. Here we have a situation where we have what are called phonemes and each phoneme represents a sound within the English language. How is this helpful? Well, what it does is help students understand how to say words rather than simply relying on the often archaic English spellings. To illustrate this point let's for a moment put ourselves in the shoes of our students when trying to understand how to say...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Every learner of a foreign language may face pronunciation problems now and then. Languages that belong to one language group have more in common in phonics and are usually easier to learn to pronounce correctly. But such languages as English and Chinese are so different, that Chinese learners (and I bet English speaking learners of Chinese too) often have many difficulties in pronunciation. State of the problem Common pronunciation errors How to correct pronunciation problems Learn how to teach pronunciation effectively! Related Articles: Listen to this blog post: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Evgeniya S. I have been working in China as a teacher for more than six months now. When I arrived in this country, I hardly knew...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Each student faces their difficulties when it comes to English pronunciation depending on their country of origin. This essay will focus on the pronunciation difficulties facing ESL students in France and will also propose some solutions to help students overcome these difficulties. French Sound System IPA Difficult Sounds The Dark /L/ Sound Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kerri M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The number of English vowel sounds greatly outnumbers those found in the French language. As such, French students will have to produce sounds that they have never produced before....  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas You will find the web full of ideas for teaching vocabulary and, although most of them are undoubtedly good activities, some are only suited to a particular level. Here are some tried and tested activities that can be adapted to suit any level of student and a variety of class sizes. Listen to this blog post: 1. Hot seat 2. Beat the clock 3. Crosswords 4. Board games 5. Slow Pictionary 6. Vocabulary tennis 7. Pelmanism ("Concentration") Are you ready to teach English abroad? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! This is a great activity that can be used as a warm-up at the beginning of a class, or as a game at the end of a lesson. It's suitable for any class size over 4 students and requires minimal...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas In a previous post, we looked at various teaching ideas for future simple and here we're going to describe some fun ideas for teaching three other future tenses. There are a wide variety of usages for future tenses and it's always important to make sure your activities focus on the usages that you've taught in your lesson. For example, future continuous can be used to talk about an ongoing action at a point in the future, a fixed future event, polite enquiries or to predict the future or the present. Predicting the present is one that students often have trouble conceptualizing, so we might as well start from there. Listen to this blog post: Predicting the present Ongoing action at a point in the future Expected achievements at a point in the future...  [Read more]

  Whereas stress is typically concerned with one individual word, intonation is generally concerned with the variation in volume and pitch throughout an entire sentence. Intonation carries the message of a sentence. It's particularly important when questioning or agreeing, disagreeing and confirming statements. It's also very important when expressing emotions and feelings. The normal pattern for intonation is the rise-fall. Few examples would be ?I haven't seen him for a week,? or a simple word as ?okay?. With the falling intonation, we?re indicating that we're finished speaking. Again, ?I haven't seen him for a week? and ?okay?. A few more examples would be ?I'll see you at six then,? or a question of information ?How do you spell rough?? These are straightforward statements that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The purpose of my essay is to outline some of the most frequently occurred pronunciation mistakes made by Russian learners and share some of the teaching ideas based on a few sources and my own experience of teaching and learning English as a foreign and second language. State of the Problem Russian Phonetics vs. English Phonetics Choice of Activities Vowel Sounds Are you ready to teach English to ESL students? Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Olga R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Teaching English phonology and pronunciation for Russian learners is always challenging as there are a great number of differences rather than similarities in the...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Here are four fun Easter activities for ESL students.   Grab this printable ESL worksheet with four Easter-themed activities for your ESL students.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This worksheet is designed to practice some common daily actions. There are 28 pictures and students must match them with the correct actions.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This is a fun worksheet to practice talking about daily routines in English.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Federico Riva Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences In this insightful blog post, we'll explore the essence of grammar, examining various approaches to its teaching, offering a comprehensive understanding of this linguistic foundation. What is Grammar? Preparation Grammar Practice Activities and Games Grammar Quiz Memory test Miming an action Ready to teach English as a Foreign Language? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! For decades, mastering grammar stood pivotal in students' perception of language learning. However, contemporary perspectives vary widely on what constitutes essential learning for learners and the most effective teaching methodologies. Here are some key questions concerning teaching grammar: Prepare some...  [Read more]

  A better way to go about imparting how to make sounds or what sounds are utilized in a word, is this international phonemic alphabet. Now we have as mentioned one symbol being used in all the words which share that same sound. Now once we get a little bit more familiar with our phonemic alphabet we can also show how different our different sounds can be as in this symbol for ?ooh?, this symbol for ?ow? and this symbol for ?uh?. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the...  [Read more]

  The next thing we should look at is how our consonants are arranged for the top two rows we have P and F at the left side of our chart and G and J at the right side of our chart. They're arranged this way because if we analyze the way we speak we're using the front of our mouth to use these sounds as in ?p? and ?f? and I'm using my lips and my teeth to produce those sounds and as we move to the right on the chart slowly but surely we're making those sounds it towards the back of our mouth. We can use the examples of ?g?. The sound ?g? is produced further back in our mouth than ?p?. The next thing we'll notice about our chart is that some of our symbols are shaded. Notice that none of the symbols in the vowel sections are shaded but only a few are in the consonant section. The...  [Read more]

  Here we have a set of five words, which all share one sound: the ?oh? sound, as in ?go?, ?show?, ?dough?, ?note? and ?boat?. They?re five different spelling patterns to tell our students so they can identify when to make the ?oh? sound. We can have a simple letter ?o?, ?ow?, ?ough?, ?o? with the magic ?e? which turns our vowel into what we knew as long sounds and the ?oa? as in ?boat?. Now, for a non-native learner, perhaps they can handle something like this. They remember that these spelling combinations help to produce the ?oh? sound and they can go about their business looking at the words and memorizing this knowing that these spelling patterns will produce the sound ?oh?. Now that?s okay until we get to a situation where we can also have words like ?to?, ?cow? and also...  [Read more]

Luciana Campos Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In today's world, it is essential for young adults to learn proper pronunciation to communicate effectively and confidently. Proper pronunciation helps others understand what we are saying. It is crucial for successful communication, especially when speaking English. Traditional methods of teaching pronunciation can be time-consuming and stressful for students. However, pronunciation is an essential component of language acquisition. So, there's no way to run! Gamification as a means for learning to pronounce Tips on Pronunciation Last Remarks Related articles Ready to teach English as a Foreign Language? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! I guess you expected me to start by providing...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Let us imagine. How if English teachers only conduct English lessons inside the class? Will the students have fun all the time? Many English teachers reflect on that so, in reality, they try to conduct English lessons not only inside the class but also outside the class. They think that conducting English lessons outside is also needed and important. Therefore, English teachers use some outdoor activities to help when teaching English. By doing so, English teachers believe that they can help their students to increase motivation. They also believe that outdoor activities can give students fun and joy. Here are some interesting activities that English teachers can use to teach English outside the class. Principles of Motivation What I can do Look around and...  [Read more]

  Connected speech is also an important element of phonology and it's involved in joining words together in an effect to make our speech more efficient. Some might say it's a product of being lazy but nonetheless it's what we all do and we want all of our non-native speakers to speak as naturally as possible, so we have to be aware of these things. Here are a few of the more common examples. We have linking, dropping, changing and extra lettering. An example of each would be with linking, we link our words together so that they almost in effect become one word. Instead of saying ?What do you want to do,? we typically will say ?Whatdoyou want to do?? Then, we can also have dropping. Rather than pronouncing each and every consonant, we can sometimes, especially in certain accents, drop...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This is a great speaking activity to talk about daily activities. Your students roll the die twice to find a question to talk about. The first roll determines the number on the top and the second roll determines the number on the left.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Flashcards can be great tools for eliciting vocabulary, but teachers should not overlook the numerous other uses for these great tools. Flashcard games can add excitement to young learners' classes. The following activities are aimed to drill the vocabulary in the second study phase of the lesson, after the elicitation of vocabulary. 1. Game for liars 2. Get on the other side of the bridge 3. Memory challenge 4. Keyword race 5. More for listening skills Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kiyomi Ann H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The liar game is a flashcard activity that can be used to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Flashcards on its own is an easy method to apply when teaching beginners, teenagers even adults because they can match the words to the pictures and it's an easy way to remember new vocabulary. I think this is the best way of acquiring a new word of a second language because identification and recognition is the key. 1. Ask, Guess and Answer Materials: 2. Display Flashcards on the Floor Materials: 3 From Here to There Materials: 4. Rhyme Concentration Materials: 5. Puzzling Words Materials: Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sombong V. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The whole class can take...  [Read more]

In these videos our grammar expert Linda demonstrates how to correctly pronounce a wide variety of common and not so common words that you might encounter in an English language classroom. Come back regularly as our Ask Linda series is frequently updated.  [Read more]

  There are two issues that need to be stressed when working with the international phonemic alphabet. First is the fact that we are no longer concerned with how a word is traditionally spelled. Additionally we need to stress that we are only concerned with the sounds needed to correctly produce a word. So rather than numerous spellings, which can often be pronounced in different ways, we have one symbol representing one sound. Once we can isolate a sound, rather than juggling various spellings, we can work with our students on how to say that sound. Doing that successfully is related to manner and place of articulation, which will be covered shortly. To get a better understanding of the phonemic alphabet, let's take a look at our chart. In the bottom half of our chart we have our...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sheneil J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Problems with Consonants Problems with Vowels Problems with Rhythm and Stress Problems with intonation Minimal Pairs Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: Chinese does not have either of the "th" sounds (like "that" and "this"). Most other languages do not have these sounds and they are problematic for most learners of English. The difficulty is the point of articulation- the tongue has to be between the teeth, not behind them. Many people say that English speakers look like they're sticking their tongues out all the time because of the "th" sounds. It...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Many ESL teachers have never even heard of phonetics or phonology, yet they use these aspects of speech naturally when they speak. Phonetics and phonology are two areas of linguistics that study the sounds of language. Phonetics focuses on individual sounds, while phonology studies the features and combination of sounds (McMahon, 1-3). There are two reasons why ESL teachers need to know phonetics and phonology: first, it helps them to conceptualize English in a way that their students can understand; and second, it helps them to address their students' difficult pronunciation problems. Why Students Suffer from Pronunciation Issues? Lack of Subject Knowledge Sound Awareness Teacher as a Role Model Are you ready to take your TEFL course? Related...  [Read more]