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Foreign Language
 Curriculum

CEFL (CECRL cadru European comun de referinta pentru limbi)- Some of the instruments produced within the Council of Europe have
played a decisive role in the teaching of so-called “foreign” languages by promoting methodological innovations and new approaches to
designing teaching programmes, notably the development of a communicative approach.

English authors

1. Reading, Writing and Learning in ESL: A Resource Book for Teaching K-12 English Learners this book is the ideal source for
teaching oral language, reading, writing, and the content areas in English

2. Jack C Richards is an internationally recognised expert on second language teaching and is an author of over 150 textbooks.

3. Richard Schmidt is a leading researcher and scholar in applied linguistics who has published many articles in the area of second

language acquisition.

I recall watching a film, as a child, about Alexander Graham Bell instructing his deaf students to feel the vibrations their throat made when they pronounced a specific sound.
In this way, they could intuitively know whether they had produced the appropriate sound by stressing the correct syllables and understanding how the vocal cords produce
sounds. Learning correct English pronunciation is imperative for ESL students as mispronunciation can impede fluency and, in some cases, alter the meanings of words.
Learning the proper way to pronounce words can help students become more relaxed when speaking English and sound less awkward or uncertain of word choice.
I have encountered several students who, afraid of mispronouncing the best choice for a word, will choose another word that either alters or confuses the meaning of their
conversation. Not to despair, however, as there are numerous teaching methods to help ESL students improve their pronunciation of English words.

1: Teaching English pronunciation with phonics exercises:

Perhaps the most obvious and conventional method for teaching English pronunciation is through phonics. Phonics focuses on learning the individual sound of a letter or set of letters,
vowels, and consonants when learning to read. One website has developed a useful diagram for understanding the process of phonics in learning pronunciation: “letters form sounds,
sounds form words, words form sentences, sentences form stories, stories form meaning, meaning forms reading.” A new frontier for learning to pronounce words is through “visual
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phonics,” which teaches English pronunciation with animated texts, videos, and songs. Visual phonics physically animates sounds and words to help ESL learners internalize what
they see and hear, distinguishing between different sounds, words, and meanings. According to one source, “visual phonics shows various reading skills, such as isolating sounds and
syllables, segmentation, rhyming, and substitution, to help children visualize relationships between letters and sounds, sounds and words, and words and syllables.” Visual phonics
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lends a fun and creative atmosphere for learning English pronunciation.

For older students, however, focusing on the pronunciation of keywords (content vs. function words) in a sentence is of greater importance because distinguishing between the two is
critical for understanding the meaning of a sentence. Teach your older students to stress content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) in a sentence as function words
(auxiliary verbs, prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and pronouns) are not stressed. According to one source, “knowing the difference between content and function words can help
you in understanding, and, most importantly, in pronunciation skills.” There are various pronunciation exercises you can do with your students that distinguish between content vs.
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function words in a sentence. For my older students, I usually have them read a sentence or ask them to make their own sentence stressing the appropriate words. For example, I had
one group of students practice saying this sentence: She’s going to fly to England next week. I then encourage my students to act out the sentence by pretending to fly, or I ask them
where they want to fly.
Teaching phonics to younger students should include pronunciation games (such as clapping the hands when a student hears a specific sound or acting out a word or letter sound),
videos, and songs (perhaps singing a word or drawing out the sound of a letter) that incorporate animations, graphics, and total physical response to sounds. FluentU has an extensive
list of ESL pronunciation games that involve movement, repetition, interaction, and creativity. Another useful phonics game is having the students create their own words from
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individual letters or groups of letters. For example, I use the annotate feature of Zoom to write the sentence Mary sat on the fat rat. I may even draw a picture or have a ready
illustration to show the students. Then I may take the word “rat” and ask the students what other words rhyme with rat or end or begin with “at” such as bat or cat. For the younger
students, I may take a single letter, such as “r” from rat, and ask them what other words begin with, end with or contain the letter “r” such as rope, rain, or rabbit. Another
curriculum, Jolly Phonics, draws heavily on TPR by using actions (with the hands) that are associated with the 42 letter sounds. These actions help younger students remember how to
produce the appropriate sound and then associate specific words with sounds. There are numerous pronunciation exercises and teaching methods for phonics, but I have outlined the
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simpler techniques.

2: Use the different mouth positions to master English pronunciation:

Voicing should be an active process in your student’s learning to pronounce words correctly. It is important for non-native speakers to master the different vowel phonemes in English
as they may not be present in your student’s primary language. One teacher notes, “1.) Show them what they need to do with their mouth to make the sound, 2.) Create/give drills for
them to build muscle memory, and 3.) Give feedback throughout the process.” For your older students, it may be helpful to show illustrations or to demonstrate with your mouth
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where to properly place the tongue and lips to create a specific sound. One source suggests, “have students use a mirror to see their mouth, lips, and tongue while they imitate
you.” You need to ensure that your students know the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants. The voiced sounds (which include vowels and diphthongs) should produce a
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vibration in the throat whereas the voiceless sounds will not. You should encourage them to touch their throats to ensure that vibration occurs only with the voiced sounds. A potential
game to help master this skill is to have students compare voiced and voiceless consonants such as ‘z’ and’s’ by repeating both and then creating sentences or words with the letters.
You can even encourage them to act out the sentence, or you can provide illustrations or props modeling the sentence or sounds: ex. I went to the zoo and saw a zebra and a snake. You
may find it helpful to teach the phonemic chart to your older students or those students who can understand it. One website advises, “instead of spelling new vocabulary out on the
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white board, try using phonetic symbols (ex. seat would be written /si:t/) to represent the sounds (rather than the alphabet to represent the spelling).” Aspiration is another
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pronunciation technique which involves a puff of air occurring with such sounds as /p/, /t/, /k/, and /ch/ (which are most commonly aspirated at the beginning of a word). Encourage
your students to hold a tissue in front of their mouth to see it move when the puff of air is produced from a word containing an aspirated sound. Tongue twisters or alliterations are
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excellent for mimicking and memorizing the pronunciation of aspirated sounds: ex. Petey the peacock baked a pepper pie, or Two tigers are taking the train. An excellent book that
includes engaging and colorful alliterations and tongue twisters is Animalia by Graeme Base, a book I was positively fascinated with during my childhood. Tongue twisters help non-
native speakers distinguish between similar sounds such as “pen” and “pin” or “pan” and help them understand how to use the muscles in their mouth to create specific sounds and
pronunciations.

3: Teaching methods for intonation, syllable stress, and vowel length:

I have already touched on which words to stress in the discussion of content vs. function words (ex. Leon has lived in Spain for six months). Intonation indicates the way in which our
voices rise or fall when speaking certain phrases or sentences to evoke a certain emotion or meaning. For example, when you ask the question “Did you eat breakfast this morning?”
your voice should rise when you ask a yes or no question or when you are showing disbelief (He didn’t go to school today? Really?) Your voice should fall with regular statements or
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questions that expect more than a one-word answer.

Syllable stress requires special attention. Specific activities and pronunciation exercises should be developed for mastering syllable stress. You should begin by teaching your students
how to count the number of syllables in a word by clapping them out or singing along as each syllable is counted out. Another method is placing your hand under your chin, repeating
the word, and taking note of how many times your chin touches your hand. This indicates the number of syllables in a word. There is a website called “How Many Syllables” that
allows you to type in a word and see how many syllables there are if you struggle with counting syllables yourself. For your younger students, if you want to incorporate TPR, you can
13

have your students act out the syllables with hand actions, call on them to hold up the correct amount of syllables on their fingers or ask them to represent the number of syllables with
toys, pencils, stickers or other objects. You can teach vowel length with the same methods such as clapping hands to count out the length of a vowel or singing out the full length of a
vowel. Teaching your students vowel songs are an excellent tool for learning to pronounce a vowel with the correct length. You can even try creating your own vowel songs and
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syllable songs using pictures, videos, props, and dance movements that the students can associate with the sound. The important thing to remember is to teach with creativity,
engagement, and repetition so that your students exercise their mouth muscles and memorize the sounds.

4: Teach students to pronounce words by cross-referencing minimal pairs:

Minimal pairs are useful for distinguishing between the sounds of two similar words that have different spellings. One source notes, “words such as ‘bit/bat’ that differ by only one
sound…can be used to illustrate voicing (‘curl/girl’) or commonly confused sounds (‘play/pray’).” Once again, tongue twisters or alliterations are excellent and fun activities for
15

distinguishing between similar sounds. For your Chinese students, it will be most helpful to find tongue twisters with the minimal pairs “w” and “v” or “l” and “r” such as “Red lorry,
yellow lorry” and “wild vines make fine vintage wines.” Another complicated activity would be to try and have your students sing a tongue twister or try and repeat the tongue twister
together without falling out of sync. There are numerous websites with a comprehensive list of minimal pairs. 16

5: Use pronunciation exercises and teaching methods that address connected speech:
I will make this topic quite brief. Connected speech refers to how words run together in conversational English that often confuses non-native speakers. For example: ‘wanna’ instead
of ‘want to’ or ‘gonna’ instead of ‘going to.’ For a non-native speaker, this can sound quite confusing because there are no pauses, and the words run together, which confuses the
meaning. If you are able to do so, you should teach your students how to hear and recognize connected speech. For example, linking is a common form of connected speech where the
end of one word melds into another such as “cats or dogs” which becomes “Catserdogs?” Other forms of connection speech include intrusion, elision, assimilation, and
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geminates. Being able to recognize the way connected speech sounds and being able to reproduce connected speech will help your students speak more fluently and feel more
18

confident about their English speaking skills. Hold up flash cards with the different forms of connected speech and have students form sentences, answer questions, or talk using
connected speech.

Final thoughts for ESL teachers

English is a challenging language with many rules. Sometimes it is easy to get lost in all the rules governing pronunciation. The most important thing to remember is to ensure that
your students feel confident in their English skills and to teach pronunciation using fun, creative, and engaging material and activities. I struggle with pronunciation myself, especially
counting syllables and keeping track of stressed and unstressed words. There are endless resources; thankfully, that can help you improve your student’s ability to pronounce different
words and create sounds. Other techniques to reinforce pronunciation are drilling games, listen and repeat, isolating sounds, and word games. You will be surprised at how much your
own pronunciation of words and sounds and understanding their meaning will improve as you teach your students using these five methods.

5 Fun Physical Activities to Get Your ESL Class Moving and Grooving
1. Teach verbs through motion
This is when you can teach verbs to the entire class. If you’re teaching actions that can be performed in a small space, this is a perfect opportunity to get your
students to act them out.
So after teaching your students words such as “jump” or “throw,” you can ask your students to show you what these words mean. As you watch your students
perform these actions, you can also see who knows what to do immediately and which students need to follow the rest of class—now you’ll know who needs
more help understanding vocabulary.
If you’re using words that require a level of interpretation and imagination, such as “dance,” you could have a bit more fun. Students love to show off in some of
the most ridiculous ways—they’ll appreciate seeing you laugh when their dance style is absurd (let them go, they can learn to dance when they’re older).
This is also an opportunity for you to return to childhood games that require physical activity. You can teach your students parts of the body and actions
through a game of Simon Says.
2. Reading and acting verb competition
A variation of this first activity could be done in teams. Using the competitive nature of the students, you can determine which group of students can best
perform each action and arbitrarily award points depending on performance and overall behavior.
This basic game should have only two teams, no matter the size of the class. The game itself should only take 10 to 15 minutes.

1. Hold up a word or phrase for one team to read without showing the other.
2. When the first team correctly reads the word or phrase, the other team will have to act it out.
3. You can award a point for the team correctly reading and another for the team correctly acting it out.

You can also reverse the activity by playing charades and having the opposing team guess the action.
Another variation of the game includes showing the first team a picture that portrays an action and have a student from the team write the word or phrase on
the board. The second team would then act out the word or phrase. Have fun trying these out and see what works best with your students!
3. Acting out dialogues
In smaller groups, especially with students who are a little beyond beginners, you can use short dialogues for students to act out. It can be a fairly simple
dialogue, such as “Where is the library?” or “May I borrow a pencil?”
These should be dialogues that students have read before, so they’re more familiar with the phrases and actions associated with them. There usually won’t be
as much movement here as you would have with the previous two activities, but there’s still enough such that the students aren’t stuck in their seats for an
entire class period.
You can call two students at time (sometimes three or four depending on the dialogue) to the front of the room. Provide them with a prompt to begin the
dialogue (i.e. ask one another for directions or about each other’s hobbies). If it’s a dialogue that involves props, such as “May I borrow a …?,” it may help
reinforce the vocabulary by forcing the students to pick the correct item for the dialogue.
4. Twister variations
Everyone loves Twister, but it’s not something you can play with an entire class. There are, however, variations that can be used in class to get the students
moving and thinking.
You can use anything from colors and shapes to words and phrases that you place on the floor (use laminated versions and tape them to the floor so they
don’t slide around). Make them large enough or make multiples so every student has an opportunity when playing.
You or a chosen student calls out the word/color/shape/etc. and the class rushes to step on or place a hand on that card stuck to the floor. You can also show
a color or shape and have the students find the matching word on the floor.
Note: You should not actually turn this into a traditional game of Twister as it could lead to more problems with students pushing and hurting each other.
 Defining the Explain the Justification of the Contextualization Name 2-3 authors Presentation of own Arguments
problem notion current issue the problem at the or sources of model
curriculum level information
The problem Usually … It is worth Thanks God to As far as I am Speaking about
under It is caused by the is important in English, mentioning that Google where we concerned I have relevant activities
discussion is – absence of these … because mis…. correct … find answers and tried various to improve
in Romanian as the will make the listener plays an important solutions to each techniques for articulation I would
system of …. misunderstand about part in listening, problem. There are reinforcing advice
in English and Pronunciation
the right meaning writing, reading and many English pronunciation such
Romanian is Activities from
In general different. …. speaking skills, so authors who deal as:
Agendaweb.com and
most of the Of course there are is one of 3 developing students’ with this aspect 11. Listen- Anglomaniacy.com
students face problems in the components of … 1. Goodwin J imitate- that Make
the problem case of vocabulary, languages, together is one of the most Teaching record your pronunciation fun
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online, you can make
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