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Activities and Exercises For Teaching English Pronunciation

This book provides a collection of practical exercises and activities for teaching English pronunciation. It is organized by aspects of pronunciation like suprasegmentals, word stress, spelling and phonemic symbols, and vowels and consonants. The exercises include games, puzzles, dialogs and more to promote learner engagement. Each activity comes with supplementary teaching resources and guidance for modifying based on proficiency levels. The book aims to be a versatile resource for teachers of English as a second or foreign language.
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100% found this document useful (8 votes)
2K views209 pages

Activities and Exercises For Teaching English Pronunciation

This book provides a collection of practical exercises and activities for teaching English pronunciation. It is organized by aspects of pronunciation like suprasegmentals, word stress, spelling and phonemic symbols, and vowels and consonants. The exercises include games, puzzles, dialogs and more to promote learner engagement. Each activity comes with supplementary teaching resources and guidance for modifying based on proficiency levels. The book aims to be a versatile resource for teachers of English as a second or foreign language.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Activities and Exercises

for Teaching English


Pronunciation

This book is a practical, comprehensive tool for busy teachers or educators


teaching English pronunciation. Brown puts pronunciation into perspective
with other aspects of language, highlighting the importance of teaching
pronunciation from the start. Applicable for both British and American
pronunciation, this book is organized by aspects of pronunciation and
includes a wealth of photocopiable worksheets to use in the classroom.
The engaging exercises include rhymes, games, puzzles, narratives, and
more, all designed to promote learner engagement and understanding.
Each worksheet is accompanied by supplementary resources and guidance,
including recommendations for modifying lessons for different English
learner profciency levels; instructions for the teacher and learners; correct
or expected answers; and tips for teachers to extend and create their own
exercises. The versatility and adaptability of this book make it a benefcial
resource for teachers of ESL/EFL/EAL, as well as educational professionals
who consult and oversee teacher trainer programs and courses in TESOL.

Adam Brown is Director of Research at the Auckland Institute of Studies,


New Zealand.
Activities and
Exercises for
Teaching English
Pronunciation

Adam Brown
First published 2022
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2022 Adam Brown

The right of Adam Brown to be identifed as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. The purchase of this copyright material confers the right
on the purchasing institution to photocopy or download pages which bear the
copyright line at the bottom of the page. No other parts of this book may be
reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered


trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation without intent
to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data


Names: Brown, Adam, 1952– author.
Title: Activities and exercises for teaching English pronunciation /
Adam Brown.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2021. | Series: ESL & applied
linguistics professional series | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifers: LCCN 2021009098 (print) | ISBN 9780367551650 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780367551629 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003092247 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: English language—Pronunciation—Study and teaching. |
English language—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers. |
English language—Pronunciation of foreign speakers.
Classifcation: LCC PE1137 .B76 2021 (print) | LCC PE1137 (ebook) |
DDC 421/.52071—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009098
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009099

ISBN: 978-0-367-55165-0 (hbk)


ISBN: 978-0-367-55162-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09224-7 (ebk)

Typeset in Palatino
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Access the support material: www.routledge.com/9780367551629


Contents

Title Pronunciation Type of exercise Individual,


focus pair or
group
Section A The components of pronunciation
A1 Who needs Pronunciation A form, and P, G
good targets discussion
pronunciation?
A2 How do you Attitudes A Monopoly™- G
feel about towards style game
pronunciation? pronunciation,
and English
A3 Who are we? Suprasegmentals Pronunciation, P
and emotions with class
feedback
A4 Are you Mr. Suprasegmentals Pronunciation, I
Grumpy? and emotions with class
feedback
A5 Rhubarb Suprasegmentals Dialogs P
and emotions
A6 Big and small The importance A form, and I
mistakes of pronunciation discussion
features
A7 My language The A listening I
or yours? distinctiveness exercise,
of English identifying the
pronunciation, language
and learners’
native language
pronunciation
A8 English with The Production I
my native distinctiveness
voice quality, of English
my native pronunciation,
language with and learners’
English voice native language
quality pronunciation

◆ v
Section B Suprasegmentals
B1 Waking up for Suprasegmentals, A rap G
class especially
rhythm, linking
B2 There was a Rhyme Piecing together P
young lady limericks
from …
B3 And to end the Key (pause, Analysis, then I, P
news, … intonation), production
“verbal
paragraphs”
B4 My name’s Sentence stress Production, with P
Sophie learner choice
B5 What year? Stress and Production of I, P, G
Every year. contrast jokes
B6 What’s the Stress and Production of I, P, G
difference contrast, rhyme plays-on-words
between a cat
and a comma?
B7 No, it isn’t. Stress and Production, with P
correction learner choice
B8 Let’s eat Pauses Analysis, then I, P
Grandpa production of
texts.
Section C Word stress
C1 BRAzil, Stress placement A maze, with I
braZIL? in multisyllable analysis of stress
country names placement, then
production
C2 EDucation, Stress placement A maze, with I
eDUcation, in multisyllable analysis of stress
eduCAtion, words placement, then
educaTION? production
C3 She was Stress placement A grammar I
presented with in noun/verb game, followed
a present pairs by production
C4 Edinburgh, Stress placement A maze involving I
eDINburgh, in multisyllable stress-recognition
edinBURGH? British place
names

vi ◆ Contents
C5 Letter from Stress placement A stress- I
London in multisyllable recognition
American state sorting game
names
Section D Spelling and phonemic symbols
D1 Eh, bee, sea, … Pronunciation A sorting game I
of the names of
letters
D2 We joined the Homophones A mistake- I, P
navy to see the spotting exercise
world
D3 Around the Recognizing A wordsearch I
world in 20 phonemic of countries of
countries symbols the world (BrE
pronunciation)
D4 D’you know Recognizing A wordsearch I
the capital of phonemic of US state
Alaska? symbols capitals (AmE
pronunciation)
D5 Let us prey Homophones A matching game G
of homophone
jokes
D6 Never a cross Producing A crossword I, P, G
word phonemic using phonemic
transcription symbols
Section E Vowels and consonants
E1 Sounds in Identifying A pen-and- I, P
common sounds in paper exercise
common involving
pronouncing
E2 What’s the Identifying A pen-and- I, P
difference? differentiating paper exercise
sounds in involving
minimal pairs pronouncing
E3 Allan or Ellen? Identifying A sound- I
words containing recognition
/æ/ maze game,
with spelling
implications

Contents ◆ vii
E4 Do we invite Identifying A sound- I
Yvonne? words containing recognition
/ɪ/ game, with
spelling
implications
E5 United or Identifying A sound- I
untied? words containing recognition
/j/ maze game,
with spelling
implications
E6 Happy hour Identifying A sound- I
words containing recognition
/h/ maze game,
with spelling
implications
E7 So, do go! Identifying the A pen-and- I
odd-one-out in paper sound-
vowels recognition
exercise,
with spelling
implications
E8 Who? When? Identifying the A pen-and- I
Where? odd-one-out in paper sound-
consonants recognition
exercise,
with spelling
implications
E9 A big pig Plosives /p, b, t, A communicative P
d, k, g/ sound-
distinguishing
exercise
E10 I sought; I th sounds /θ, ð/ A communicative P
thought; I sound-
taught distinguishing
exercise
E11 Take the dose, /s, z/ A communicative P
then doze sound-
distinguishing
exercise
E12 Jerry ate a jelly /r, l/ A communicative P
sound-
distinguishing
exercise

viii ◆ Contents
E13 Caesar's Long and short A communicative P
scissors vowels sound-
distinguishing
exercise
E14 We are /e, æ/ A communicative P
phonetics sound-
fanatics distinguishing
exercise
E15 Pause, then Diphthongs A communicative P
pose for the sound-
camera distinguishing
exercise

Contents ◆ ix
Support Material

Exercises marked with the Support Material symbol have associated audio
fles which can be downloaded by visiting the book product page on our
website: www.routledge.com/9780367551629. Then click on the tab that
says “Support Material” and select the fles. They will begin downloading
to your computer.
The following exercises have corresponding audio fles:

A3 Who are we?


A7 My lang or yours
B1 Rap
B2 There was a young lady from . . .
B3 And to end the news, . . .
C1 BRAzil, braZIL?
C3 She was presented with a present
C4 LINcoln, linCOLN?
C5 Alaska, aLASka, alasKA?
D1 Eh, bee, sea, . . .
E1 Sounds in common
E2 What’s the difference?
E4 Do we invite Yvonne?

◆ xi
Phonemic Symbols Used

This transcription corresponds to the symbols used by Wells’s Longman


Pronunciation Dictionary (2008).
Two major reference accents are used in this book:
AmE stands for American English, sometimes called General American.
It is “what is spoken by the majority of Americans, namely those who do
not have a noticeable eastern or southern accent” (Wells, 2008, p. xiv).
BrE stands for British English. It represents standard southern British
English—so not Scottish, Welsh, Irish, or other distinctly regional British
accents. It is the descendant of Received Pronunciation, and is sometimes
called BBC English.

Consonants

p pen tʃ church s soon n nice


b back dʒ judge z zero η ring
t tea f fat ʃ ship l light
d day v view ʒ pleasure r right
k key θ thing h hot j yet
g get ð this m more w wet

Vowels

ɪ kit ʌ strut u: goose ʊə cure (BrE)*


e dress ʊ foot aʊ mouth ɔ: thought
æ trap i: feece əʊ goat (BrE) 3: nurse†
ɒ lot (BrE) eɪ face oʊ goat (AmE) ə about†
ɑ: lot (AmE) ɔɪ choice ɪə near (BrE)* i easy, react‡
ɑ: father eə square (BrE)* u situation, arduous‡

* In AmE, these words contain a vowel followed by /r/: /nɪr, skwer, kjʊr/.

AmE pronunciation of murder is transcribed /mɜ:rdər/ in this book,
although the two vowel plus /r/ sequences may be realized only by
r-coloured vowels.

An unstressed vowel of the /i:, ɪ/ or /u:, ʊ/ quality.

◆ xiii
In this book:
• a tilde (“~”) is used to show alternative pronunciations between AmE
and BrE, e.g. grass /græs ~ grɑ:s/.
• brackets are used around /r/, to indicate that it is pronounced in AmE
but not in BrE (rhotic /r/), e.g. worth /wɜ:(r)θ/ represents /wɜ:rθ/
(AmE) and /wɜ:θ/ (BrE).

xiv ◆ Phonemic Symbols Used


Introduction

This book contains exercises for the teaching of English pronunciation. It


is therefore very practical, with worksheets etc. that are photocopiable
and usable in the classroom. They may be immediately usable, or usable
after adaptation according to the age, profciency level, vocabulary level,
etc. of the learners. In some cases, versions of the same exercises aimed
at different levels of learners are provided here.
This introduction briefy covers a number of background issues that
teachers should consider when teaching English pronunciation.

How Languages Are Learned

When we learn our native language(s), we do so largely by imitation of


those around us, especially our parents, older siblings, etc. These people
are profcient in the language, but may have little understanding of exactly
what they are modeling—where the tongue is, what the vocal cords are
doing, etc. Similarly, we learn our native language(s) at a very early age,
before we have the intellectual capacity to understand exactly what is
being taught. It is mostly by imitation.
When we learn another language, the situation is different in three
main ways. Firstly, by defnition, we have already learned a language—our
native language. The sounds of our native language have been mastered,
and have become second nature to us. A willingness to adapt to the sounds
of the new language—some of them totally new, some of them different
in subtle ways—is therefore necessary.
Secondly, other languages are learned at a later age than our native
language. Children typically master all the major features of their native
language by the time they go to primary school. Other languages are
typically taught in secondary school. Many people learn other languages
at even later ages, perhaps because the languages are useful for business,
or because the people want to get by when they go abroad on holiday.

◆ 1
Thirdly, we learn our native languages by listening to others around
us, especially our parents. However, other languages are normally learned
by explicit instruction from a teacher. In an educational environment, and
especially in higher levels of education, with learners of older ages, imita-
tion still works, but it is often accompanied by more explicit explanation
of what is happening when we produce sounds.
Explanation naturally means that the teacher must understand in some
detail what is happening. Simply being able to speak the language is not
enough. That is, there is a difference between knowing a language, and
knowing about a language.

Teaching Pronunciation Versus Other Aspects


of Language

There are two problems about teaching pronunciation that do not apply,
or do not apply so much, in other aspects of language teaching.
Firstly, there are many strands that make up pronunciation. These
are summarized in Figure 1.1, and discussed further later in this section.
Secondly, all the strands occur at the same time in speech, and therefore
need to be taught as soon as possible. You cannot, for example, postpone
teaching the /ð/ sound, a voiced dental fricative, because it is diffcult for
most learners; it is a very common sound in English, occurring in a lot of
common words: the, this, that, they, there, etc. You can, however, postpone
teaching advanced aspects of grammar, for instance the past perfect tense
(I had done something), until long after learners have mastered easier, more
common tenses (the simple present, simple past, present continuous, etc.).
In short, several features of pronunciation need to be taught from the
very start.

The Components of Pronunciation

The various components that go together to make up pronunciation are


shown in Figure 1.1.
Let us start at the right-hand side of the diagram, with the most-evident
features of pronunciation: the vowel and consonant sounds. These are known
as the segmentals, or segments, because they are the basic building blocks.
Vowel sounds are traditionally divided into monophthongs (where the
position of the tongue and lips does not change, e.g. /ɑ:/) and diphthongs
(where there is movement, e.g. /aɪ/). However, they can also be divided
into short vowels (which are monophthongs because they are short, e.g.
/ɪ/) and long vowels. Long vowels may be long monophthongs, e.g.
/ɑ:/, or long diphthongs, e.g. /aɪ/. This division is preferable because
long monophthongs and long diphthongs often function in similar ways.

2 ◆ Introduction
Figure 1.1 The components of pronunciation

Pronunciation

Suprasegmentals Syllable Connected Segmentals


structure speech
processes

Voice Prosody Meter Timing Onset Rhyme Consonants Vowels


quality

Loudness Intonation Speed Pause Peak Coda Voiced Voiceless Long Short
Introduction ◆ 3

Pitch range Pitch movement Word stress Rhythm Assimilation Elision Linking Weak forms Diphthongs Long monophthongs
Consonant sounds are traditionally divided into those that are voiced
(involving vibration of the vocal cords), and voiceless (without this vibra-
tion). This division makes sense in that voiced consonants behave like
other voiced consonants, and voiceless like voiceless. However, the voicing
feature—whether the vocal cords are vibrating or not—is often not the
most reliable feature to concentrate on.
At the other extreme, on the left-hand side of the diagram, supraseg-
mentals are those features that are imposed on (supra) the string of vowel
and consonant sound segments.
Not all writers would agree with the division of suprasegmentals into
voice quality, prosody, meter, and timing. However, they would agree with
the features that come under those headings.
Voice quality refers to long-term settings of the various vocal organs.
Voice quality features thus affect all susceptible segments in the speech.
They include settings of the vocal cords, e.g. creaky voice, whisperiness.
They may also relate to settings of the soft palate, allowing air into or
stopping it from the nasal cavity, e.g. the nasal speech of Birmingham,
UK. Settings of the tongue affect all vowel sounds, e.g. the velarization
of Liverpool speech, whereby all vowels are slightly retracted from their
positions in other accents. Labialization refers to the amount of rounding
or spreading of the lips as an overall setting.
Different writers include different features under the umbrella term
prosody. Loudness is a simple concept easily understood. Intonation, how-
ever, is more complex and relates to the pitch or note at which speech
is produced, which varies throughout the stretch of speech. The pitch
depends on the rate of vibration of the vocal cords and, as a result, only
voiced sounds can be said to have pitch. We can distinguish pitch range
(the typical highest and lowest pitch of a speaker) from pitch movement
(how pitch goes up and down within that range).
Meter refers to the rhythm of speech. At least in one often-quoted
analysis of rhythm, it depends on the regularity of stressed syllables. Word
stress, or the placement of stress on particular syllables within words, is
therefore an important factor in rhythm.
Timing relates to the temporal characteristics of speech. Speed distin-
guishes between fast and slow speech. Pause represents the absence of
speech, which thus affects the perception of how fast the speech is.
Between the two extremes of segmentals and suprasegmentals lie other
features related to the way that segmentals combine in connected speech.
Speakers, regardless of their native language, seem to have the concept
of a syllable, although it is not an easy one to defne rigorously. Words
may have only one syllable (e.g. one /wʌn/), or more than one (e.g.
twenty /twenti/). Within each syllable, any initial consonant(s) is known
as the onset (/w, tw, t/ in the words one, twenty above). The remainder
is the rhyme (/ʌn, en, i/), which is the part that determines rhymes in
poetry; for instance, one rhymes with son, pun, and done, regardless of the

4 ◆ Introduction
differences in spelling. The rhyme can itself be divided into the peak (the
vowel) and the coda (any fnal consonant(s)); thus, /ʌ, e, i/ above are the
peaks, while /n/ is a coda in two of the syllables.
As their name implies, connected speech processes describe the way
sounds may be affected by adjacent sounds, when the speech is connected
and pronounced at a normal, relatively fast speed.
Assimilation means that one sound changes in some respect in order
to become similar to the adjacent, usually following, sound, e.g. Great
Britain /greɪt brɪtən/ > /greɪp brɪtən/.
Elision is the deletion of sounds in certain contexts, e.g. best friend
/best frend/ > /bes frend/.
Words and syllables are not separate from the words and syllables that
surround them. There is no small pause between words, corresponding to
the space in writing. Instead, the ends of words and syllables are linked
up to the beginning of the following words and syllables. For instance,
there is a joke in pronunciation circles about a young man who went into
a shop. “I’d like to buy a potato clock, please.” “I don’t think we sell any
such thing.” “Oh, what a pity, because I am starting a new job on Monday
and my boss told me to get a potato clock.” Of course, the boss told him to
“get up at eight o’clock.” Linking (as well as other features like weakening)
makes the two meanings pronounced much the same.
The alternation between words that are stressed in sentences and those
that are not depends on the stressed words being pronounced clearly and,
just as importantly, the unstressed words not being pronounced clearly.
This often happens with grammatical function words like an, and, from,
have, of, them. Most of the time they are unstressed (because no emphasis
is being given to them) and pronounced with the /ə/ vowel, rather than
a full, strong vowel. This is occasionally refected in the spelling, e.g. fsh
‘n’ chips.
This has necessarily been a brief description of a wide feld. For greater
detail, see Brown (2014).

What Do Learners Learn in Pronunciation Classes?

Bloom’s taxonomy is a categorization of educational learning objectives,


named after US educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom, who devised
it in the 1950s. Despite being well over half a century old, it is still found
useful and infuential by those in the teaching profession. Slight modifca-
tions to it have been suggested over the years. It essentially describes what
learners acquire on a course of study, that they did not have, or could not
do so well, at the start. These objectives are divided into three broad
domains.
The cognitive domain relates to knowledge, i.e. information, facts,
and fgures. This information is learned simply by understanding and

Introduction ◆ 5
remembering it. A few of the exercises in this book concern this domain,
for example, the various possible spellings for the /ɪ/ vowel sound (exer-
cise E4).
Pronunciation is a physical skill involving the coordinated movement
of the various parts of the lungs, vocal cords, mouth, and nose. The skills
domain comprises this. Just as the best way to improve at football is to
practice playing football and learn from your mistakes and shortcomings,
so the best way to improve your pronunciation is to actually pronounce.
For this reason, exercises in this book involve production; that is, saying
things out loud, either explicitly in the exercise itself (e.g. the communica-
tive minimal pairs in E9–15), or in the debrief (e.g. the /æ/ and confusable
vowel sounds in E3).
Finally, the affective domain relates to feelings, attitudes, emotions, etc.
For instance, the frst two exercises (A1, A2) promote discussion of how
learners feel about English, and English pronunciation.
In short, the cognitive domain relates to what you know, the skills
domain to what you can do, and the affective domain to how you feel. All
three are important. However, as primarily a physical activity, the skills
domain should not be overlooked. Learners cannot learn pronunciation
if they are not instructed to pronounce things out loud.

The Non-Native Speaker as English Teacher

Readers who are not native speakers of English may feel that they are at
a disadvantage when it comes to teaching English, including pronuncia-
tion. This is not necessarily the case.
Native speakers have native-speaker pronunciation. Some non-native
speaker-teachers of English may have excellent pronunciation, but most
have a pronunciation that diverges from native pronunciation to varying
degrees.
Native speakers have large vocabularies of words they actively use.
They also know how to pronounce these words correctly, in terms of the
vowels and consonants, stress placement, etc. Non-native speaker-teachers
are likely to have smaller vocabularies. They may also mispronounce some
words, being deceived by the inconsistencies of English spelling.
In contrast, on the plus side, non-native speaker-teachers have some
advantages over native speakers. Non-native speakers have learned
English in addition to their native language. They therefore understand
the similarities and differences between the two languages, and the dif-
fculties that learners face, because they have faced them themselves. A
native speaker of, say, Chinese thus has a natural advantage teaching
English to Chinese learners, over a native English speaker.
Similarly, a non-native speaker-teacher has learned English through
explicit instruction, whereas a native speaker has not. A native speaker

6 ◆ Introduction
may speak the language perfectly (natively), but that does not mean that
they know a lot about the language. As a result, they may not be able
to explain points about the language, including pronunciation. A non-
native speaker may be able to explain the features and rules of English
better, because these features and rules were explained to them when
they learned English.

American and British Pronunciation

The exercises in the suprasegmental Sections A, B, and C work, whether


the reference used in the classroom is AmE (American English) or BrE
(British English). While there are geographical differences in the vowel
and consonant segmentals in Sections D and E, the exercises have been
written so that they work in either AmE or BrE, with very few exceptions
(e.g. D3 and D4).

Guidelines to Exercises

At the beginning of each exercise, several factors relating to the exercise


are discussed.
The Pronunciation point explains what aspect of pronunciation the
exercise focuses on. These explanations are deliberately kept brief and
simple. This is to help the teacher to conduct the exercise appropriately.
There is no intention that any of this should necessarily be conveyed to
the learners.
The Minimum level shows what profciency the learners need in order to
tackle the exercise. Only two levels are used: elementary and intermediate.
No more sophisticated categorization is needed, e.g. lower intermediate,
upper intermediate. In any case, the level depends on the learners—their
age and maturity, etc.
The Exercise type briefy describes what kind of activity it is.
For each exercise, Approximate time gives an indication of how long the
exercise might last in class. These timings are necessarily variable, since
they depend on the number of learners in the class, the profciency level of
the learners, the vocabulary level of the learners, whether the learners are
adults or younger, etc. Nevertheless, the relative length of time—whether
the exercise is likely to take a whole one-hour class, or whether it is a
ten-minute quickie—is accurate. In any case, pronunciation work can be
exhausting for the learners, and should not fll up whole classes. Very few
of the exercises in this book are longer than 30 minutes.
Preparation alerts the teacher to materials that need to be prepared
beforehand: what materials, how many, etc. Nowadays many learners
bring devices (laptops, tablets, etc.) to class. Instead of printed materials,

Introduction ◆ 7
the exercise can be presented in soft copy on their devices. For some exer-
cises, the materials can be shown to the whole class by projector.
In Introducing the exercise, some suggestions are made as to how the
teacher can initiate the exercise. Often, this takes the form of explaining
things such as the format of raps and limericks, or pronunciation features
such as word stress. It may involve explaining some vocabulary, or dif-
ferences between AmE and BrE.
Conducting the exercise is a step-by-step guide for the teacher. This cov-
ers whether the activity is conducted individually, in pairs, or in groups.
In pairs or groups, the teacher must understand how materials are dis-
tributed. Most importantly, it explains what the learners do. This is not,
however, a “painting by numbers” approach; the teacher can adapt the
procedure according to the learners, their needs, their profciency, what
has preceded the exercise, etc.
Debrief notes describe what happens, if anything, after the learners have
attempted the exercise. In many exercises, this is the most important part,
because it recaps the main pronunciation points. In one or two cases, a
second exercise, subsequent to the main one, is included in order to make
further points. Often, it is suggested that all the words in the exercise
should be pronounced by the class. The spelling-to-sound and sound-to-
spelling correspondences of English vowels and consonants may also be
deduced from the examples given.
It is impossible to write pronunciation materials that are appropriate
for all learners at all levels in all situations. The Create your own materials
suggestion encourages teachers to produce their own materials that are
better tailored to the precise group of learners being taught. These origi-
nal materials may be modifcations of the exercises given here, or may be
different exercises inspired by the type of exercise here.
The title of exercise E10 (I sought; I thought; I taught) is, in fact, a rea-
sonable defnition of this kind of research. Firstly, you identify a problem
and look for background information about it, or even elicit your own
data by research. Then you consider what you have found and analyze it,
coming up with possible solutions to the problem. Research for research’s
sake is meaningless, unless it somehow benefts your learners. That is, you
make their learning more effective, more effcient, longer-lasting, faster, etc.
That is what the Create your own materials subsection in each exercise
attempts to promote. Firstly (seek), work out what pronunciation features
your learners have diffculty with. Find out how important these features
are for communication. For instance, for the sounds in E10 (/t, θ/), how
common are these sounds in connected speech and how many words are
distinguished by them (minimal pairs)? A good place to start is Higgins
(2017). Read up on the phonologies of your learners’ native languages.
Secondly (think), analyze what you have found. Many pronunciation
problems are caused by differences between English and the learners’
native language. Not many languages have the /θ/ consonant, so it is

8 ◆ Introduction
a new sound for many learners. Devise exercises that use the sounds in
question.
Finally (teach), try out your original materials on your learners. They
may work well. On the other hand, they may not, in which case some
tinkering is probably necessary.

Integration of Pronunciation Work

Consider integrating pronunciation work into other English language


work. When learners learn new vocabulary, they must also learn the pro-
nunciation of the words. Certain grammar points have implications for
pronunciation, e.g. the different pronunciations of the past tense ending
in wished, hugged, wanted. Many of the exercises in this book involve pas-
sages. Different passages can be substituted, including passages that are
being used for other language work. This is also an opportunity to use
some English literature in pronunciation work, taking into account the
level of the text and the level of the learners.

Technology

The exercises in this book are intended to be carried out in face-to-face


situations. Typically, this will be in the classroom with a teacher. Nowa-
days, some teaching is carried out online. The exercises can be used online,
although some adaptation to the online environment may be necessary.
The exercises are, nevertheless, still face-to-face.
Technological advances have allowed online sources and smartphone
apps to be developed for pronunciation, for use by the learner without
teacher involvement. This is beyond the scope of this book of face-to-face
exercises. Interested readers can consult the Pennington and Rogerson-
Revell, and Yoshida references in the bibliography, as well as many other
sources to be found online.

Further Reading

This has been a necessarily brief introduction to the features of English


pronunciation, and factors related to pronunciation teaching. The literature
below goes into greater detail for those readers wanting to delve deeper.

Bloom, B. S., Engelhart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H. & Krathwohl, D.


R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classifcation of
educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. David McKay
Company.

Introduction ◆ 9
Brown, A. (2014). Pronunciation and phonetics: A practical guide for English
language teachers. Routledge.
Brown, A. (2019). Understanding and teaching English spelling: A strategic
guide. Routledge.
Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D. M. & Goodwin, J. M. (2010). Teaching
pronunciation: A course book and reference guide (2nd edition).
Cambridge University Press.
Davies, A. (2013). Native speakers and native users: Loss and gain.
Cambridge University Press.
Grant, L. (Ed.). (2014). Pronunciation myths. University of Michigan
Press.
Hall, C. & Hastings, C. (2017). Phonetics, phonology and pronunciation for
the language classroom. Red Globe Press/Macmillan.
Hancock, M. (2020). Mark Hancock’s 50 tips for teaching pronunciation.
Cambridge University Press.
Higgins, J. (2017). Minimal pairs for English RP. http://minimal.
marlodge.net/minimal.html
Higgins, J. (2018). English (RP) homophones. http://minimal.marlodge.
net/phone.html
Isaacs, T. & Trofmovich, P. (Eds.). (2017). Second language pronunciation
assessment: Interdisciplinary perspectives. Multilingual Matters.
Jones, T. (Ed.). (2016). Pronunciation in the classroom: The overlooked
essential. TESOL.
Jones, T. (2019). Fifty ways to teach pronunciation: Tips for ESL/EFL
teachers. Independently published (ISBN: 1691712418).
Kang, O., Thomson, R. I. & Murphy, J. M. (Eds.). (2017). The Routledge
handbook of contemporary English pronunciation. Routledge.
Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview.
Theory into Practice, 41(4), 212–218. https://doi.org/10.1207/
s15430421tip4104_2
Levis, J. M. (2018). Intelligibility, oral communication, and the teaching of
pronunciation. Cambridge University Press.
Marks, J. & Bowen, T. (2012). The book of pronunciation: Proposals for a
practical pedagogy. Delta Publishing.
Murphy, J. (2013). Teaching pronunciation. TESOL.
Murphy, J. M. (Ed.). (2017). Teaching the pronunciation of English: Focus on
whole courses. University of Michigan Press.
Newton, J. M. & Nation, I. S. P. (2021). Teaching ESL/EFL listening and
speaking (2nd edition). Routledge.
Pennington, M. C. (2021). The pronunciation book: A language teacher’s
guide. Equinox Publishing.
Pennington, M. C. & Rogerson-Revell, P. (2019) Using technology for
pronunciation teaching, learning, and assessment. In M. C.
Pennington & P. Rogerson-Revell (Eds.), English pronunciation

10 ◆ Introduction
teaching and research. Contemporary perspectives (pp. 235–286).
Palgrave Macmillan.
Pickering, L. (2018). Discourse intonation: A discourse-pragmatic approach to
teaching the pronunciation of English. University of Michigan Press.
Reed, M. & Levis, J. M. (Eds.). (2015). The handbook of English
pronunciation. Wiley-Blackwell.
Walker, R. (2010). Teaching the pronunciation of English as a lingua franca.
Oxford University Press.
Wells, J. C. (2008). Longman pronunciation dictionary (3rd edition).
Longman.
Yoshida, M. T. (2018). Choosing technology tools to meet pronunciation
teaching and learning goals. CATESOL Journal, 30(1), 195–212.
https://fles.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1174226.pdf

Introduction ◆ 11
Section A
The Components
of Pronunciation
A1
Who Needs Good
Pronunciation?

Pronunciation point: If you don’t know what you’re aiming for, how can
you know if you’ve achieved it? Not everyone needs a pronunciation of
English (or any other foreign language) that is “perfect” or quasi-native.
In many circumstances, a target that is lower than this is perfectly
acceptable—and probably more likely to be achieved.
Also, mastering English involves not only pronunciation, but also
grammar, vocabulary, etc. Teachers do not have unlimited class time to
cover everything, so a clear understanding, by both teachers and learners,
helps to prioritize elements of language. Participants should be encour-
aged to try to work out what makes a “perfect” pronunciation desirable
or unnecessary, given the circumstance.
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: A thinking and discussion exercise. Learners should there-
fore discuss the items in pairs or small groups.
Approximate time: 20 minutes (exercise), 20 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Explain that learners do not necessarily need to
aim for a perfect pronunciation, but rather one that is widely understood.
In any case, many learners are unlikely to achieve perfection.
Conducting the exercise: Distribute the worksheets (or show it on screen).
Instruct the learners to discuss in pairs and tick one column each time.
There is no one “right” answer, so encourage students to discuss.
Debrief notes:
The purpose of this exercise is to get learners thinking about their goals
in learning English. The level of English pronunciation that people require
depends on various factors:

◆ 15
• Whether there is a clear (present or future) audience that the per-
son speaks to. For example, Miss Japan will go the Miss World/
Universe pageant, which is conducted in English and where good
English pronunciation is a distinct advantage.
• Intelligibility to a wide range of audiences. Immigration offcials,
hotel frontline staff, fight attendants, taxi drivers, etc. can expect
to have to speak to, and be easily intelligible to, tourists from vari-
ous countries.
• Whether the person is representing his/her country (“fying the
fag”). The Malaysian ambassador represents his/her country, and
any poor English pronunciation would refect badly on the coun-
try as a whole.
• Proximity to a native English-speaking country. A McDonald’s
server at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam is likely to have to deal
with many customers from the UK.
• Whether the country is one like (i) the USA and UK, where
English is a native language spoken by the vast majority of the
population, (ii) India, Malaysia, and Nigeria, in which English,
as a former colonial language, has some offcial functions, such
as in education, the media, and the law, or (iii) most of the rest
of the world, where English is not a native language but is wide-
spread for international communication, especially for trade. (This
three-way model of Englishes around the world comes from Braj
Kachru, and is less ambiguous than the perhaps more common
terms ENL, ESL, and EFL, English as a native/second/foreign
language.)
• Whether school subjects are taught (fully or partly) in English.
• Whether there are serious potential consequences to poor pronun-
ciation. A pilot who is diffcult to understand may cause a crash. A
spy who does not sound quasi-native will be suspected.

Perhaps the most diffcult item to answer in the worksheet is “a school


student in your home country.” At primary level, students often learn the
basics of the language with no clear idea of whom they will eventually
speak it with, if ever. In ELT circles, this is sometimes called TENOR
“Teaching English for no obvious reason.” At secondary level, future
requirements may become clearer. For instance, students may decide that
they want to go to university in Australia.

16 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


Worksheet

Get into pairs. Discuss, and decide whether the following people need
a pronunciation of English which is good or very good, or which can be
so-so. Tick one column each time.

So-so Good Very


good
1. An immigration official at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok,
Thailand

2. The winner of the Miss Japan beauty contest

3. A Nigerian teacher of mathematics

4. A receptionist at the Golden Camel Hotel, Dubai, UAE

5. A spy from a non-English-speaking country

6. A teacher of English in PR China

7. A Pakistani pilot on Pakistan International Airlines

8. A McDonald’s server at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, the


Netherlands

9. A Nigerian teacher of English

10. A Cathay Pacific Airways (Hong Kong) flight attendant

11. A Singaporean police officer

12. A newsreader on Bangladesh Television (BTV) English news

13. The Malaysian ambassador to the UK

14. A school student in your home country

15. A taxi driver in Seoul, South Korea

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Who Needs Good Pronunciation? ◆ 17


A2
How Do You Feel
About Pronunciation?

Pronunciation point: Pronouncing a foreign language can be an emotional


experience presenting a psychological barrier to the learner. It is good for
learners to discuss among themselves how they feel about English pro-
nunciation. The board game format of this exercise forces learners to
express their feelings.
The purpose of this exercise is really to encourage learners to
think and talk about English pronunciation in a non-threatening
environment.
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: A game, in the style of Monopoly™, to be played in small
groups
Approximate time: 30 minutes (exercise), 20 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make enough copies of the board game for the class to carry
out the exercise in groups of four or fve. So that it can be easily seen,
make the copies A3 size. You will also need dice and a counter for each
player. The counters can be, for example, small colorful dinosaurs or farm
animals from any toy shop.
Introducing the exercise: Explain, especially with a class of disparate
learners, that they may all have very different attitudes towards English
pronunciation.
Conducting the exercise: Give each group of four or fve learners one copy
of the board game, four or fve counters, and one die. They start at the
“start” square, throw the die, move their counter, and answer the question
in the box. Encourage them to be honest; there are no right or wrong
answers. This discussion need not be overheard by the teacher. It can, if
necessary, be in the learners’ native language.
The game continues until it is clear that most of the boxes have been
discussed.

18 ◆
Debrief notes: Go through all 18 questions, asking the learners to give
feedback about the answers that were given, and any discussions. Try to
create a non-threatening environment in the classroom, so that learners
will happily take part in pronunciation exercises.

How Do You Feel About Pronunciation? ◆ 19


1 Which do you 2 Has anyone 3 Give three 4 What is the best 5 Has anyone 6 In the future,
prefer: ever adjectives to way to improve ever not who will you
20 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation

American or mispronounced describe your your English understood you speak English
Start British English your name? pronunciation of pronunciation
outside the
when you were to?
pronunciation? How did you English. speaking in
classroom?
Why? feel about that? English?
18 Do you have 7 Name one
“a good ear”, or famous person
do you prefer you think has a
pronunciation horrible accent
things to be of English.
explained?
17 Name one 8 In what
person you situations is it
think has a nice most important
accent of to pronounce
English. well?

16 How do you 9 What would


feel when a you say to a
foreigner foreign speaker
pronounces who apologizes
your language for their poor
well? accent?
15 Is it more 14 Are you 13 Describe one 12 A foreigner 11 Are you 10 If people
important to have hoping to speak thing you doesn't speak comfortable misunderstand
good pronunciation
with a “perfect” remember about your language speaking English you, how do you
when you are
speaking to native English English well and is aloud? Why, or repeat yourself
English-speaking pronunciation? pronunciation in diÿcult to why not? in a way that
people or non- your school understand. they will
native? classes so far. What do you do? understand?

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.


A3
Who Are We?

Pronunciation point: There is much more to pronunciation, and to overall


expressiveness, than pronouncing the vowels and consonants accurately,
and putting stress in the right place. This exercise focusing on supraseg-
mentals hopefully convinces learners of this.
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: A pairwork speaking exercise, where the learners make a
choice
Approximate time: 10 minutes (preparation, rehearsal), 30 minutes (exer-
cise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet and one copy of the answer
table for each learner.
Introducing the exercise: Explain that, while vowels and consonants are
important, they do not lead to expressiveness. You could ask the learners
how they express feelings such as surprise, anger, secrecy, etc. in their
own language.
Conducting the exercise: Divide the class into pairs. Allocate dialogues to
pairs. Tell the learners in each pair to choose one of the alternative sets
of characters and contexts below for their dialogue, but not to tell anyone
else in the class. For example, the pair with dialogue 1 can choose that
“B loves spicy Indian food” or that “B doesn’t really like spicy Indian
food, but will agree to go with A.” The dialogue works, whichever set
they choose.
Give the learners fve minutes to rehearse pronouncing their dialogue
in an appropriate way for the characters and context they have chosen.
Ask the frst pair to read the dialogue out to the rest of the class in
an appropriate way for the characters and context they have chosen.
They cannot use gestures or props—only their voices. This is like actors
rehearsing a play.

◆ 21
The rest of the learners act as the audience and try to guess which set
of characters and context they chose. They mark their guesses with a tick
in the answer table. They should also note down in the fnal column any
aspects of the pair’s performance that helped them make up their mind.
These are important, and should be comments about the pronunciation
(not vocabulary, grammar, etc.). They should not be vague (“They sounded
secretive”), but focus on particular pronunciation features (“They were
whispering”).
Repeat this with all the other pairs.
Debrief notes: After all the pairs have acted, ask the learners whether they
thought the frst pair had chosen the frst or second set of characters and
contexts. The number of correct answers is an indication of how well the
pair acted. Also ask the learners for the pronunciation clues that helped
them make up their mind.
Make a checklist on the board of these clues. They will probably cover
suprasegmentals such as speed (e.g. slow for more serious matters), loud-
ness (e.g. louder for urgency), intonation (e.g. wider ranges with higher
pitches for more animated speech), and voice quality (e.g. whisperiness
for secrecy).
Create your own materials: Two-way dialogues like this are not diffcult
to create. However, you need some ingenuity in thinking of the two sce-
narios in which the dialogue works. This may involve rather vague expres-
sions in the dialogue, that can be interpreted in different ways in the two
situations.

22 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


Worksheet 1

Passage 1

A: Shall we go out for a meal?


B: OK. Where?
A: There’s a new Indian restaurant in Grange Street.
B: Indian?
A: Yes. I think the food will be similar to the Taj Mahal restaurant in
King Street.
B: Their food is really hot and spicy.
A: They have a whole range of different dishes.
B: OK.
A: Let me phone up and make a reservation.
B: Right.

Passage 2

A: Come on. Just give it a try.


B: I can’t.
A: I’m sure you can. It’s really not that difficult.
B: Do you really think I can do it?
A: Yes, of course you can. It’s just a matter of concentration.
B: It’s not as easy as you think, you know.
A: Nonsense. Just remember all the coaching you’ve had.
B: Right. One last try, and then I’m giving up.
A: That’s the spirit! If everyone else can do it, surely you can.
B: OK. Here goes. Just let me focus.

Passage 3

A: Where did you go?


B: I went round the hill.
A: And then?
B: All the way to the windmill.
A: Yes, and then?
B: Past Mr. Green’s farm.
A: The one next to the dairy?
B: Yes. And then back over the bridge.
A: And how do you feel?
B: I’m thirsty.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Who Are We? ◆ 23


Passage 4

A: OK. Tell me. What is your name?


B: [Silence]
A: Come on. We need to know.
B: Jill Sanderson.
A: And who did you come here to meet?
B: Michael Jackson.
A: Michael Jackson! Is that his real name?
B: That’s the name that I was given. I don’t know if it’s his real name.
A: Hmmm. And at what time were you supposed to meet him?
B: A quarter past ten, underneath the clock.

Passage 5

A: You’ll never guess what happened to me yesterday.


B: What?
A: Well, I was walking out of the bus station, and I was just outside
that drinks stall, you know . . .
B: Mmmm.
A: . . . when whom should I meet but Joan Robinson. You remember,
that girl who used to work at the supermarket when we lived in the
east.
B: Aha.
A: You know what she’s been doing in the last three years or so, don’t
you?
B: What’s that?
A: She’s on that TV show . . . what’s it called . . . that funny show on
Friday evenings.
B: I don’t know.
A: Be My Guest, that’s it, that show that’s set in a hotel.
B: Really?
A: Yes, but I don’t think she remembered me.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

24 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


Passage 6

A: What do you think?


B: I think we’d better tell him.
A: I’m not so sure.
B: Well, if we don’t, he’ll probably find out some other way.
A: Hmmm. And if he does, he’ll be angry that we didn’t tell him.
B: Yes. Besides, we might find out that he already suspects it.
A: And in any case, I feel that we ought to tell him.
B: Agreed. So, when do we do it?
A: Straight away, I suppose. Could you do it? You’re so much better
than me at this sort of thing.
B: Oh, OK. Come on, let’s go and break the news.

Passage 7

A: We’re going to let you go.


B: Thank you very much!
A: I know it’s not the news that you thought you were going to hear.
B: You can say that again!
A: The management team discussed it for a long time.
B: Was I the only one you considered?
A: There were one or two possible candidates, but . . . well, we finally
agreed on you.
B: That’s just great!
A: So you’d better go and start packing.
B: I’ll go and tell my wife straight away.

Passage 8

A: Did you get through to him?


B: Yes. I talked to him. It was lucky as he was about to go out.
A: And . . . ?
B: And he said he was coming.
A: You gave him the address, didn’t you?
B: Of course I did. In any case, I’m fairly certain that he knows where
we live.
A: But people often confuse Cook Street with Cook Avenue on the other
side of town.
B: No, I told him it was Cook Street, and that we’re just round the
corner from the Galaxy cinema. He said he knew where to come.
A: He’s got a car, hasn’t he?
B: Of course he has. Don’t worry, it’s all been taken care of.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Who Are We? ◆ 25


Passage 9

A: How long have you been here?


B: About twenty minutes.
A: Oh dear.
B: Why, what’s the problem?
A: Have you seen Lizzy?
B: No, not since this morning.
A: This morning?
B: Why, what’s wrong?
A: I’m really worried.
B: Perhaps you should call the police.

Passage 10

A: There are four of us already. We need a fifth. Someone to do the


driving.
B: What about George again?
A: What do you mean “again”?
B: He was with us a couple of years ago. He did the driving then.
A: Was he reliable? Did everyone in the team get on with him?
B: Yes. No problems.
A: Then I’ll ask Jim to have a word with him . . . try to persuade him.
B: Right.
A: How long do you think we should give him to think it over?
B: Well, the thing’s planned for the week after next, so we need an
answer fairly soon.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

26 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


Worksheet 2

Decide if the pair have acted the passage in the first or second situation,
and tick the “Guess” column. Importantly, write in the “Notes” column
about how you made this decision.

Alternative characters and contexts Guess Notes

1 B loves spicy Indian food.


B doesn’t really like spicy Indian food, but will agree to go with A,
rather unwillingly.
2 The operator of a bungee jump (A) encourages a customer (B).
A father (A) tries to persuade his son (B) to do some difficult
mathematics homework.
3 On a picnic, a mother (A) asks her young son/daughter (B) where
he/she walked. She’s been worried about him/her.
A trainer (A) asks an athlete (B) where he ran.
4 The Secret Service (A) are questioning someone (B) they think is a spy.
Airport security (A) are talking to a ten-year-old unaccompanied
traveler (B). Nobody is at the airport to meet him/her.
5 B is reading a newspaper and doesn’t want to be disturbed.
B went to school with Joan’s sister, so is really interested.
6 Two doctors decide whether to tell a patient he has cancer.
Two schoolchildren decide whether to tell the principal that they
have broken a window.
7 The sports team manager (A) has chosen B as a replacement on
their Japanese tour, for a player who has been injured.
Because of financial problems, the company is having to fire some
staff. A breaks the bad news to B.
8 A husband (B) and wife (A) invite a friend to a dinner party.
A husband (B) phones for the doctor for his pregnant wife (A) who
has gone into labor.
9 A snake charmer in a circus (A) asks a colleague (B) about his
missing python, Lizzy.
A husband (A) had an argument with his wife Lizzy last evening, and
asks his housekeeper (B) about her.
10 Members of a football team are planning a minibus holiday.
Members of a gang are planning a robbery.

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Who Are We? ◆ 27


A4
Are You Mr. Grumpy?

The Mr. Men (pronounced “Mister Men”) are a series of children’s books
with male characters, originally produced in the 1970s by British author
Roger Hargreaves. A series with female characters, Little Miss, appeared
in the 1980s (Mr. Men, Little Miss, 2020). After Roger’s death in 1988, his
son Adam continued to write and illustrate the books. They have been
translated into many languages, and sold millions of copies worldwide.
Pronunciation point: As in A3, this exercise focuses on suprasegmentals
(intonation, speed, voice quality, etc.).
Some learners seem to lapse into a monotonous delivery when speak-
ing a foreign language (English). However, when the class is over, and
they are talking to their friends in their native language, they are very
animated and expressive! Emphasize that this expressiveness is appro-
priate in English too. You could even ask the learners to act out one or
two of the scenarios in their native language. You may well fnd that the
pronunciation features used for emotions are similar to, if not the same
as, in English.
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: A individual production exercise, much like acting
Approximate time: 15 minutes (pre-teaching), 20 minutes (exercise), 10
minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of Worksheet 1 (characters) and Worksheet 2
(passages) for each learner. Alternatively, to save paper, either make the
worksheets accessible in soft copy on learners’ devices, or show them on a
screen.
Introducing the exercise: Perhaps take one character, e.g. Mr. Grumpy, and
ask the class how they think he usually speaks. Responses will probably
relate to speed, low intonation, and a hoarse voice quality. Do not discour-
age nonverbal features, e.g. a grumpy facial expression.

28 ◆
Conducting the exercise: The worksheets contain:

• a list of Mr. Men, Little Miss characters. Their names are usually a
clear indication of their personalities, e.g. Mr. Grumpy is always
grumpy.
• a number of passages to be spoken.

Allocate each learner a character and one of the passages to read out. The
rest of the class guess which character they are.
There is no problem if the same passage is allocated to more than
one of the students/characters, e.g. Mr. Happy and Mr. Slow. This allows
everyone to appreciate the differences between different speaking styles.
Debrief notes: Discuss with the learners the pronunciation features—
mostly suprasegmentals—that they controlled to achieve the desired char-
acters. For example, Mr. Forgetful is likely to use slower speed and plenty
of pauses (and perhaps pause fllers, ums and ahs). Are the same features
used when speaking in the learners’ native languages?
Create your own materials: The full set of Mr. Men, Little Miss characters
can be found at Mr. Men, Little Miss (2020), Wikipedia (n.d.). Some of
them refer to non-language characteristics, e.g. Mr. Tall, Little Miss Neat,
that cannot be used for pronunciation work.
Simply choose some more (suitable) characters, and produce more
passages that can be pronounced in varying ways.

Are You Mr. Grumpy? ◆ 29


Worksheet 1

Your teacher will allocate you:

• one of the characters from the list


• one of the passages from the list

Practice and then read out the passage in the manner of the character.

Characters

Character Personality
Little Miss Busy, or Mr. Busy He/she can’t sit still, but always has something to do,
and is rushing around.
Little Miss Careful She is cautious, and gives thought to things before she
does them, to avoid accidents.
Mr. Daydream He is always distracted by pleasant, faraway thoughts.
Little Miss Fickle She has trouble making up her mind, and deciding what
to do and what she likes.
Mr. Forgetful He has a short memory, and can’t remember facts and
people, and what he was going to do.
Little Miss Fun She loves to have fun all the time, and will do anything
that is enjoyable or amusing.
Little Miss Giggles Everything amuses her, so she can’t stop giggling.
Mr. Grumpy, or Mr. Miserable He is always unhappy, in a bad mood, hating anyone or
anything he comes across.
Mr. Happy He is positive and contented, finding pleasure in most things.
Little Miss Loud, or Mr. Noisy He/she talks too much, usually in a very loud voice.
Little Miss Naughty, or He/she loves to play practical jokes on anyone.
Little Miss Trouble, or Mr.
Mischief, or Mr. Cheeky
Little Miss Quick, or Mr. Rush He/she never does anything properly, because he/she is
always in a hurry.
Mr. Rude He is impolite to everyone, and causes offense because
of bad manners.
Little Miss Shy, or Mr. Quiet He/she is afraid of everything, embarrassed or lacking in
confidence.
Mr. Slow He does everything very slowly, including speaking.
Little Miss Stubborn, or Mr. He/she always thinks he/she is right, even when other
Stubborn people have good ideas.
Mr. Uppity He is very rich, feels he is better than others, and as a
result is rude to everybody.
Mr. Worry He is anxious about everything, whether it’s real or not.

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

30 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


Worksheet 2

1 I have a dog. Her name is Fifi. She’s a poodle. She’s white, and 12 years
old. She used to play with me a lot, but now that she is getting older,
she’s happier just to sit on the sofa. I think she’s getting a bit fat.
2 Would you like a coffee? They make very good coffee here. I think it’s
because of the beans they use. And coffee always goes well with a
piece of cake. Would you like cake as well?
3 It was a memorable holiday. We arrived by plane, but our luggage
went to Madrid! Fortunately our hotel provided us with a change of
clothing until the luggage arrived. Then Mary got food poisoning. We
think it was because of the prawns one evening.
4 I’ve got something to tell you. That house at the end of the street has
been uninhabited for over two years now. I’m nervous every time I
have to walk past it. It looks like it’s something out of a horror movie.
5 I’ve started taking swimming lessons, because it’s important that you
should learn how to swim. My instructor’s name is Helen, and she
used to be a swimming champion. She’s very good, and I’m already
learning confidence in the water.
6 This has been a strange day. First of all, I woke up late. Then I
couldn’t find two matching socks, which is why I have odd ones on.
Then, when I was halfway to school, I realized that I’d forgotten to
comb my hair and it looked a real mess.
7 Shall we go shopping this Saturday? I really need a new pair of
jeans, because my current pair are starting to look old. We could
have a look at that new shop that’s just opened: Glorious Jeans.
They may have the kind of jeans I’m looking for.
8 Let me tell you about my boss. He’s 75 years old, and has been in
charge of the company for 37 years now. I’m not sure how much the
company has changed in that time. But he wants to downsize now. I
wonder when he’ll retire.
9 Last summer, we went on holiday to Dubai. They have the #1 of
everything: the world’s tallest building, the world’s first seven-star hotel,
the world’s largest shopping mall, and the world’s largest performing
fountain. It’s strange to think that 40 years ago, it was all largely desert.
10 Graham has bought a new car. His old one was starting to look old
and unloved. The paint was coming off in places, one wing mir-
ror was hanging off, and it looked as though he had never actually
washed it. I only hope he takes care of this new one.

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Are You Mr. Grumpy? ◆ 31


A5
Rhubarb

Pronunciation point: Rhubarb is the name of a plant that is eaten as a


fruit, as in rhubarb pie. However, it is also “British informal. The noise
made by a group of actors to give the impression of indistinct background
conversation, especially by the random repetition of the word ‘rhubarb’”
(Lexico, n.d.). In other words, it is not the meaning of the word that is
relevant, but the fact that it is produced with appropriate pronunciation
to give the illusion of meaningful dialogue.
This exercise concentrates on suprasegmentals, and aims to produce
dialogue that can be followed, even though there are no meaningful
words.
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: Pair dialogues, created by the learners
Approximate time: 5 minutes (preparation), 5 minutes (rehearsal), 20 min-
utes (exercise), 5 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: This exercise follows nicely from the previous
two. This exercise requires learners to use the same set of suprasegmentals
to convey a dialogue in one given situation, using suprasegmentals and
no meaningful words.
Conducting the exercise:
Divide the class into pairs, and give/show each learner the worksheet.
Tell each learner to think of a word of English. It could be simple
words like the numbers one through ten, the colors, classroom words
(desk, chair, paper, etc.). Short, simple words are preferable to longer, less
common ones, like rhubarb, which may start to sound comical or diffcult
to pronounce when repeated.

32 ◆
Allocate each pair one of the scenarios. They should act out a one-
minute scene, using only the words they have chosen. A role play could
therefore go like this:
A: Desk desk!
B: Seven!
A: Desk desk desk. Desk desk desk?
B: Seven seven seven.
A: Desk?
B: Seven!
etc.
Learners should also be encouraged to use body language (facial expres-
sions, gestures, etc.), since these features can perform a similar function
to suprasegmentals.
Debrief notes: Discuss with the learners the pronunciation features—
mostly suprasegmentals—that they controlled to achieve the desired emo-
tions, status, etc.
Create your own materials: You do not need to write any dialogue. Simply
create some scenarios. They should involve differences in status, and emo-
tions such as fear, anger, sadness, joy, disgust, surprise, trust,
anticipation.

Rhubarb ◆ 33
Worksheet

Get into pairs.


Each member should choose a simple word of English.
Your pair will be allocated one of the scenarios below.
Act out the scene, saying only the word you have chosen.

1 Two friends meet in a coffee bar. One tells the other a very funny
joke. The other doesn’t really understand the joke and asks for it to
be explained. Of course, now it’s not really funny anymore.
2 A car owner enters a repair shop because there is a strange knock-
ing noise from the car’s engine. The mechanic asks questions about
what kind of noise it is, when it occurs, etc. The mechanic then
quotes a price, and says it will take three days to fix. The owner is
shocked at how much it will cost, and how long it will take.
3 A learner is rehearsing a speech they have to give in a foreign lan-
guage. Their teacher keeps interrupting them because they are not
loud enough, not expressive enough, showing too many nerves, etc.
4 Two work colleagues share an office. One asks the other to open the
window because they are feeling hot and would like some fresh air.
The other one says that opening the window makes the office noisy
because there is a main road outside. The first one finally agrees and
turns on a fan instead.
5 The receptionist at a doctor’s clinic greets a new patient. Because they
are new to the clinic, the receptionist has to enter the patient’s details
(name, address, telephone number, etc.) into the clinic’s computer sys-
tem, and check that it has been entered correctly, including the spelling.
6 A customer enters a shop with a faulty iron, disappointed because
it was bought at the shop only last week. The shop assistant apolo-
gizes, calms the customer, takes the iron, writes down the custom-
er’s contact details, and promises that the manager will contact the
customer the next day.
7 Two friends meet by accident at the airport. One has just returned
from a group hiking holiday in the mountains and tells the other
how magnificent it was. The other tells the story of when they were
on a mountain trail last year, and another member of the group fell
and twisted their ankle, and had to be air-lifted by helicopter.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

34 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


8 A teenager has had a tattoo, without their parents’ knowledge. When
they reveal this to their mother/father, the parent initially hates it,
and tries to convince the teenager not to get another one. The teen-
ager cannot understand all the fuss about a small tattoo.
9 A customer does the weekly shopping in a supermarket and takes
it to the cashier. The cashier announces that, because they are the
100th customer today, they have won a prize: their shopping is free!
The customer is delighted, and happily poses for photographs.
10 A manager is interviewing an applicant for a position. The manager
asks about qualifications and experience, and the answers seem
pleasing. But then the manager asks about willingness to work on
Saturdays, and the applicant says they cannot. But surely this person
read the job description in the advertisement?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Rhubarb ◆ 35
A6
Big and Small Mistakes

Pronunciation point: Not every feature of pronunciation is equally impor-


tant. While they should all be mastered by any learner wanting to acquire
a quasi-native pronunciation, for learners with lower aims, some are more
important than others. Or, to put it another way, some features must be
mastered because the consequences are more serious than for other
features.
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: A form asking for learners’ individual opinions, followed
by discussion
Approximate time: 30 minutes (pre-teaching), 30 minutes (exercise), 20
minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Explain that, just as in their own languages, some
pronunciation features are more important than others.
Conducting the exercise: Give, or show, the learners the worksheet, and
tell them to rank each feature on a fve-point scale according to importance,
where 1 = important and 5 = unimportant. You may need to go through
all the features, in order to make sure that learners understand what is
meant by each of them. Check that they are not putting “1” for every
feature, as if everything is equally important! Emphasize that there are
no “right” or “wrong” answers, and that the class will usually agree fairly
well among themselves.
Debrief notes: The exercise is short for the learners to complete. What
takes proftable time is the discussion in the debrief.

36 ◆
Ask the learners not only what rankings they gave, but also, and
perhaps more importantly, why. Why are some features important/not
important? Reasons given will probably relate to three questions:

1. Does this feature affect intelligibility because, for example, there


are lots of words that are distinguished by these two sounds?
2. Is this feature associated with the image of a non-profcient
speaker (and is therefore one that should be mastered)?
3. Is this a common feature of speakers from my country (and there-
fore something I might want to keep, as a marker of identity)?

The following responses (from Brown, 2000) were given by a group of


international pronunciation experts:

# Feature Score
1 Unmarked sentence stress 1.25
2 Contrastive stress 1.52
3 Stress in multisyllable words 1.58
4 Pausing 1.67
5 Rhythm 1.70
6 Correcting stress 1.73
7 Stress in noun/verb pairs 2.15
8 Linking 2.15
9 Morphologically determined stress 2.15
10 Speed 2.18
11 Initial CC 2.24
12 Weak forms 2.27
13 Phonemic vowel length 2.30
14 Final CC 2.42
15 Allophonic vowel length 2.42
16 Proclaiming and referring tone 2.58
17 Initial CCC 2.59
18 Aspiration 2.64
19 Key 2.67
20 Loudness 2.78
21 All contrasting vowels 2.90
22 Final CCC 2.94
23 Spelling 3.00
24 Non-verbal features 3.14
25 Elision 3.33

Big and Small Mistakes ◆ 37


26 The th sounds 3.36
27 Assimilation 3.55
28 Voice quality 3.77
29 Final CCCC 3.85

This does not mean that these are the “right” answers; merely, that
this is what international experts thought. It may explain to you why this
book is organized the way it is.

38 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


Worksheet

Below are 29 features of English pronunciation. They are not all equally
important. If a learner of English does not pronounce these features cor-
rectly, how serious a problem do you feel this is? Rank each one from
1 (important) to 5 (unimportant).

Feature Explanation, example Ranking


1 = important
5 = unimportant
All contrasting vowels Keeping all vowel sounds distinct.
Allophonic vowel length e.g. The vowel in need is longer than that
in neat.
Aspiration There is a puff of air when you release
the /p/ of pit that is not there in bit.
Assimilation Great Britain is usually pronounced
Grape Britain.
Contrastive stress e.g. A: What are you doing? B: Nothing
much. What are YOU doing?
Correcting stress e.g. A: 2018? B: No, Twenty NINEteen.
Elision e.g. The /t/ of last week is usually elided
(dropped).
Final CC As in grasp.
Final CCC As in plants.
Final CCCC As in texts /teksts/.
Initial CC As in star.
Initial CCC As in street.
Key Among other things, key changes (a
heightening or lowering of pitch range)
are used in speech to show a change in
topic or paragraph.
Linking Final sounds of words are linked to the
initial sounds of following words, e.g.
bank account and banker count become
the same.
Loudness Not being too quiet or too loud.
Morphologically When endings are added to stems,
determined stress the stress often moves within the
stem, e.g. PHOtograph, phoTOgraphy,
photoGRAPHic.
Non-verbal features Body language (gestures, facial
expressions, etc.) accompanying speech.
Pausing Pausing in the right places.

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Big and Small Mistakes ◆ 39


Feature Explanation, example Ranking
1 = important
5 = unimportant
Phonemic vowel length e.g. The vowel in beat is long, and that in
bit is short.
Proclaiming and Proclaiming tone (a fall in many accents)
referring tone marks new material that has not been
mentioned before, while a referring tone
(a fall-rise) marks given material.
Rhythm Stress-based timing, rather than syllable-
based timing.
Speed Not speaking too quickly or too slowly.
Spelling Correspondences between letters and
sounds.
Stress in multisyllable MediterRAnean has stress on the fourth
words syllable (/reɪ/).
Stress in noun/verb As a noun, SUBject has stress on the first
pairs syllable, but as a verb, it is on the second
(subJECT).
The th sounds Pronouncing /θ, ð/ distinctly from /t, d, s,
z, f, v/.
Unmarked sentence The lexical content words (nouns, verbs,
stress adjectives, and adverbs) normally receive
stress, while the grammatical function
words do not.
Voice quality Such as overall tenseness, whisperiness,
nasality.
Weak forms The vowels of grammatical function
words are reduced to schwa or lost
altogether, e.g. to /tə/.

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

40 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


A7
My Language or Yours?

Pronunciation point: All languages have their own phonology; that is,
their own set of vowel and consonant sounds, suprasegmentals, voice
quality, etc. English is not English words pronounced as if they were in
the learners’ native language (say, French) and, vice versa, French is not
French words spoken as if they were English.
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: A listening task, followed by discussion
Approximate time: 10 minutes (exercise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: The worksheets you use depend on the native languages of
your learners. Four exercises are given for German, Turkish, Malay, and
Thai. However, teachers should prepare similar worksheets for the par-
ticular languages of their learners. This requires a reasonable understand-
ing of the pronunciation features, and typical mistakes, of the learners.
Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alternatively, to
save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on learners’
devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: If you have French or German learners, you
could begin with a bit of light relief: the following transliterations of the
English Humpty Dumpty rhyme into French and German spelling (Hulme,
1981; van Rooten, 1967). They are mostly nonsense in those languages.

◆ 41
English French German
Humpty Dumpty Un petit d’un petit Um die Dumm’ die
Sat on a wall. S’étonne aux Halles Saturn Aval;
Humpty Dumpty Un petit d’un petit Um die Dumm’ die
Had a great fall. Ah! degrés te fallent Ader Grät fahl.
And all the king’s horses Indolent qui ne sort cesse Alter ging’s Ohr sass
And all the king’s men Indolent qui ne se mène und Alter ging’s mähen
Couldn’t put Humpty Qu’importe un petit Kuh den “putt” um Dieter
Together again. Tout gai de Reguennes. Gitter er gähn.

Conducting the exercise: Learners listen to a speaker read out one of the
words. The speaker may be a live speaker (that is, the teacher or a guest)
or a recording. They decide (i) whether it is the frst or second language,
and (ii) what features of the pronunciation led to that answer.
As a variation, the teacher could ask the learners to choose either
the English word or the other one, and say it out loud. The teacher then
guesses which word was being pronounced.
Debrief notes:
Although it has been infuenced by many languages in its history, English is
considered a Germanic language, dating back to the invasion in the 5th cen-
tury of tribes (mainly the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) from present-day northern
Germany (and parts of Denmark and the Netherlands). For this reason, the
differences between present-day English and German are relatively small. At
the other extreme, English and Thai are unrelated, so the differences are large.
Many words have been borrowed from English into other languages,
usually with regularization in terms of conforming to the borrowing lan-
guage’s phonology and spelling system. This has had the result that the
same original word (restaurant, taxi, telephone, etc.) is pronounced in two
slightly different ways, highlighting the differences between the phonolo-
gies of the two languages.
The features of the sound systems of the two languages that allow
the learners to identify the language may be of various kinds, such as
the following:

• The way sounds are typically pronounced, for instance:


• the post-alveolar /r/ of English versus the uvular /r/ of
German
• the syllable-fnal /r/ of English (a voiced approximant), if pro-
nounced, versus that of Turkish (a devoiced (voiceless) fricative)

42 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


• Differences in the typical amount of aspiration of plosives; that is,
the /h/ in English tuck /thʌk/ versus Malay tak
• Nuances of vowel quality
• The tendency for vowels to be diphthongized, e.g. whether /eə/ is
pronounced as a diphthong /eə/ or as a long monophthong /ε:/
• Differences in the amount of lip rounding
• Differences in possible sounds in syllable positions, for instance:
• whether syllable-initial and/or syllable-fnal consonant clusters
are permissible
• whether /r/ can occur in syllable-fnal position (rhoticity)
• whether /h/ is a syllable-fnal possibility
• devoicing of fnal sounds, e.g. English vague with /g/ versus
German Weg with /k/
• A large or small difference between stressed and unstressed
syllables
• Speed of utterance
• Thai is a tonal language, while English is not

Create your own materials: A worksheet using English and another lan-
guage can easily be produced, but requires an in-depth knowledge of the
phonology of the other language, and a native or native-like pronunciation
of both languages.

My Language or Yours? ◆ 43
Worksheet (German)

Your instructor will say or play a recording of one word from each line,
either the English word or the German word. You need to listen carefully
and tick whether you think it was the English or German word.

# English German German meaning

1  bright  breit “wide”

2  fear  vier “four”

3  air  er “he”

4  gross  groẞ “large”

5  dust  dass “that”

6  knee  nie “never”

7  my  Mai “May”

8  zoo  zu “to”

9  hunt  Hand “hand”

10  boiler  Beule “bump”

11  stark  stark “strong”

12  tile  Teil “part”

13  feel  viel “much”

14  vague  Weg “way”

15  vice  weiẞ “white”

16  done  dann “then”

17  felt  Feld “field”

18  nine  nein “no”

19  common  kommen “come”

20  mention  Menschen “people”

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

44 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


Worksheet (Turkish)

Your instructor will say or play a recording of one word from each line,
either the English word or the Turkish word. You need to listen carefully
and tick whether you think it was the English or Turkish word.

# English Turkish Turkish meaning

1  on  on “ten”

2  sue  su “water”

3  her  her “each”

4  buy  bay “Mr.”

5  more  mor “purple”

6  yield  yıl “year”

7  doctor  doktor “doctor”

8  honor  ona “her”

9  air  eğer “if”

10  taxi  taksi “taxi”

11  higher  hayır “no”

12  Kim  kim “who”

13  shoe  şu “that”

14  Fiat  fiyat “price”

15  booze  buz “ice”

16  Adam  adam “man”

17  beer  bir “one”

18  Benny  beni “me”

19  service  ceviz “walnut”

20  Nissan  Nisan “April”

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

My Language or Yours? ◆ 45
Worksheet (Malay)

Your instructor will say or play a recording of one word from each line,
either the English word or the Malay word. You need to listen carefully
and tick whether you think it was the English or Malay word.

# English Malay Malay meaning

1  hurry  hari “day”

2  cow  kau “you”

3  Dan  dan “and”

4  tuck  tak “not”

5  line  lain “other”

6  dear  dia “he, she”

7  llama  lama “old”

8  young  yang “which”

9  lucky  laki “man”

10  bike  baik “good”

11  jam  jam “hour”

12  Murray  mari “come”

13  summer  sama “same”

14  rumor  rumah “house”

15  knack  nak “want”

16  cutter  kata “word”

17  suck it  sakit “pain”

18  under  anda “you”

19  (Cornish) pasty  pasti “sure”

20  quota  kota “city”

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

46 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


Worksheet (Thai)

Your instructor will say or play a recording of one word from each line,
either the English word or the Thai word. You need to listen carefully
and tick whether you think it was the English or Thai word.

# English Thai Phonemic transcription Thai meaning

1 D  ดี /dii/ “good”

2  cow  เขา /khau/ “he”

3  one  วัน /wan/ “day”

4  jet  เจ็ด /cèt/ “seven”

5  crew  ครู /khruu/ “teacher”

6  bee  ปี /pii/ “year”

7  Ma  มา /maa/ “come”

8  paw  พอ /phɔɔ/ “enough”

9  me  มี /mii/ “have”

10  pen  เป็น /pen/ “be”

11  cry  ใคร /khrai/ “who”

12  soon  ศูนย์ /sŭun/ “zero”

13  guy  ไก่ /kài/ “chicken”

14  bit  ปิด /pìt/ “shut”

15  hen  เห็น /hĕn/ “see”

16  long  ลง /loŋ/ “down”

17  high  ให้ /hâi/ “give”

18  sea  สี่ /sìi/ “four”

19  sway  สวย /sŭai/ “beautiful”

20  nutty  นาที /naathii/ “minute”

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

My Language or Yours? ◆ 47
A8
English With My Native
Voice Quality, My Native
Language With English
Voice Quality

Pronunciation point: As should have become obvious in the previous


exercise, the phonology of a language is composed of many features. They
all go together and interact to give the overall “feel” of the language. In
everyday language, the term voice quality is often used for this, although
it has a more specifc meaning in phonetics. One writer (Honikman, 1964)
told her learners to “get into gear” for speaking English; that is, abandon
the long-term settings of their native language and switch to those of
English. An 11-year-old learner (quoted by Laroy, 1995, p. 35), upon being
asked, “How come you suddenly pronounce English so well?” replied,
“I am making fun of them when they speak our language.”
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: A production exercise
Approximate time: 10 minutes (exercise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make a copy of the worksheet (or any other alternative pas-
sage) for each learner. Alternatively, to save paper, show it on a screen.
Introducing the exercise:
Ask the learners how their native language sounds when an English
speaker pronounces it poorly. Most learners probably have experience of
English speakers trying to learn their language, and sounding like an
English speaker trying to learn their language; that is, speaking their
language, but with English vowel and consonant sounds, English stress,
English intonation, etc.
This question will probably lead to an amusing few minutes of learners
showing how badly some English speakers speak their language. However,
it may lead to exaggerated Englishness, and pronunciation features that

48 ◆
are caricatures of English speakers, and not the way English speakers
actually pronounce things.
An example of this kind of exaggeration is the French accent adopted
by Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther flms. Planchenault (2015) gives some
examples (from The Pink Panther Strikes Again, 1976):

“This is Inspector Clouseau [klyzœ] speaking on the phone [fœn].”


“Do you have a room [rym]?”
“Does your dog bite [ba:t]?”

[y] is like the vowel of beat, but with lip-rounding. Similarly, [œ] is like
the vowel of bet, but with lip-rounding. There is no reason why Clouseau,
being after all French, cannot pronounce his name the French way [kluzo]
(nor [fon], [rum] or [baɪt]). This exaggerated mispronunciation was adopted
by Steve Martin in the remakes (2006, 2009). It has produced a few schol-
arly articles, e.g. Pickett (2004).
A similarly comical pronunciation may be familiar to readers from
Offce Crabtree of the ‘Allo ‘Allo TV series, with two differences: this is
an Englishman pretending to be French and mispronouncing English, and
the mispronunciations seem more like misspellings:
“The British Air Farce have dropped their bums on the water works.
They have scored a direct hot on the pimps” (Force, bombs, hit, pumps)
Again, this may be amusing (and has spawned Offcer Crabtree’s Fronch
phrose berk; Bostrom, 2018), but it is not accurate interlanguage, although it
was said to be based on the pronunciation of 1970s British prime minister
Edward Heath, who spoke French fuently but with a clear English accent
(Allo Allo Wiki, n.d.).
So, what the original question “How does your language sound when
pronounced not very well by an English speaker?” tries to elicit is not
caricatures, but more accurate performances.
Conducting the exercise:

Part 1

Give the learners a copy of the worksheet. Two worksheets are provided
here, one for AmE teaching environments, one for BrE. Alternatively, to
save paper, show it on a screen. Ask the learners how a native speaker of
their language would pronounce it.
Any alternative English passage that the learners are familiar with
could be used.
Ask the learners to identify the pronunciation features that make it
sound non-English. Compile a list on the whiteboard, fipchart, etc.; these

Language and Voice Quality ◆ 49


are the features that the learners should try to avoid if they want to sound
like a native speaker of English.

Part 2

Ask the learners to recite the words of their countries’ national anthem
(or any other alternative passage), but the way an (American or British)
English speaker would read them. Ask the learners to identify the pro-
nunciation features that make it sound English. Compile a list on the
whiteboard, fipchart, etc.; these are the features that the learners should
try to adopt if they want to sound like a native speaker of English.
Debrief notes: Notice that, in exercise A1, we saw that not all learners
necessarily want or need to acquire a native speaker accent of English.

50 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


Worksheet (AmE)

Here are the words of the American national anthem.


How would a typical speaker of your native language pronounce it?

US National Anthem
Oh, say can you see,
By the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars,
Through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched,
Were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled
Banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free
And the home of the brave?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Language and Voice Quality ◆ 51


Worksheet (BrE)

Here are the words of the British national anthem.


How would a typical speaker of your native language pronounce it?

UK National Anthem
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen!
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

52 ◆ The Components of Pronunciation


Section B
Suprasegmentals
B1
Waking Up for Class

Pronunciation point: Raps are a popular and fun way to practice supra-
segmentals, especially stress placement and the weakening of unstressed
syllables. In order to ft unstressed syllables between the very regular
stressed syllables, they need to be weakened and shortened (called the
concertina effect by Abercrombie, 1967, p. 97).
Since the words are spoken rather than sung, raps are ideal for students
who cannot sing in tune.
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: A rap, best performed as a class
Approximate time: 15 minutes (exercise)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: All students will surely know what a rap is. Point
out the strict regularity of the beat, and that the words therefore have to
be ftted into that beat. Some devices for achieving that are shown in the
spelling (gonna, gotta, wanna).
Explain some language points:

• the crack of dawn is a set phrase for “daybreak.”


• (for BrE speakers) drapes are curtains.
• sec is short for second.
• Too much speed, not enough haste refers to the expression more haste,
less speed, meaning doing something in too much of a hurry.
• Zzzzzzz is a way of showing sleep, including perhaps snoring, in
writing.

◆ 55
Conducting the exercise: A steady beat needs to be established. One fun
way of doing this is to get the students to produce it in the manner of
Queen’s “We Will Rock You”: namely, two slaps on the thighs followed
by one clap in the air.
The frst time, this beat can be fairly slow as the students get used to the
words and stress placement of the passage. In subsequent times, the beat
can be quickened.
Two versions of the rap are given. The left-hand version is in normal
spelling. In the right-hand version, the syllables to be stressed are shown
in capital letters; this may help learners initially. Some variation in the
placement of stress is possible. As learners get used to the text, they can
use the left-hand version more.
Debrief notes: Draw learners’ attention to aspects of connected speech:

• weak forms (e.g. /əv/ not /ɒv/)


• elision (e.g. possible loss of /v/ in slice of bread)
• assimilation (e.g. don’t care /doʊŋk ker/ (AmE) ~ /dəʊŋk keə/
(BrE))
• linking (shown by gotta, etc.; (for BrE speakers) /r/ in quarter of)

These are all perfectly normal in faster, colloquial speech.


Create your own materials: You can, of course, use actual raps.
To create your own:

• decide on the topic


• fnd rhyming words connected to that topic; there are plenty of
rhyming dictionaries on the internet
• write the verses with four beats in each line

56 ◆ Suprasegmentals
Worksheet

I slowly yawn, it’s the crack of dawn i SLOWly YAWN, it’s the CRACK of DAWN
Gotta get up, see the drapes are drawn GOTta get UP, see the DRAPES are DRAWN

Get out of bed, my eyes are red GET out of BED, my EYES are RED
Gotta get ready for the day ahead GOTta get READy for the DAY aHEAD

Take a quick shower, a really cold shower TAKE a quick SHOWER, a REALly cold SHOWER
Gotta get going in a quarter of an hour GOTta get GOing in a QUARTer of an HOUR

Comb my hair, choose what to wear COMB my HAIR, CHOOSE what to WEAR
Don’ wanna look like I just don’t care DON’ wanna LOOK like i JUST don’t CARE

Quickly get dressed, gotta look my best QUICKly get DRESSED, gotta LOOK my BEST
Gonna make sure my teacher’s impressed GONna make SURE my TEACHer’s imPRESSED

Have a slice of bread, though I feel half-dead HAVE a slice of BREAD, though i FEEL half-DEAD
Don’ want tea, I’ll have coffee instead DON’ want TEA, i’ll have COFfee inSTEAD

Got a grammar test, that’s why I’m stressed GOT a grammar TEST, that’s WHY I’m STRESSED
It’s how our English skills are assessed it’s HOW our ENGlish SKILLS are asSESSED

But wait a sec, let me check but WAIT a SEC, LET me CHECK
I’m all disorganized. What the heck! i’m ALL disORGanized. WHAT the HECK!

Today’s not Monday, this is Sunday! ToDAY’S not MONday, THIS is SUNday!
Aaargh! I’ve got the dates wrong by one day AAARGH! i’ve GOT the dates WRONG by ONE day

What a waste, I shouldn’t have raced WHAT a WASTE, i SHOULDn’t have RACED
Too much speed, not enough haste TOO much SPEED, NOT enough HASTE

Go back to bed, my eyes still red GO back to BED, my EYES still RED
There’s a noisy pounding in my head there’s a NOISy POUNDing IN my HEAD

I wanna just weep, go back to sleep i WANna just WEEP, GO back to SLEEP
One two three four, counting sheep ONE two THREE four, COUNTing SHEEP

Zzzzzzz Zzzzzzz

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Waking Up for Class ◆ 57


B2
There Was a Young Lady
From . . .

Pronunciation point: Stresses are important in English, as are the processes


that accompany them. The ends of the lines in limericks (and other poems)
rhyme. This means that the sounds from the vowel of the stressed syllable
of the fnal words are the same (or very similar).
As for the title of this exercise, many limericks start There was a young lady
from [place name]. A number can be found on the internet. But beware:
they are sometimes a bit racy or downright obscene, so not suitable for
the classroom.
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: A paper exercise for students working in pairs, followed
by pronunciation practice
Approximate time: 10 minutes (introducing the limerick format), 20 min-
utes (exercise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of Worksheet A, and one copy of Worksheet
B for each pair of students (e.g. in a class of 20, make ten copies of each
worksheet).
Introducing the exercise: Introduce the limerick poetic format, using the
following limerick:
Archimedes, the well-known truth-seeker,
Jumping out of his bath, cried, “Eureka!”
He ran half a mile,
Wearing only a smile,
And became the world’s very frst streaker.

Explain and illustrate the characteristics of the limerick:

• It is humorous.
• It is written as fve lines.

58 ◆
• The frst, second, and last lines rhyme (seeker, Eureka, and streaker),
as do the third and fourth lines (mile and smile). Rhyme means that
the sounds from the stressed syllables of the words onwards are
the same or very similar (/i:kə(r)/).
• The frst, second and last lines have three stresses each (-me-,
well, and seek-; out, bath, and -re-; and -came, ve-, and streak-),
while the third and fourth lines have two each (ran and mile; on-
and smile).
• The frst, second, and last lines each have an extra beat (a silent
stress) at the end. It is not natural to continue from seeker straight
into jumping.
• Thus, the limerick is pronounced as follows (with the extra beat
shown by ∆):
archiMEdes, the WELL-known truth-SEEKer ∆
jumping OUT of his BATH, cried, “euREka!” ∆
he RAN half a MILE
wearing ONly a SMILE,
and beCAME the world’s VEry frst STREAKer. ∆
• This is, in fact, a very regular poetical form. If we combined the
third and fourth lines, we would end up with four lines, each with
four beats.
• It is also regular in that the rhythm is usually a stressed syl-
lable followed by two unstressed syllables, as in ME—des—the,
WELL—known—truth.

Practice reading this limerick with the students, until you are sure they
understand the format.
Conducting the exercise:

1. This game should be played in pairs.


2. Give one member of each pair Worksheet A, and the other Work-
sheet B.
3. Explain that the worksheets contain all the lines of eight limericks,
but they have been jumbled and split between the two work-
sheets. However, the lines are shown in their right position, i.e.
frst lines are printed as frst lines, etc.
4. The pair have to reassemble the eight limericks. They must not
look at each other’s worksheets, but should ask questions like,
“Do you have a line that rhymes with took?”
5. When the students have got the right answers, practice reading
the limericks out loud.

There Was a Young Lady From . . . ◆ 59


Create your own materials: There are plenty of websites with limericks.
However, some of them are not proper limericks, in that they do not fol-
low the structure outlined above.
You can, of course, use poems that are not limericks, but nevertheless
have end-of-line rhyme.

Answer
There was a young lady named Harris,
Whom nothing could ever embarrass,
’Til the salts that she shook
In the bath that she took,
Turned out to be Plaster of Paris.
There was a young man from Darjeeling,
Who got on the bus for West Ealing.
It said on the door
“Don’t spit on the foor,”
So he stood up and spat on the ceiling.
There was an old barn owl named Boo,
Who used, every night, to yell, “Hoo.”
A kid once walked by,
And started to cry,
And called out, “I haven’t a clue!”
There was a young man from Hong Kong,
Who wrote a new popular song.
But the song that he wrote
Was all on one note,
Though it sounded superb on a gong.
I’m papering walls in the loo,
And frankly I haven’t a clue.
For the pattern’s all wrong,
Or the paper’s too long,
And I’m stuck to the toilet with glue.
I’d rather have fngers than toes.
I’d rather have ears than a nose.
And as for my hair,
I’m glad it’s all there.
I’ll be awfully sad when it goes.

60 ◆ Suprasegmentals
There once was a slimmer named Green,
Who grew so incredibly lean,
And fat, and compressed,
That his back touched his chest,
So that sideways he couldn’t be seen.
There was a young schoolboy of Rye,
Who was baked by mistake in a pie.
To his mother’s disgust,
He emerged through the crust,
And exclaimed, with a yawn, “Where am I?”

There Was a Young Lady From . . . ◆ 61


Worksheet A

There was a young lady named Harris


Who was baked by mistake in a pie.
It said on the door
I’m glad it’s all there.
And called out, “I haven’t a clue!”
There was a young man from Darjeeling,
Who grew so incredibly lean,
A kid once walked by,
Or the paper’s too long,
Turned out to be Plaster of Paris.
There was an old barn owl named Boo,
And frankly I haven’t a clue.
But the song that he wrote
He emerged through the crust,
Though it sounded superb on a gong.
There was a young man from Hong Kong,
I’d rather have ears than a nose.
‘Til the salts that she shook
That his back touched his chest,
So he stood up and spat on the ceiling.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

62 ◆ Suprasegmentals
Worksheet B

I’m papering walls in the loo*,


Who got on the bus for West Ealing.
And as for my hair,
In the bath that she took,
And exclaimed, with a yawn, “Where am I?”
* loo: BrE for “toilet”
I’d rather have fingers than toes.
Who wrote a new popular song.
To his mother’s disgust,
And started to cry,
So that sideways he couldn’t be seen.
There once was a slimmer named Green,
Whom nothing could ever embarrass,
For the pattern’s all wrong,
“Don’t spit on the floor,”
And I’m stuck to the toilet with glue.
There was a young schoolboy of Rye,
Who used, every night, to yell, “Hoo.”
And flat, and compressed,
Was all on one note,
I’ll be awfully sad when it goes.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

There Was a Young Lady From . . . ◆ 63


B3
And to End the News, . . .

Pronunciation point: Paragraphs are used in writing to show where the


writer is starting a new topic. These changes in topic are also signaled in
pronunciation. A change of paragraph is usually signaled by:

• a long pause between the paragraphs


• ending the previous paragraph with a lowered pitch and reduced
loudness
• starting the new paragraph with a heightened pitch and increased
loudness

This is known in academic phonetics as key (see Bradford, 1988; Brazil,


1997; Brazil, Coulthard & Johns, 1980; Wells, 2006).
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: Analysis of a text, then speaking out loud, individually
Approximate time: 10 minutes (inserting paragraph breaks), 15 minutes
(reading aloud), 5 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Ask the students what they know about para-
graphs in writing (in English, and probably in their own language too).
Elicit the idea of a change of topic.
Conducting the exercise: Distribute the worksheet, or show it on screen.
Explain that it has been printed without any paragraph breaks. Instruct
the learners to mark where paragraph breaks should occur in the written
form. Once a consensus has been reached, ask the learners how they think
these paragraph breaks should be signaled in the pronunciation. Get learn-
ers to read the passage out loud, to each other or to the class.
Answers: Here is the passage with paragraph breaks shown.
64 ◆
And to end the news, here are the main points again.
The prime minister has completed his offcial visit to Canada.
He said that he had had productive discussions with Canadian
offcials on a possible free trade agreement, and hoped this would
make possible increased two-way trade between the countries. He
is accompanied by his wife, and representatives of the Ministry of
Trade. He now continues to the USA, the next stop on his one-week
tour.
The Ministry of Labor has just released offcial statistics indicat-
ing that productivity has risen by the largest jump in the last eight
years. The increase of 1.3% recorded between July and December
this year was caused in part by increased automation, and changes
in working practices. However, the government has warned that this
increase is unlikely to continue into the new year.
In the latest round of mid-week league matches, East Shore United
have beaten Wellington Rangers 4–1, to take a fve-point lead at the
top of the table. Their nearest rivals, Hamilton United, were held to
a 1–1 draw at home by Epsom Rovers. The two teams meet in a top-
of-the-table clash on Saturday.
Two unconnected multiple-car crashes on the Northwest Highway
have left three people dead and nine in hospital. The Traffc Police
have stated that the accidents were caused by drivers not making
adequate allowances for the foggy conditions this morning. They
remind drivers to turn on headlights and to slow down when it is
foggy.
And that’s the end of the news.

Debriefng note: Point out how the pronunciation equivalent of paragraph


breaks entails leaving sizeable pauses between them. Pausing is the subject
of another exercise in this section.
Create your own materials: This exercise is easy to create. Simply take a
suitable passage and rewrite it without paragraph breaks. This means that:

• you should use a passage at an appropriate level (of grammar,


vocabulary, etc.) for the learners.
• the passage can be one that has already been used in class.
• the passage should not be so short that there will be no paragraph
breaks, or that each paragraph will only be a sentence or two.
• the passage should not be so long that each paragraph is long, and
the passage takes a while to read.
• the passage should have clear changes in topic.

And to End the News, . . . ◆ 65


• paragraph breaks may also signal a change of speaker. So, you
could use a dialogue.
• you should take out the paragraph breaks, but keep all other
punctuation (full-stops, commas, capital letters, etc.), unlike in the
pauses exercise in this section (B8).

66 ◆ Suprasegmentals
Worksheet

Here is the word-for-word transcript of a radio news broadcast. Read


through it and mark where you think the newsreader’s script had new
paragraphs.

And to end the news, here are the main points again. The prime
minister has completed his official visit to Canada. He said that he
had had productive discussions with Canadian officials on a possible
free trade agreement, and hoped this would make possible increased
two-way trade between the countries. He is accompanied by his
wife, and representatives of the Ministry of Trade. He now continues
to the USA, the next stop on his one-week tour. The Ministry of
Labor has just released official statistics indicating that productivity
has risen by the largest jump in the last eight years. The increase
of 1.3% recorded between July and December this year was caused
in part by increased automation, and changes in working practices.
However, the government has warned that this increase is unlikely
to continue into the new year. In the latest round of mid-week
league matches, East Shore United have beaten Wellington Rangers
4–1, to take a five-point lead at the top of the table. Their nearest
rivals, Hamilton United, were held to a 1–1 draw at home by Epsom
Rovers. The two teams meet in a top-of-the-table clash on Saturday.
Two unconnected multiple-car crashes on the Northwest Highway
have left three people dead and nine in hospital. The Traffic Police
have stated that the accidents were caused by drivers not making
adequate allowances for the foggy conditions this morning. They
remind drivers to turn on headlights and to slow down when it is
foggy. And that’s the end of the news.

Obviously, if you are reading out the news, your audience can’t see the
paragraph breaks in your script. How do you think the newsreader should
convey this information in his or her pronunciation?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

And to End the News, . . . ◆ 67


B4
My Name’s Sophie

Pronunciation point: New information, including contrast, is a very strong


element in pronunciation. New items are given the main stress (on the
stressed syllable of the word, if it is multisyllabic). Thus, if student 1 asks,
“How did David do in English?” student 2’s reply, “He scored an A in
English,” will place the stress on A, because that is the new information
(while English is given, i.e. already mentioned). However, if student 1 asks,
“Did David score any A grades?” the answer will be, “He scored an A in
ENglish,” since English is now the new information, the answer to the
question (while A is given).
Similarly, if student 1 asks, “Is this Victoria Street?” the response will be,
No, THAT’S Victoria Street,” as the contrast is between this and that (while
Victoria remains constant, i.e. given). But if student 1 asks, “Is that Albert
Street?” the answer will be, “No, that’s VicTORia Street,” because the con-
trast is now between Albert and Victoria (while that now remains constant).
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: A production exercise to be completed in pairs. The learners
have a choice over using stimulus sentences a or b.
Approximate time: 10 minutes (exercise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of Worksheet A and one copy of Worksheet
B for each pair of students (e.g. in a class of 20, make ten copies of each
worksheet).
Introducing the exercise: Explain that the way you say (stress) something
depends on the context. Give an example:

“What’s your name?” “My name’s SOphie.”


“Is her name Sophie?” “No, MY name’s Sophie.”

Conducting the exercise: Distribute the worksheets, A to one member of


a pair, B to the other member. They must not look at each other’s sheets.

68 ◆
Explain that in each of the following examples, sentence c could follow
sentence a or b. However, if it follows a, it will be pronounced in a dif-
ferent way than if it follows b. Student A chooses either sentence a or b
from their worksheet. Student B then responds with sentence c, but pro-
nounced with the stress on the item that is appropriate in the context.
Then the roles are reversed for the second example.
Create your own materials:

1. Write a response sentence that contains at least two potential


major pieces of information, for instance, “I like swimming too.”
2. Compose stimulus sentences that focus on one or other of the
major pieces of information in the response, e.g. “I hear your wife
likes swimming” (the response stresses I), “I hear you like boat-
ing” (the response stresses SWIMming).

My Name’s Sophie ◆ 69
Worksheet A

1 a How did David do in English?


b Did David score any A grades?
2 c She’s always unprepared.
3 a I hear your daughter has graduated from Oxford.
b I hear your son has graduated from Cambridge.
4 c No, that’s Victoria Street.
5 a I don’t just dislike chilli, . . .
b I don’t hate garlic, . . .
6 c I completed my homework yesterday.
7 a At what time is your Geography lesson?
b Why didn’t you attend the meeting at 10?
8 c I don’t like math.
9 a If only I could find last semester’s Chemistry notes, . . .
b It’s a bit inconvenient for you to take my notes because I really
need them myself, but I suppose . . .
10 c I’ll start on the Physics assignment once I’ve finished the History
assignment.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

70 ◆ Suprasegmentals
Worksheet B

1 c He scored an A in English.
2 a Is she ever unprepared?
b She leaves everything to the last minute, and as a result, . . .
3 c No, my daughter has graduated from Cambridge.
4 a Is this Victoria Street?
b Is that Albert Street?
5 c I hate chilli.
6 a Have you completed your homework?
b Why weren’t you at the match yesterday?
7 c I’ve got Geography at 10.
8 a When did you realize you liked math?
b I’d never work in a bank, because . . .
9 c I could make a copy of them for you.
10 a When will you start working on the Physics assignment?
b What’s next, after the History assignment?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

My Name’s Sophie ◆ 71
B5
What Year? Every Year

Pronunciation point: As in the previous exercises, pausing and stress are


important in speech. Jokes often depend on contrast, and stress is used
to bring out these contrasts.
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: Individual learner production of passages (jokes)
Approximate time: 5 minutes (preparation), 20 minutes (exercise), 10 min-
utes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: If you have not already completed the preceding
exercises in this section, use the frst joke. In the frst line, what, date, and
birth are the important words to be stressed. In the second, July and six-
teenth; indeed, some people say “July sixteenth,” showing that the is not
important. In the third, year. In the fourth, every (and not year, because
that was introduced in the third line).
Conducting the exercise: Learners can work individually, in pairs, or small
groups.

1. They read the passages, highlighting the words that are important
in terms of meaning and message, for instance by underlining.
2. They read the passages out loud, making sure they put stress on
those underlined words, and leaving appropriate pauses.

Create your own materials: Jokes are useful in the language classroom, frstly
because they are fun, and secondly because it now means that the learners
know a joke in a foreign language. There are many joke websites on the inter-
net, and publications like Reader’s Digest contain suitable short jokes. Pick those
jokes that involve a clear contrast, and thus an appropriate stress placement.

72 ◆
Worksheet

Passage 1

Q: What is your date of birth?


A: July the sixteenth.
Q: What year?
A: Every year.

Passage 2

Heaven is where the police are British, the chefs are Italian, the mechan-
ics are German, the lovers are French, and it’s all organized by the Swiss.
Hell is where the police are German, the chefs are British, the mechanics
are French, the lovers are Swiss, and it’s all organized by the Italians!

Passage 3

One day, a little girl was sitting, watching her mother do the dishes at
the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several white
hairs, sticking out in contrast on her dark brown head. She looked at her
mother, and asked, “Why are some of your hairs white, Mum?”
Her mother replied, “Well, every time that you do something wrong,
and you make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.”
The little girl thought about this for a while, and then asked, “Mummy,
how come all of Grandma’s hairs are white?”

Passage 4

A man was sitting at the bar staring at his drink, when a large, trouble-
making motorbiker stepped up next to him, grabbed his drink, and finished
it in one go.
“Well, whatcha gonna do about it?” he said, threateningly.
“This is the worst day of my life,” the man said. “I’m a complete
failure. I was late to a meeting and my boss fired me. When I went to
the parking lot, I found my car had been stolen, and I don’t have any
insurance. I left my wallet in the cab I took home. Then, when I got
home, my dog bit me. So I came to this bar to work up the courage to
kill myself. I bought a drink, I dropped a capsule in it, and just sat here
watching the poison dissolve. Then you showed up and drank the whole
thing! But enough about me, how’s your day going?”
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

What Year? Every Year ◆ 73


Passage 5

One day, a rich father decided to take his son to the countryside, to show
him how poor some people are—in contrast to them, who live in a nice
house in the wealthy suburbs of a big city. This way, his son could under-
stand the value of things, and how lucky he is. So they went to the
countryside, and spent one day and one night, in a simple countryside
home.
On the journey back home, the father asked his son, “So, what did
you think of this little trip?”
“It was great, Dad!”
“Did you see how poor some people are?”
“Yes. I saw that we have one dog; they have four. We have a pool
at home; they live by a beautiful lake. The streetlamps give us light in
our garden, whereas they get the light of a million stars. Our back yard
ends at the fence; theirs is as far as the eye can see. And finally, I saw
they had the time to talk to each other and live like a happy family; you
and Mum work all day and I barely see you. Thanks, Dad, for showing
me how rich we could be.”
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

74 ◆ Suprasegmentals
B6
What’s the Diference
Between a Cat and a
Comma?

Pronunciation point: As in the previous exercises, pausing and stress are


important in speech. Plays on words often depend on contrast, and stress
is used to bring out these contrasts.
This exercise also relates to syllable structure (onset versus rhyme), in that
the onsets in Set 2 are transposed (in the same way as spoonerisms).
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: Learner production of passages (plays on words), individu-
ally or in pairs
Approximate time: 15 minutes
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: If you have not already completed the preceding
exercises in this section, use the frst play on words. In the question, what’s,
difference, cat, and comma will be stressed. In the answer, cat, claws, end,
and paws; and comma, pause, end, and clause.
All the frst set depend on homophones (words that are pronounced the
same, but spelled differently).
The second set depend on spoonerisms; that is, changing the onsets (initial
consonants, if any) of words.
Conducting the exercise: The structure of these examples may need a little
explanation. The answers to the frst example in each set are given.

◆ 75
Answers

Set 1

A prince is the heir to the throne. Water in a fountain is thrown to the air.
A man who has visited Niagara Falls has seen a mist. One who has not,
has missed a scene.
A married man kisses his Mrs. A bachelor misses his kisses.

Set 2

A hostile audience boos madly. A sick cow moos badly.


A fsherman baits his hooks. A lazy schoolboy hates his books.
A cuddle is a bear hug. A louse is a hair bug.
A squeaking hinge begs to be oiled. The other is eggs to be boiled.
Sticky tape mends a tear. A stableboy tends a mare.

76 ◆ Suprasegmentals
Worksheet

Set 1

Q: What’s the difference between a cat and a comma?


A: A cat has claws at the end of its paws. A comma is a pause at the
end of a clause.
Q: What’s the difference between a prince and the water in a
fountain?
A: A prince is the heir to the throne. Water in a fountain is . . . to the . . .
Q: What’s the difference between a man who has visited Niagara Falls,
and one who has not?
A: A man who has visited Niagara Falls has seen a mist. One who has
not, has . . . a . . .
Q: What’s the difference between a married man and a bachelor?
A: A married man kisses his Mrs. A bachelor . . . his . . .

Set 2

Q: What’s the difference between a moldy lettuce and an unhappy song?


A: A moldy lettuce is a bad salad. An unhappy song is a sad ballad.
Q: What’s the difference between a hostile audience and a sick cow?
A: A hostile audience boos madly. A sick cow . . .
Q: What’s the difference between a fisherman and a lazy schoolboy?
A: A fisherman baits his hooks. A lazy schoolboy . . . his . . .
Q: What’s the difference between a cuddle and a louse?
A: A cuddle is a bear hug. A louse is a . . .
Q: What’s the difference between a squeaking hinge and eggs for
breakfast?
A: A squeaking hinge begs to be oiled. The other is . . . to be. . .
Q: What’s the difference between sticky tape and a stableboy?
A: Sticky tape mends a tear. A stableboy . . . a . . .
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

The Difference Between a Cat and a Comma ◆ 77


B7
No, It Isn’t

Pronunciation point: We saw in a previous exercise that, when a correction


or contradiction is given, it is the part that is the correction/contradiction
that carries the stress in a sentence:

When did you realize you liked math?


I DON’T like math.

Liking math has already been mentioned. It is the negative contained in


don’t that is the correction.
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: A pairwork production exercise, with choice
Approximate time: 10 minutes (exercise), 5 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of Worksheet A for half the class, and of
Worksheet B for the other half. For instance, in a class of 20, make ten
copies of A and ten of B.
Introducing the exercise: Introduce the concept of correcting stress by, for
example, asking a learner, “Is your name Maria Martinez?” to which she
replies, “No. My name is Maria SUArez,” with the stress on (the stressed
syllable of) the correction.
Conducting the exercise: Divide the class into pairs. Give one member
of each pair Worksheet A, and the other B. Explain that, when they
start, A will choose either Question 1a or 1b, and ask it to B. B then
responds with the correction shown in the picture, placing the stress
on the correct part.
The teacher should wander around, listening to learners’ responses and
checking that they are stressing the right parts. For example, “Is it a photo
of your hands?” should elicit “No. It’s an X-ray of my hands” with the

78 ◆
stress on X, while “Is it an X-ray of your foot?” should elicit “No. It’s an
X-ray of my HANDS” with the stress on hands.
Debrief: Reiterate that contrast is a strong factor in English pronunciation,
and that the contrasted element is highlighted by stress, loudness, and
intonation (especially a high fall).
Create your own materials: This is actually easy. Simply take a photo or
other picture, e.g. a green apple. Then ask two questions relating to the
different elements of the picture: “Is it a red apple?” or “Is it a green
pear?”

No, It Isn’t ◆ 79
Worksheet A

Ask your partner Questions 1, 3, 5, 7, 9. Choose either the a or b


question.
When your partner asks you Questions 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, look at the
picture, and respond with the sentence given, making sure you stress
the correct part.

1a Is it a photo of your hands?


1b Is it an X-ray of your foot?

2 No. It’s a dog’s nose.

3a Is your picture two geese and six babies?


3b Is your picture two swans and three babies?

4 No. It’s a waffle and strawberries.

5a Is your picture a helicopter flying?


5b Is your picture two jet planes flying?

6 No. It’s the Hollywood sign.

7a Is your picture the dairy section in a supermarket?


7b Is your picture the checkout in a hardware store?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

80 ◆ Suprasegmentals
8 No. A girl is feeding a pigeon.

9a Is your picture a schoolboy working on a smartphone?


9b Is your picture a businessman working on a laptop?

10 No. Mrs. Jones is my dentist.

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

No, It Isn’t ◆ 81
Worksheet B

Ask your partner Questions 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Choose either the a or b


question.
When your partner asks you Questions 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, look at the picture,
and respond with the sentence given, making sure you stress the correct part.

1 No. It’s an X-ray of my hands.

2a Is your picture a dog’s tail?


2b Is your picture a cat’s nose?

3 No. There are two swans and six babies.

4a Is your picture a waffle and blueberries?


4b Is your picture a pancake and strawberries?

5 No. It’s two helicopters flying.

6a Does your picture show the Las Vegas sign?


6b Does your picture show a Hollywood street?

7 No. It’s the checkout in a supermarket.

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

82 ◆ Suprasegmentals
8a Is your picture a girl feeding a fish?
8b Is your picture a boy feeding a pigeon?

9 No. It’s a schoolboy working on a laptop.

10a Is Mr. Jones your dentist?


10b Is Mrs. Jones your doctor?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

No, It Isn’t ◆ 83
B8
Let’s Eat Grandpa

Pronunciation point: Pauses are a vital element in pronunciation.


Some pauses are necessary in speaking, if only to take breath. However,
the placement of pauses is not random, but normally related to the
grammar—that is, the meaning—of what is being said.
Minimum level: Elementary (depending on the passage). Passage 1 below
is at elementary level, while 2 is at intermediate. Pauses have been inserted
more liberally in the frst passage, because of the level.
Exercise type: A paper exercise followed by pronunciation practice, for
students working individually or in pairs
Approximate time: 15 minutes (exercise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise:

1. Elicit the meaning of pause from the students, and ask for sugges-
tions as to why pauses are important in speech. You could use the
title of this exercise. It has to be, “Let’s eat, Grandpa!”; otherwise it
sounds like cannibalism! There must be a comma (representing a
pause) after eat, to show that you are addressing Grandpa.
2. The main functions of pauses are:
• to show the listener (who can’t see the script) what belongs
together in terms of meaning and grammar, in the same way
as punctuation in writing
• to signal changes of topic (cf. paragraphs; see B3)
• in dialogue, to show who is speaking
• to emphasize that what you have just said is important

84 ◆
• to allow the speaker to take breath
• to prevent the speaker from speaking too fast
Conducting the exercise:

1. This exercise can be completed individually or in pairs or small


groups.
2. Give one copy of the worksheet to each student. Point out that
the passage looks strange because it has been printed without any
punctuation.
3. Instruct the students to read through it until they understand
it, and then put in the punctuation: commas, periods/full-stops
(question marks, exclamation marks), and paragraph breaks, as
well as quotation marks, capital letters, etc.
4. Once the punctuation has been agreed, ask the students to read
the passage out loud, paying particular attention to pauses. A
good rule of thumb is that a long pause will correspond to a
paragraph break (that is, a change of topic or speaker); a medium
pause to a sentence break (a period/full-stop, question mark, or
exclamation mark, showing the end of a grammatically complete
sentence); and a short pause to a comma or dash, showing that we
are at the end of a stretch that belongs together but is not gram-
matically complete.

Create your own materials:

1. Choose a passage that is appropriate for the level of your learners.


It could be a passage that they have already encountered in class.
It could be one involving dialogue; that is, changes of speaker
with long pauses (as in these passages).
2. Copy and paste a soft copy of the text, if available. Then, change
everything to lower case letters (easily done on computer by
highlighting the text and selecting “lower case”). Also, delete all
punctuation, including paragraph breaks. Put back in the capital
letters in names.
3. If a soft copy is not available, key in the text yourself, with no
capital letters (except for names) or punctuation.

Let’s Eat Grandpa ◆ 85


Passage 1: A Wet Day

Answer

There is no one right answer. However, here is one suggested answer.


a father and his young son/enjoyed going for long walks in the country
// one day/as they were about to turn back/and go home/it suddenly
began to pour with rain // they did not have an umbrella/or even rain-
coats with them/and there was nowhere to shelter from the rain/so they
soon got very wet /// for a long time/as they were making the long walk
back home/the boy was thinking // then/at last/he turned to his father/
and asked/why does it rain Dad // I don’t like rain // it’s unpleasant
/// you may think it’s unpleasant/but it’s very useful/replied his father
// you see/when it rains/water sinks into the ground/and then it helps
the fruit and vegetables grow/for us to eat/and makes the grass grow
long and green/for sheep and cows to eat /// as they walked on/the
boy thought about this // fnally/he said/if it rains to make the fruit
vegetables and grass grow/then why does it rain on the road too

Here is the passage, with punctuation.


A father and his young son enjoyed going for long walks in the coun-
try. One day, as they were about to turn back and go home, it suddenly
began to pour with rain. They did not have an umbrella or even raincoats
with them, and there was nowhere to shelter from the rain, so they soon
got very wet.
For a long time, as they were making the long walk back home, the
boy was thinking. Then, at last, he turned to his father, and asked, “Why
does it rain, Dad? I don’t like rain. It’s unpleasant.”
“You may think it’s unpleasant, but it’s very useful,” replied his father.
“You see, when it rains, water sinks into the ground, and then it helps the
fruit and vegetables grow for us to eat, and makes the grass grow long
and green for sheep and cows to eat.”
As they walked on, the boy thought about this. Finally, he said, “If it
rains to make the fruit, vegetables, and grass grow, then why does it rain
on the road too?”

86 ◆ Suprasegmentals
Worksheet

The following passage has been printed here without any punctuation.
However, it should be thought of as a script to be read aloud, as a teacher
might to a class, or a parent to a child, rather than as a written passage
to be punctuated. Where do you think the speaker should pause? Should
it be a long, medium, or short pause? Put:

/ for a short pause


// for a medium pause
/// for a long pause

a father and his young son enjoyed going for long walks in the
country one day as they were about to turn back and go home it
suddenly began to pour with rain they did not have an umbrella or
even raincoats with them and there was nowhere to shelter from
the rain so they soon got very wet for a long time as they were
making the long walk back home the boy was thinking then at last
he turned to his father and asked why does it rain Dad I don’t like
rain it’s unpleasant you may think it’s unpleasant but it’s very useful
replied his father you see when it rains water sinks into the ground
and then it helps the fruit and vegetables grow for us to eat and
makes the grass grow long and green for sheep and cows to eat
as they walked on the boy thought about this finally he said if it
rains to make the fruit vegetables and grass grow then why does it
rain on the road too

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Let’s Eat Grandpa ◆ 87


Passage 2: A Fishing Trip Goes Wrong

Answer

There is no one right answer. However, here is one suggested answer.


one weekend/Robert/Bill/and Henry went on a fshing trip/in Henry’s
small boat // quite unexpectedly/a violent storm began/the giant waves
tossing their small boat about/and smashing it into pieces // for three
days/they foated on a small raft/with only some torn sheets/kitchen
equipment/and an oil lamp // they had no food or drink/and the raft
gave them no shelter from the burning sun/or the driving rain // fnally/
in desperation/Bill/remembering the story of Aladdin/rubbed the lamp
// a genie appeared/in a puff of smoke /// I will grant each of you one
wish/he declared /// terrifc/cried Henry // I want to go to the fnest
restaurant in our hometown /// the genie answered /your wish is
granted/and Henry disappeared /// and I/added Robert/I want to go
to my social club in our hometown /// your wish is granted too/said
the genie/and Robert disappeared as well /// and you/Bill/what is your
wish/the genie asked the last survivor /// er/I feel lonely now/answered
Bill sadly // I wish Robert and Henry were here

Here is the original passage, with punctuation.


One weekend, Robert, Bill, and Henry went on a fshing trip in Henry’s
small boat. Quite unexpectedly, a violent storm began, the giant waves
tossing their small boat about and smashing it into pieces. For three days,
they foated on a small raft with only some torn sheets, kitchen equipment,
and an oil lamp. They had no food or drink, and the raft gave them no
shelter from the burning sun or the driving rain. Finally in desperation,
Bill, remembering the story of Aladdin, rubbed the lamp. A genie appeared
in a puff of smoke.
“I will grant each of you one wish,” he declared.
“Terrifc!” cried Henry. “I want to go to the fnest restaurant in our
hometown.”
The genie answered, “Your wish is granted.” And Henry disappeared.
“And I,” added Robert, “I want to go to my social club in our
hometown.”
“Your wish is granted too,” said the genie, and Robert disappeared
as well.
“And you, Bill, what is your wish?” the genie asked the last survivor.
“Er . . . I feel lonely now,” answered Bill sadly. “I wish Robert and
Henry were here.”

88 ◆ Suprasegmentals
Worksheet

The following passage has been printed here without any punctuation.
However, it should be thought of as a script to be read aloud, as a teacher
might to a class, or a parent to a child, rather than as a written passage
to be punctuated. Where do you think the speaker should pause? Should
it be a long, medium, or short pause? Put:

/ for a short pause


// for a medium pause
/// for a long pause

one weekend Robert Bill and Henry went on a fishing trip in Henry’s
small boat quite unexpectedly a violent storm began the giant waves
tossing their small boat about and smashing it into pieces for three
days they floated on a small raft with only some torn sheets kitchen
equipment and an oil lamp they had no food or drink and the raft
gave them no shelter from the burning sun or the driving rain finally
in desperation Bill remembering the story of Aladdin rubbed the
lamp a genie appeared in a puff of smoke I will grant each of you
one wish he declared terrific cried Henry I want to go to the finest
restaurant in our hometown the genie answered your wish is granted
and Henry disappeared and I added Robert I want to go to my social
club in our hometown your wish is granted too said the genie and
Robert disappeared as well and you Bill what is your wish the genie
asked the last survivor er I feel lonely now answered Bill sadly I
wish Robert and Henry were here

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Let’s Eat Grandpa ◆ 89


Section C
Word Stress
C1
BRAzil, braZIL?

Pronunciation point: The correct placement of stress in multisyllable words


is important for recognition of the word, and must therefore be learned
when the word is learned. There is thus a large difference in pronuncia-
tion and perception between insight (INsight) and incite (inCITE) (where
the capital letters indicate the stressed syllable).
Minimum level: Two exercises are supplied here, both at elementary level.
Exercise type: A worksheet exercise, individually or in pairs. It can be
made into a race, seeing who fnishes frst.
Approximate time: 5 minutes (pre-teaching), 15 minutes (exercise), 5 min-
utes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Illustrate the stress placement in multisyllable
words by using words like register (stress on the frst syllable, thus REgister,
not reGISter or regisTER), computer (stress on the second syllable, thus
comPUter), and absentee (stress on the third syllable, thus absenTEE). Non-
verbal features can reinforce this, e.g. beats with the hands, facial expres-
sions such as nodding or raising the eyebrows on the stressed syllables.
Conducting the exercise: Distribute the worksheet (or show it on screen) and
instruct learners to move from the bottom of the diagram to the top, only
going through places with second syllable stress (“Susan”) and stress later
than the second syllable (“David”). You could perhaps start them off by asking
which is the frst place they go through (Brazil for Susan; Argentina for David).
Answers:

(“Susan”) Brazil—Jamaica—Peru—Japan—Nepal—Kuwait—Malaysia—
Bahamas—Morocco

◆ 93
(“David”) Argentina—Ethiopia—Mozambique—Indonesia—Madagascar—
Bangladesh—Venezuela—Senegal—Vietnam

Debriefng note: You could ask learners to say which syllable the stress is
on in all the place names.
These are the stressed syllables in the English pronunciation of the names
of these countries. This may differ from the way nationals of the countries
pronounce them, because of differences in the way stress is used in their
languages, etc. It may also be different from the way the words are pro-
nounced as names, e.g. the British linguist David Brazil, referred to in B3,
was DAvid BRAzil.
Create your own materials:

• Use a maze format.


• Decide on the pronunciation feature to be used.
• List some words that (i) are, and (ii) are not examples of that
feature.
• Plot the correct path through the maze, and write the exem-
plar words in those places. Then fll in the other places with the
distractors.

94 ◆ Word Stress
Worksheet

Where is Susan?

Susan loves traveling. However, she only wants to go to countries that


have stress on the second syllable (of the English pronunciation of the
country’s name). Starting at the bottom of the page, and only traveling
(forwards, backwards, or sideways) to countries that have stress on the
second syllable, where does she travel?

Ukraine Morocco Egypt Sweden Poland

Uruguay Bahamas Malaysia Kuwait

India Cuba Denmark Nicaragua Nepal

Mexico Jamaica Peru Japan

Russia Brazil Guatemala Fiji China

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

BRAzil, braZIL? ◆ 95
Worksheet

Where is David?

David loves traveling. However, he only wants to go to countries that do


not have stress on the first or second syllable (of the English pronuncia-
tion of the country’s name). That is, the primary stress is on the third or
later syllable. Starting at the bottom of the page, and only traveling
(forwards, backwards, or sideways) to countries that have stress on the
third or later syllable, where does he travel?

Canada Cameroon Portugal Vietnam Mauritius

Zimbabwe Uzbekistan Malawi Senegal

Germany Mozambique Indonesia Honduras Venezuela

Ethiopia Uganda Madagascar Bangladesh

Australia Argentina Switzerland Philippines Tahiti

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

96 ◆ Word Stress
C2
EDucation, eDUcation,
eduCAtion, educaTION?

Pronunciation point: It is important that speakers place the stress on the


right syllable in words that have many syllables because that is one of the
major cues that allow listeners to recognize the word being spoken.
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: A maze, to be completed individually
Approximate time: 15 minutes (exercise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Use a word that the learners are familiar with. It could
be a place name: Alabama or Nottinghamshire. Pronounce it in four different
ways: with the stress on the frst, second, third, and fourth syllables (Alabama,
aLAbama, alaBAma, alabaMA). Ask the learners which one sounds right.
Conducting the exercise: Distribute the worksheet. All the words have four
syllables. Learners start at the bottom left (education). If the stress is on the
frst syllable, they go south (downwards); on the second, north (upwards);
on the third, east (to the right); and on the fourth, west (to the left).
Debrief notes: The correct sequence is education (3rd), Filipino (3rd), psy-
chology (2nd), curriculum (2nd), bachelorette (4th), majority (2nd), Senegalese
(4th), Elizabeth (2nd), experiment (2nd), population (3rd), entertainment (3rd),
emergency (2nd), American (2nd), conversation (3rd), disadvantage (3rd), tele-
vision (1st), polytechnic (3rd), information (3rd), calculator (1st), agriculture
(1st), interviewee (4th), biodegrade (4th), ceremony (1st), alligator (1st), satisfac-
tion (3rd), Bangladeshi (3rd), architecture (1st), Alexander (3rd), championship
(1st), bureaucratic (3rd). The exit gate is thus #16.
Create your own materials: Websites contain lists of words with one, two,
three, four, etc. syllables. A maze-type puzzle can be easily created. At
lower levels, shorter words can be used.

◆ 97
Worksheet

All the words in the grid below contain four syllables. However, they may
be stressed on the first, second, third, or fourth syllable. Start at the bot-
tom left with the word education.

98 ◆ Word Stress
If the word is stressed:

• on the first syllable, move southwards ò


• on the second syllable, move northwards ñ
• on the third syllable, move eastwards ð
• on the fourth syllable, move westwards ï

At which gate (1–16) do you exit the grid?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
integrity generator conversation disadvantage television democratic relationship ecosystem 9
EDucation, eDUcation, eduCAtion, educaTION? ◆ 99

watermelon historical American intelligence polytechnic information calculator Argentina 10


population entertainment emergency disappointment responsible Penelope agriculture accessories 11
experiment avocado anatomy environment ceremony biodegrade interviewee biology 12
Elizabeth Senegalese inspiration photography alligator consequences Cinderella complicated 13
developer majority bachelorette mechanism satisfaction Bangladeshi architecture automatic 14
preposition discovery curriculum helicopter authority republican Alexander championship 15
education Filipino psychology macaroni independence caterpillar apostrophe bureaucratic 16

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.


C3
She Was Presented
With a Present

Pronunciation point: As we have seen, multisyllable words have strong


stress on one syllable and, vice versa, do not have strong stress on the
other syllables, in order for it to be clear which syllable is the stressed
one. The correct placement of stress is important for listeners to recognize
the word being pronounced.
There is a group of two-syllable words which may have stress on the frst
syllable if they are being used grammatically as nouns (or occasionally
adjectives), but on the second syllable if they are verbs.
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: In fact, a grammatical recognition exercise, to be completed
individually or in pairs. The pronunciation factor comes in the debrief.
Approximate time: 10 minutes (exercise), 15 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Use the common word present, as in the title of
this exercise. Illustrate that, when it is a noun, as in birthday present, the
stress is on the frst syllable (PREsent). Similarly, if it is an adjective, as in
the present day, it is also on the frst syllable. However, if it is a verb, as
in to present awards, the stress is on the second syllable (preSENT). Note
that the segments (especially the vowels) may change, and that the stressed
syllable is shown in transcription by a superscript ' : /'prezənt, prɪ'zent/.
Conducting the exercise: Recap the defnition of nouns and verbs with
the class. Many of the examples in this exercise involve infected forms
of the nouns or verbs (see the Debrief notes at the end of this exercise).
They may include adjectives that are infected forms of verbs, e.g. updated.
The learners decide whether the underlined words in the sentences are
nouns or verbs, and they circle the letter in the correct column. For example,

100 ◆
in Last year was the warmest winter on record, record is a noun, so the letter
S should be circled.
If they circle the correct letters, they form the sentence, “Stress the right
syllable.”
This is a grammatical exercise and should be fairly easy for learners who
understand grammatical categories. The real purpose of the exercise, how-
ever, is the difference in stress placement, which should be covered at
some length in the debrief.
Debrief notes: This exercise is in fact a grammatical exercise. From the
grammatical point of view, nouns can be identifed by

• having -s that makes them plural, e.g. insults


• having -‘s or -s’ for the singular or plural possessive, e.g. desert’s,
rebels’
• coming before, and modifying another noun, e.g. permit holder
• coming after an article, e.g. an extract
• coming after a preposition, e.g. on the subject

Verbs can be identifed by:

• having -(e)d that makes them


• the past tense, e.g. contracted (#9)
• a verb participle, e.g. projected (#14)
• a verb participle functioning as an adjective, e.g. updated (#6),
clearly from the verb update
• a verb participle functioning as an adjective, e.g. concerted (#20),
not so clearly from the formal, somewhat archaic verb concert
• having -ing, e.g. progressing
• coming after “infnitive to,” e.g. to convert
• coming after a noun or pronoun that is its subject, e.g. you digest

The important point is that, during the debrief, the teacher illustrates, and
gets the learners to pronounce, the stress patterns of the various words
and uses, clearly distinguishing frst- and second-syllable stress.
Create your own materials: Here are (admittedly less common) words that
behave the same way: abstract, compound, compress, confict, consort, contest,
contrast, convict, decrease, defect, detail, discharge, discount, escort, export, fre-
quent, implant, import, increase, insert, invite, misprint, perfect, perfume, present,
proceeds, produce, protest, refund, refuse, retard, rewrite, segment, survey, tor-
ment, transfer. Note that sometimes the meaning is somewhat different,
e.g. They refused to cooperate versus There was refuse on the streets.

She Was Presented With a Present ◆ 101


Also, not all pairs of noun/verb pairs behave this way. There is a word
formation process known as conversion, whereby words that are one
grammatical category (e.g. carpet, a noun as in We ftted new carpet) comes
to be used in a different grammatical category (e.g. a verb, as in We car-
peted the living room). Both have frst-syllable stress: CARpet.

102 ◆ Word Stress


Worksheet

Nouns are naming words for things, people, animals, places, character-
istics, and ideas. Verbs are doing words describing actions, states, or
occurrences.
Decide if the underlined words in these sentences are nouns or verbs—as
they are used in the sentences. If they are nouns, circle the letter in the
noun column, or in the verb column for a verb. Then the letters go
together to form a sentence.

# Sentence Noun Verb


1 Last year was the warmest winter on record. S T
2 This month’s sales are a 3% increase on last month’s. T H
3 I need to convert this file from html to Word. E R
4 He wrote a series of books on the subject of Buddhism. E U
5 Make sure you digest your lunch before playing football. P S
6 He installed the updated version of the software. I S
7 The rebels’ leader tried to take the president prisoner. T B
8 The university rejects a third of all applicants. O H
9 The child contracted the flu from his mother. D E
10 Car parking for permit holders only. R W
11 The building of the house is progressing according to schedule. N I
12 The teams were shouting insults at each other. G C
13 She read an extract from her latest book. H R
14 As the population ages, the cost of health care is projected to rise. F T
15 The goods were transported by sea. M S
16 Middlesbrough beating Manchester City was a major upset. Y C
17 It was a steep incline, and they soon started sweating. L A
18 The police suspected that he was lying. K L
19 The region will become drier and the desert’s size will increase. A E
20 All countries need to make a concerted effort to fight global warming. V B
21 Local residents objected to the proposed road. I L
22 She judged him by his conduct. E Y

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

She Was Presented With a Present ◆ 103


C4
Edinburgh, eDINburgh,
edinBURGH?

Pronunciation point: The correct placement of stress in multisyllable words


is important for recognition of the word, and must therefore be learned
when the word is learned.
This exercise uses British place names, although they are stressed the same
in both BrE and AmE.
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: An individual worksheet exercise. It can be made into a
race, seeing who fnishes frst.
Approximate time: 10 minutes (exercise), 5 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Do the frst road sign, as an example. nortHAMP-
ton has second-syllable stress, while AberDEEN has third-syllable.
Conducting the exercise: Distribute the worksheets (or show it on screen)
and instruct learners to identify places that have third-syllable stress, and
then follow the arrows and roads.
Answers: The correct route is AberDEEN, InverNESS, Bognor REgis, Wolver-
HAMPton, Milton KEYNES, Stoke-on-TRENT, John o‘ GROATS.
Here are all the 25 places, with their stress patterns.

104 ◆
1st syllable 2nd syllable 3rd syllable
Cambridge Armagh Aberdeen
Cardiff Northampton Bognor Regis
Edinburgh Northumberland Inverness
Gloucester Southampton John o‘ Groats
Hereford St Albans Milton Keynes
Lincoln St Leonards Stoke-on-Trent
Liverpool West Bromwich Wolverhampton
Norwich
Peterborough
Salisbury
Sunderland

Edinburgh, eDINburgh, edinBURGH? ◆ 105


Worksheet

Drive from the bottom of the page to the top, only going through places
that have stress on the third syllable.

Liverpool John o' Groats Peterborough

St Leonards Norwich

Southampton Stoke-on-Trent

Milton Keynes
Sunderland Edinburgh
Armagh

Wolverhampton St Albans

Lincoln Gloucester

Cardi€
Bognor Regis Northumberland
West Bromwich

Cambridge Salisbury

Inverness Hereford

Northampton

Aberdeen

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

106 ◆ Word Stress


C5
Letter from London

Pronunciation point: The correct placement of stress in multisyllable words


is important for recognition of the word, and must therefore be learned
when the word is learned.
This exercise uses U.S. state names, although they are stressed the same
in both AmE and BrE.
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: An individual worksheet exercise. It can be made into a
race, seeing who fnishes frst.
Approximate time: 10 minutes (exercise), 5 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Do the frst three states, as an example. Alabama
(3rd syllable), Alaska (2nd), Arkansas (1st). Pronounce them all possible
ways: Alabama, aLAbama, alaBAma, alabaMA. It is usually very clear to the
learners which one is correct.
Conducting the exercise: Distribute the worksheets (or show it on screen).
Tell the learners they are on holiday in London, and instruct them to post
their letters in the postboxes by writing the names of the states under the
postbox with the right stress pattern.
Answers: Here are all the 40 one-word states of the USA, with their stress
patterns.

◆ 107
1st syllable 2nd syllable 3rd or later syllable
Arkansas Alaska Alabama
Delaware Connecticut Arizona
Florida Hawaii California
Georgia Kentucky Colorado
Idaho Missouri Illinois
Iowa Montana Indiana
Kansas Nebraska Louisiana (4th)
Maine Nevada Massachusetts
Maryland Ohio Minnesota
Michigan Vermont Mississippi
Oregon Virginia Oklahoma
Texas Wisconsin Pennsylvania
Utah Wyoming Tennessee
Washington

You might want to cover all 40 of them.

108 ◆ Word Stress


Worksheet

Sort the following letters according to the stress pattern (on the 1st, 2nd,
or 3rd syllable) of the name of the state. Write the name of the state
under the correct mailbox.

Alabama Alaska Arkansas Arizona

California Colorado Florida Idaho

Kansas Kentucky Maryland Minnesota

Montana Nebraska Ohio Oklahoma

Oregon Pennsylvania Vermont Virginia

1st 2nd 3rd

____________________ ____________________ ____________________


____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Letter from London ◆ 109


Section D
Spelling and
Phonemic Symbols
D1
Eh, Bee, Sea, . . .

Pronunciation point: There is a difference—and sometimes a large difference—


between the names that are given to letters of the Roman alphabet used for
English, and the sounds that those letters typically represent. Confusion
between the two may lead to misspellings and mispronunciations.
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: An individual sorting game
Approximate time: 10 minutes (exercise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Ask the learners how letters of the alphabet are
named in their native language. (This requires an alphabetic system, so
cannot be used for Chinese, Japanese, etc.). Point out that in English, the
name of the letter may not be a reliable indication of the sound the letter
usually makes. With younger learners, you could teach them the “Alphabet
Song” (“Now I know my ABC”); many versions are available online, on
YouTube, etc.
Conducting the exercise: The learners say the names of the letters out loud.
They sort them into boxes according to the vowel sound the name
contains.

◆ 113
Debrief notes: The answers are:

/i:/ /e/ /eɪ/ /u:/ Others


B /bi:/ F /ef/ A /eɪ/ Q /kju:/ I /aɪ/
C /si:/ L /el/ H /eɪtʃ/ U /ju:/ O /əʊ ~ oʊ/
D /di:/ M /em/ J /dʒeɪ/ W /dʌbəl ju:/ R /ɑ:(r)/
E /i:/ N /en/ K /keɪ/ Y /waɪ/
G /dʒi:/ S /es/
P /pi:/ X /eks/
T /ti:/ Z /zed/ (BrE)
V /vi:/
Z /zi:/
(AmE)

Points to make:

• The name of the letter and the sound that it typically makes are
different things.
• The name of the letter and the sound that it typically makes are
not usually the same.
• The name of a letter may not be the most common sound that it
represents, e.g. G is not usually /dʒ/.
• The name of a letter may not even contain the sound that it typi-
cally makes, e.g. H, Q, R (for BrE), W, Y.
• The names of the letters of the Roman alphabet in English may
differ from their names in other languages (French, etc.).

114 ◆ Spelling and Phonemic Symbols


Worksheet

The letters of the Roman alphabet used for English (A, B, C, etc.) have
names. However, these names may not be a reliable indication of the
sounds the letters represent.
Take the 26 letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N,
O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. Sort them into the correct mailbox accord-
ing to the vowel sound their names contain. A and B are done for you.

/i:/ /e/ /e˜/ /u:/ Others


as in feed as in fed as in fade as in food

B …… A …… ……
…… …… …… …… ……
…… …… …… …… ……
…… …… …… …… ……
…… …… …… …… ……
…… …… …… …… ……
…… …… …… …… ……
…… …… …… …… ……

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Eh, Bee, Sea, . . . ◆ 115


D2
We Joined the Navy
to See the World

Pronunciation point: English has many homophones; that is, words that
are pronounced the same but spelled differently. This shows that the spell-
ing system of English is not very regular. Homophones do not occur, or
are much less common, in other languages.
Minimum level: Elementary (depending on vocabulary level)
Exercise type: A mistake-spotting exercise, to be completed individually
or in pairs
Approximate time: 10 minutes (exercise), 20 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Explain the concept of homophones. The some-
what cryptic title of this exercise comes from the 1936 Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers flm Follow the Fleet, and goes: “We joined the navy to see
the world. And what did we see? We saw the sea.” That is, the English
words see and sea are homophones.
Conducting the exercise: The passage contains a number of homophones;
that is, words that are pronounced the same as, but spelled differently
from, the intended words. Learners identify the misspellings and correct
them. Encourage the use of dictionaries (printed or online) for any words
the learners are not sure of.

116 ◆
Debrief notes: Here are the misspelled (homophone) words with the
intended words/spellings.

son: sun maze: maize bored: board


see: sea dear: deer suites: sweets
mourning: morning meet: meat stake: steak
serials: cereals sighed: side pi: pie
pairs: pears hair: hare byte: bite
plumbs: plums whine**: wine place: plaice
buries: berries would: wood friar: fryer (frier)****
currents: currants heir: air been: bean
bred: bread roles: rolls tee: tea
muscles: mussels leak: leek due: dew
chutes: shoots carat: carrot route*****: root
time: thyme tale: tail sheikhs: shakes
chilly: chilli* desert***: dessert biers: beers
hole: whole moose: mousse licker: liquor
fower: four doe: dough (or donuts)
* There are other possible spellings.
** A few accents distinguish these two.
*** Meaning “abandon.”
**** Frier is much less common alternative.
***** Provided it is pronounced to rhyme with boot.

You could go through the phonemic transcriptions of these words with


the learners. Since the words are homophones, there is only one transcrip-
tion for each pair.
Create your own materials: A comprehensive list of homophones in (Brit-
ish) English is given by Higgins (2018). Look through them, and think up
a scenario in which several of them may appear, e.g. food in a menu.
Create a passage or other document using the wrong spelling of the
intended homophone. Some ingenuity is required.

We Joined the Navy to See the World ◆ 117


Worksheet

Here is a hotel menu. Correct any words that are misspelled.

Son and See Hotel


Menu

Breakfast (Available Until 11 in the Mourning)


Choice of serials
Choice of fruits: pairs, plumbs, buries, currents, etc.
Choice of bred and jams

Lunch/Dinner
Thai red curry with muscles, cooked with bamboo chutes, time, and chilly
Hole prawns, tossed in flower and fried, with mushrooms and maze
Venison (dear) meet loaf, with a sighed salad
Jugged hair, cooked in red whine
Would-fired pizza
Heir-fried egg roles

Soups
Leak soup
Carat soup
Ox tale soup

Desert
Chocolate moose
Doe nuts
Cheese bored
See the display cabinet for more suites

Children’s Menu
Stake and kidney pi
Byte-sized chicken nuggets
Place and chips, cooked in the air friar
Cheese omelet with baked been salad

Drinks
Tee or coffee
Soft drinks (Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Due, route beer, Dr. Brown’s, etc.)
Milk sheikhs
Wines, biers
We do not serve hard licker
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

118 ◆ Spelling and Phonemic Symbols


D3
Around the World
in 20 Countries

Pronunciation point: The ability to recognize words given in phonemic


transcription is necessary in order to be able to use a dictionary to check
pronunciation. This exercise uses British English pronunciation.
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: An individual wordsearch, but using phonemic symbols
rather than spelling
Approximate time: 15 minutes (exercise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Ask students whether they are familiar with the
wordsearch format. Explain that this one uses the same rules (words can
be written in any direction) but with phonemic symbols rather than spell-
ing. In any case, one word (Singapore) has been highlighted to make things
clear.
Conducting the exercise: Distribute the worksheet (or show it on screen),
and tell students to fnd the names of 20 countries (including Singapore)
in the wordsearch. If you feel that, by giving them the capital cities, they
would not search the square so carefully, hide the capital cities until they
have had a few minutes to search. However, this is a pronunciation/
transcription exercise, not a geography exercise, so hints such as the capital
cities should be given sometime.

◆ 119
Answers

Beijing China tʃaɪnə


Berne Switzerland swɪtsələnd
Cairo Egypt i:dʒɪpt
Cardiff Wales weɪlz
Havana Cuba kju:bə
Kampala Uganda ju:gændə
Lima Peru pəru:
London England ɪŋglənd
Madrid Spain speɪn
Manila Philippines fɪlɪpi:nz
Mexico City Mexico meksɪkəʊ
Moscow Russia rʌʃə
Ottawa Canada kænədə
Panama City Panama pænəmɑ:
Reykjavik Iceland aɪslənd
Suva Fiji f:dʒi:
Taipei Taiwan taɪwɑ:n
Tehran Iran ɪrɑ:n
Vientiane Laos laʊs

Create your own: There are several websites that allow you to create your
own wordsearches. However, they work with words in regular English
spelling. In order to create a wordsearch in phonemic transcription:

• Decide what your words will be.


• Make sure you know how to transcribe them correctly.
• Devise a system for entering phonemic symbols that are not
Roman alphabet letters. For example, the Roman alphabet letters
c, q, x, and y are not used for English phonemic transcription, so
they can be substituted for phonemic symbols such as ʃ, ŋ, ə and ɔ.
• Use an online website to generate the wordsearch, for instance
Discovery Education (n.d.).

You may still be able to add a word or two to the generated wordsearch,
and generally tidy it up.

120 ◆ Spelling and Phonemic Symbols


Worksheet

Find the names of 20 countries in this wordsearch. The names have been
written in phonemic symbols. They may be horizontal, vertical or diagonal
in any direction. To start you off, Singapore has been highlighted in the
first row. If you are really stuck, the capital cities of the countries are
given underneath the puzzle as a clue.

æ s ɪ ŋ ə p ɔ: dʒ aɪ l
f w ŋ ɪ ʃ æ m s t m
i: ɪ g j ʌ n l aʊ s e
dʒ t l ɜ: r ə b u: j k
i: s ə ɪ n m ɪ f ɔ: s
dʒ ə n d p ɑ: r w p ɪ
ɪ l d tʃ ə i: ɑ: eɪ ə k
p ə aɪ s ʌ n n l r əʊ
t n ɑ: w aɪ t æ z u: p
ə d n æ g u: j k ɔɪ r

Capital Cities

Beijing Berne Cairo Cardiff Havana


Kampala Lima London Madrid Manila
Mexico City Moscow Ottawa Panama City Reykjavik
Suva Taipei Tehran Vientiane

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Around the World in 20 Countries ◆ 121


D4
D’you Know the
Capital of Alaska?

Pronunciation point: The ability to recognize words given in phonemic


transcription is necessary in order to be able to use a dictionary to check
pronunciation. This exercise uses American English pronunciation.
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: An individual wordsearch, but using phonemic symbols
rather than spelling
Approximate time: 15 minutes (exercise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Ask students whether they are familiar with the
wordsearch format. Explain that this one uses the same rules (words can
be written in any direction) but with phonemic symbols rather than spell-
ing. In any case, one word (Juneau) has been highlighted to make things
clear.
Conducting the exercise: Distribute the worksheet (or show it on screen),
and tell students to fnd the names of 20 US state capitals (including
Juneau) in the wordsearch. The title of this exercise is a well-known joke
in the USA, d’you know being pronounced the same as Juneau. If you feel
that, by giving them the states, they would not search the square so care-
fully, hide the states until they have had a few minutes to search. However,
this is a pronunciation/transcription exercise, not a geography exercise,
so hints such as the states should be given sometime.

122 ◆
Answers

State Capital Pronunciation


Alaska Juneau dʒuːnoʊ
Arizona Phoenix fːnɪks
Colorado Denver denvər
Delaware Dover doʊvər
Georgia Atlanta ætlæntə
Idaho Boise bɔɪsi
Kansas Topeka toʊpiːkə
Maryland Annapolis ənæpəlɪs
Michigan Lansing lænsɪŋ
Montana Helena helɪnə
New Hampshire Concord kɑːŋkɔːrd
New Mexico Santa Fe sæntə feɪ
New York Albany ɔːlbəni
North Carolina Raleigh rɑːli
North Dakota Bismarck bɪzmɑːrk
Ohio Columbus kəlʌmbəs
Oregon Salem seɪləm
South Dakota Pierre pɪr
Virginia Richmond rɪtʃmənd
Wyoming Cheyenne ʃaɪæn

Create your own: There are several websites that allow you to create your
own wordsearches. However, they work with words in regular English
spelling. In order to create a wordsearch in phonemic transcription:

• Decide what your words will be.


• Make sure you know how to transcribe them correctly.
• Devise a system for entering phonemic symbols that are not
Roman alphabet letters. For example, the Roman alphabet letters
c, q, x, and y are not used for English phonemic transcription, so
they can be substituted for phonemic symbols such as ʃ, ŋ, ə, and ɔ.
• Use an online website to generate the wordsearch, for instance
Discovery Education (n.d.).

You may still be able to add a word or two to the generated wordsearch,
and generally tidy it up.

D’you Know the Capital of Alaska? ◆ 123


Worksheet

Find the names of 20 US state capital cities in this wordsearch. The names
have been written in phonemic symbols. They may be horizontal, vertical
or diagonal in any direction. To start you off, Juneau, the capital of Alaska,
has been highlighted in the first row. If you are really stuck, the states
are given underneath the puzzle as a clue.

æ dʒ u: n oʊ m z r ŋ ɪ tʃ s
p ɔ: l b ə n i ə ɪ h g oʊ
v u: s i k ə l v s r ɪ p
eɪ d ɪ s r n ɑ: oʊ n k ɪ k
f n l ɔɪ ɑ: ɪ r d æ ə θ ɑ:
ə ə ə b m l æ e l l w ŋ
t m p s z e t n f ʌ h k
n tʃ æ t ɪ h l v i: m m ɔ:
æ ɪ n l b dʒ æ ə n b ə r
s r ə ʌ l tʃ n r ɪ ə l d
t oʊ p i: k ə t f k s eɪ u:
n æ aɪ ʃ ə t ə z s w s g

States

Alaska Idaho New Hampshire Ohio


Arizona Kansas New Mexico Oregon
Colorado Maryland New York South Dakota
Delaware Michigan North Carolina Virginia
Georgia Montana North Dakota Wyoming

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

124 ◆ Spelling and Phonemic Symbols


D5
Let Us Prey

Pronunciation point: English has many homophones; that is, words that
are pronounced the same but spelled differently. This shows that the spell-
ing system of English is not very regular. Homophones do not occur, or
are much less common, in other languages.
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: A matching game relying on memory (pelmanism), to be
played in groups
Approximate time: 30 minutes (exercise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Print out the 40 game cards below, preferably onto card rather
than paper, and cut them up into individual cards. Make as many sets as
you have groups of four or fve learners in the class. For instance, for a
class of 20, make four or fve sets. On some cards, there is more than one
transcription, for BrE and AmE pronunciations.
Introducing the exercise: Explain the concept of homophones.
Conducting the exercise:

• Divide the class into groups of four or fve.


• Give each group a set of cards, shuffed. Tell the learners to lay
them out into eight rows of fve cards, face down.
• Explain that the blank cards are the frst sentence, and the shaded cards
are the second sentence, that follows on from the frst to produce a joke.
• One by one, team members turn over two cards. If the two cards
are the two parts of a joke, they keep the cards. If not, they turn
them back over.
• The next member turns over two cards, and so on.
• The game continues until all the cards have been kept.

Debrief: Go through all 20 jokes, making sure the learners (i) understand the
joke (some of the vocabulary is a little diffcult), and (ii) can give the two pos-
sible spellings of the words given in phonemic transcription, i.e. homophones.
◆ 125
Game Cards

What do you call a Why did the Because he


piece of wood with /b':J:(r)d/. sheepdog fail his couldn't make a
nothing to do? driving test? /ju:/ turn.

What happens Where do you


when a frog's car It gets /toud ~ learn to greet /ha1/ school.
breaks down? taud/. people?

Why are Saturday Because all the


and Sunday the others are /wi:k/ What happens if It gives a little
strongest days of days. you sit on a grape? /warn/.
the week?

Why was the boy's Because his grades Why did the
school report card were all below /si:/ chicken cross the Because the referee
wet? level. football pitch? shouted "/faul/!"

Did you hear about


What fruit do /perz ~ peaz/. the vegetarian He only ate
socks prefer to eat? cannibal? /swi:dz/.

Why should you Because they are Why did the girl
not tell secrets to always spreading run away from the She was afraid of
peacocks? /teilz/. dark castle? the /nmt/.

Waiter: /j':J:(r)/ Customer: Thank Waiter: It's /bi:n/ Customer: What is


sweet, sir. you. You're cute, soup, sir. it now?
too.

The magician
didn't pull a rabbit It was a /her~ he;i/. Why are libraries Because they have
out of his hat. so tall? lots of /sb:nz/.

What did the fish Where do you


say when it hit a /d<£m/! learn to make ice At/sAnde1/
concrete wall? cream? school/.

What do lions say Why did the


before they go out Let us /pre,/. window go to see It was having
hunting for food? the doctor? /pemz/.

126 ♦ Spelling and Phonemic Symbols


D6
Never a Cross Word

Pronunciation point: The purpose of this exercise is to get learners think-


ing in terms of sounds, regardless of spellings. This crossword works in
both AmE and BrE, although the transcriptions used may be slightly dif-
ferent, as shown in the Answers section below.
Minimum level: Two crosswords are given, one at elementary level, and
the other at intermediate (because of the vocabulary level required)
Exercise type: A crossword, to be completed individually, in pairs, or
groups, depending on the learners
Approximate time: 15 minutes (exercise), 30 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner.
Also make sure the learners know the phonemic symbols. If necessary,
show a list on the board/screen.
Introducing the exercise: Confrm that the learners understand the concept
and rules of a crossword. They occur in most languages, even those that
do not use an alphabetic writing system.
Conducting the exercise: Distribute or show the blank crossword and clues.
Emphasize to the class that the answers use phonemic symbols, not letters in
spelling. So, learners need to concentrate on the sounds in the pronunciation.
Debrief notes:

Answers

Elementary
Across
1 think /θɪŋk/, 3 school /sku:l/, 5 ram /ræm/, 6 twin /twɪn/, 8 left
/left/, 10 globe /gloʊb ~ gləʊb/, 12 child /tʃaɪld/, 14 mean /mi:n/,
15 names /neɪmz/, 16 jump /dʒʌmp/.

◆ 127
Down
1 throat /θroʊt ~ θrəʊt/, 2 crown /kraʊn/, 3 smile /smaɪl/, 4 last
/læst ~ lɑ:st/, 7 wool /wʊl/, 9 fll /fɪl/, 10 green /gri:n/, 11 bombs
/bɑ:mz ~ bɒmz/, 12 change /tʃeɪndʒ/, 13 drop /drɑ:p ~ drɒp/.

Intermediate
Across
1 focus /foʊkəs ~ fəʊkəs/, 4 bumps /bʌmps/, 7 cable /keɪbəl/, 8 exam
/ɪgzæm/, 9 ink /ɪŋk/, 10 toning /təʊnɪŋ/, 12 season /si:zən/, 14
coasts /koʊsts ~ kəʊsts/, 17 insane /ɪnseɪn/, 20 its /ɪts/, 21 bull-
ock /bʊlək/, 22 canal /kənæl/, 23 beneath /bɪni:θ/, 24 passage
/pæsɪdʒ/

Down
1 fxed /fɪkst/, 2 cabin /kæbɪn/, 3 sailing /seɪlɪŋ/, 4 bricks /brɪks/,
5 mazes /meɪzɪz/, 6 salmon /sæmən/, 11 oboe /oʊboʊ ~ əʊbəʊ/,
13 away /əweɪ/, 14 kebab /kəbɑ:b ~ kəbæb/, 15 Ceylon /sɪlɑ:n ~
sɪlɒn/, 16 sixth /sɪksθ/, 17 escape /ɪskeɪp/, 18 saints /seɪnts/, 19
knowledge /nɑ:lɪdʒ ~ nɒlɪdʒ/

128 ◆ Spelling and Phonemic Symbols


Worksheet 1

This crossword follows the normal rules of crosswords, except that the
answers have to be written in phonemic symbols, not regular spelling.
So, you must concentrate on the pronunciation.

1 2 3 4

6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13

14

15 16

Across

1 “I don’t . . . John heard me.”


3 Where your teachers teach you.
5 A male sheep.
6 One of two babies born at the same time.
8 The opposite of right.
10 A 3D model of the Earth.
12 “She has no brothers or sisters. She is an only . . .”
14 “What does this word . . . ?”
15 Smith, Brown and Jones are common English family . . .
16 “Basketball players can . . . high.”

Down

1 The front part of your neck.


2 What a king or queen wears on their head.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Never a Cross Word ◆ 129


3 You . . . to show you are happy.
4 “I went to the cinema . . . night.”
7 The hair of a sheep that you can knit into a jumper.
9 “ . . . the saucepan with water, and boil it.”
10 “We bought red and . . . apples.”
11 Explosives dropped by an air force.
12 The Earth is getting warmer because of climate . . .
13 “Be careful! Don’t . . . the glasses.”
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

130 ◆ Spelling and Phonemic Symbols


Worksheet 2

This crossword follows the normal rules of crosswords, except that the
answers have to be written in phonemic symbols, not regular spelling.
So, you must concentrate on the pronunciation.

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8

10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19

20

21 22

23 24

Across

1 Move a camera lens to get a clear, sharp picture


4 Raised parts of a surface, e.g. a road
7 What you use to connect parts of your computer, e.g. CPU, monitor,
printer
8 “What mark did you get in your . . . ?”
9 Liquid, usually black, used for writing and printing
10 He is . . . his muscles by going to the gym every day
12 Summer is a . . .
14 The Atlantic and the Pacific are the two main . . . of the USA
17 The central city has . . . rental prices.
20 Belonging to something
21 An ox, a cow that cannot breed
22 A manmade waterway
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Never a Cross Word ◆ 131


23 Under
24 A short piece of writing or music that is part of a larger work

Down

1 Firmly fastened
2 A bedroom on a ship
3 If something is easy to do, it is plain . . . (idiom)
4 Lego sets consist mostly of . . .
5 Children’s games on paper, in which you try to draw a line through a
complicated set of lines without crossing them
6 An edible fish with pink flesh
11 A woodwind instrument in a classical western orchestra
13 “Go . . . and leave me alone!”
14 Turkish-style meat and vegetables cooked on a stick
15 The former name of Sri Lanka
16 June is the . . . month of the year
17 The prisoner made a daring . . .
18 George, Andrew, David, and Patrick are the patron . . . of England,
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
19 Information you have gained through learning or experience
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

132 ◆ Spelling and Phonemic Symbols


Section E
Vowels and Consonants
E1
Sounds in Common

Pronunciation point: In order to pronounce English words correctly, learners need


to be able to keep pronunciations and spellings separate, and not be misled by
the spellings. This exercise works in both AmE and BrE, although the pronuncia-
tions used may be slightly different, as shown in the Answers section below.
Minimum level: Two exercises are given, one at elementary level, and the
other at intermediate (because of the vocabulary assumed).
Exercise type: A pen-and-paper exercise involving pronouncing out loud
and thinking about sounds. It can be conducted individually or in pairs.
Approximate time: 15 minutes (exercise), 15 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Explain that the spelling system of English is
probably less regular than that of the learners’ own native languages.
Illustrate this by using a few simple homophones (e.g. hear, here) and
homographs (e.g. wind: “breeze,” “turn”) (see exercise D2); homophones
and homographs probably do not exist in the learners’ languages.
Conducting the exercise: The learners read the pairs of words, say them
out loud, and work out which sound each pair has in common. Perhaps
clarify this by working through the frst one or two.
Debrief notes: Emphasize that English spelling can be a misleading indica-
tor of the sounds in words. With more advanced learners, you could ask
them to transcribe the words.

Answers

# Words Sound in common Transcriptions


1 soup, true /u:/ /su:p, tru:/
2 chemist, bank /k/ /kemɪst, bæŋk/

◆ 135
# Words Sound in common Transcriptions
3 wished, better /t/ /wɪʃt, betə(r)/
4 fight, mine /aɪ/ /faɪt, maɪn/
5 gaming, hammer /m/ /geɪmɪŋ, hæmə(r)/
6 taxi, less /s/ /tæksi, les/
7 anyone, best /e/ /enɪwʌn, best/
8 parachute, English /ʃ/ /pærəʃu:t, ɪŋglɪʃ/
9 physics, rough /f/ /fɪzɪks, rʌf/
10 feather, wedding /e/ /feðə(r), wedɪŋ/
11 cheetah, helped /t/ /tʃi:tə, helpt/
12 become, young /ʌ/ /bɪkʌm, jʌŋ/
13 zoom, praise /z/ /zu:m, preɪz/
14 debt, brand /d/ /det, brænd/
15 machine, breathe /i:/ /məʃi:n, bri:ð/
16 guard, single /g/ /gɑ:(r)d, sɪŋgəl/
17 ceiling, grass /s/ /si:lɪŋ, græs ~ grɑ:s/
18 rhythm, stitch /ɪ/ /rɪðəm, stɪtʃ/
19 queen, southwest /w/ /kwi:n, saʊθwest/
20 Matthew, yourself /j/ /mæθju:, jɔ:(r)self/
1 piece, Beatles /i:/ /pi:s, bi:təlz/
2 design, cheese /z/ /dɪzaɪn, tʃi:z/
3 worth, squeeze /w/ /wɜ:(r)θ, skwi:z/
4 prove, juice /u:/ /pru:v, dʒu:s/
5 passion, cliché /ʃ/ /pæʃən, kli:ʃeɪ/
6 doubt, brushed /t/ /daʊt, brʌʃt/
7 many, threat /e/ /meni, θret/
8 lawless, proceed /s/ /lɔ:lɪs, prəsi:d /
9 rehearse, whose /h/ /rɪhɜ:(r)s, hu:z/
10 yacht, disuse /j/ /jɑ:t ~ jɒt, dɪsju:s/
11 bullet, unhook /ʊ/ /bʊlɪt, ʌnhʊk/
12 laughter, suffx /f/ /læftər ~ lɑ:ftə, sʌfɪks /
13 income, strong /ŋ/ /ɪŋkəm, strɔ:ŋ ~ strɒŋ/
14 business, hymn /ɪ/ /bɪznɪs, hɪm/
15 Judith, hedge /dʒ/ /dʒu:dɪθ, hedʒ/
16 kingdom, Gwyneth /ɪ/ /kɪŋdəm, gwɪnɪθ/
17 language, reservoir /w/ /læŋgwɪdʒ,
rezə(r)vwɑ:(r)/

136 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


# Words Sound in common Transcriptions
18 hated, break /eɪ/ /heɪtɪd, breɪk/
19 refex, once /s/ /ri:feks, wʌns/
20 police, grieving /i:/ /pəli:s, gri:vɪŋ/

Create your own materials: It is easy to create your own version, provided
you are fairly familiar with sounds and phonemic symbols. You can con-
centrate on sounds that your learners mix up.

Sounds in Common ◆ 137


Worksheet 1

In each pair of words, only one sound occurs in both words. Say the
words out loud, and work out the sound they share.

Words Sound in common (as a phonemic symbol)

1 soup, true
2 chemist, bank
3 wished, better
4 flight, mine
5 gaming, hammer
6 taxi, less
7 anyone, best
8 parachute, English
9 physics, rough
10 feather, wedding
11 cheetah, helped
12 become, young
13 zoom, praise
14 debt, brand
15 machine, breathe
16 guard, single
17 ceiling, grass
18 rhythm, stitch
19 queen, southwest
20 Matthew, yourself
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

138 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


Worksheet 2

In each pair of words, only one sound occurs in both words. Say the
words out loud, and work out the sound they share.

Words Sound in common (as a phonemic symbol)

1 piece, Beatles
2 design, cheese
3 worth, squeeze
4 prove, juice
5 passion, cliché
6 doubt, brushed
7 many, threat
8 lawless, proceed
9 rehearse, whose
10 yacht, disuse
11 bullet, unhook
12 laughter, suffix
13 income, strength
14 business, hymn
15 Judith, hedge
16 kingdom, Gwyneth
17 language, reservoir
18 hated, break
19 reflex, once
20 police, grieving

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Sounds in Common ◆ 139


E2
What’s the Diference?

Pronunciation point: Minimal pairs are pairs of words that differ only in
that one word has one sound where the other word has a different sound,
the rest remaining the same. Since we are talking about sounds, the spell-
ing is irrelevant. Learners should not be misled by the spelling.
Minimum level: Intermediate (because of the vocabulary level implied)
Exercise type: A pen-and-paper exercise requiring a lot of thought about
sounds. It can be conducted individually or in pairs.
Approximate time: 20 minutes (exercise), 15 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Introduce the concept of minimal pairs. Start
with simple pairs, e.g. bet, bat, where the spelling closely refects the pro-
nunciation, and the distinguishing sound is clear. Then progress to more
complex examples, e.g. sheet, chute, where the spelling is less of a clue.
Emphasize that minimal pairs relate to sounds, not to spelling.
Conducting the exercise: Go through the frst example (feel, Phil) with the
class. Point out that it is sounds that are important here. Some of the
examples relate to differences in vowel sounds, and some to consonants.
Encourage learners to say the words out loud. Then it should be more
obvious what difference there is in the pronunciation.

Answers

Words Different
sounds
1 feel, Phil /i:, ɪ/
2 debt, death /t, θ/

140 ◆
Words Different
sounds
3 Dan, done /æ, ʌ/
4 sue, zoo /s, z/
5 lentil, rental /l, r/
6 ballot, ballad /t, d/
7 look, Luke /ʊ, u:/
8 chateau, shadow /t, d/
9 ankle, uncle /æ, ʌ/
10 simple, symbol /p, b/
11 false, falls /s, z/
12 Max, mucks /æ, ʌ/
13 streaked, strict /i:, ɪ/
14 maternity, modernity /t, d/
15 candle, Kendal /æ, e/
16 taught, thought /t, θ/
17 hood, who’d /ʊ, u:/
18 precedent, president /s, z/
19 calorie, gallery /k, g/
20 salmon, summon /æ, ʌ/
21 anchor, anger /k, g/
22 Alice, alleys /s, z/
23 scheme, skim /i:, ɪ/
24 incite, inside /t, d/
25 rice, rise /s, z/
26 fanatic, phonetic /æ, e/
27 Mauritius, malicious /r, l/
28 cute, queued /t, d/
29 Caesar’s, scissors /i:, ɪ/
30 oppressed, abreast /p, b/

Debriefng note: All the example words used work regardless of whether
a BrE or AmE pronunciation is used. The pairs of sounds are ones that
are often not distinguished by learners. The mistakes that learners make
may refect (i) features of their pronunciation, and (ii) the fact that they
are misled by the spelling.

What’s the Difference? ◆ 141


You could spend some time discussing the spelling correspondences of
English sounds.
Create your own materials: This exercise has used somewhat advanced
words with potentially misleading spelling. For learners at lower levels,
use simpler, and less irregularly spelled, words. For minimal pairs for BrE
pronunciation, see Higgins (2017).

142 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


Worksheet

The following pairs of words may look fairly different in their spelling,
but in fact there is only one difference in their pronunciation. One word
has a sound, where the other word has a different sound. Identify those
sounds, by using their phonemic symbols.

Words Different sounds


1 feel, Phil /i:, ɪ/
2 debt, death
3 Dan, done
4 sue, zoo
5 lentil, rental
6 ballot, ballad
7 look, Luke
8 chateau, shadow
9 ankle, uncle
10 simple, symbol
11 false, falls
12 Max, mucks
13 streaked, strict
14 maternity, modernity
15 candle, Kendal
16 taught, thought
17 hood, who’d
18 precedent, president
19 calorie, gallery
20 salmon, summon
21 anchor, anger
22 Alice, alleys
23 scheme, skim
24 incite, inside
25 rice, rise
26 fanatic, phonetic
27 Mauritius, malicious
28 cute, queued
29 Caesar’s, scissors
30 oppressed, abreast

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

What’s the Difference? ◆ 143


E3
Allan or Ellen?

Pronunciation point: Learners cannot be expected to pronounce words


correctly if they do not know which sounds make up the words; that is,
what their target sounds are. Often, but not always, this can be deduced
from the spelling.
Minimum level: Two sample exercises are given, one at elementary level,
the other at intermediate level. The exercise is exactly the same (searching
for words that contain the /æ/ sound). The only difference is in the level
of vocabulary assumed.
Exercise type: A maze-type recognition exercise, best conducted individu-
ally. It can be made into a race, to see who fnishes frst.
Approximate time: 5 minutes (exercise), 20 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Recap the /æ/ sound, to make sure the learners
understand which vowel they are trying to identify.
Conducting the exercise: Learners identify, as quickly as possible, which
route through the web contains /æ/ words. It can be made into a race,
to see who fnishes frst.
Answers: The only route is:

(Elementary) bad, fash, pack, land, crash, bag, track, gas, drank, mad,
slapped, damp, Brad, Dad, pan, trapped.
(Intermediate) stamp, sacked, campus, bland, Sam, cattle, slam, badge, fan-
cies, ramp, access, fanfare, mallow, barrel, mansion, trapped.

Debriefng note: It may not be obvious, but the words were chosen because
they have minimal pairs with words with other sounds that /æ/ is often

144 ◆
confused with, namely /e/ and /ʌ/. Most /ɑ:/ examples involve a fol-
lowing /r/ in AmE; they have mostly been omitted here, although they
are minimal pairs (without the /r/) in BrE.

(Elementary) bad, bed, bud; fash, fesh, fush; pack, peck, puck; land, lend;
crash, crush; bag, beg, bug; track, trek, truck; gas, guess, Gus; drank, drunk;
mad, mud; slapped, slept; damp, dump; Brad, bread; Dad, dead, dud; pan,
pen, pun; Ellen, Allen; any, Annie; X, ax; bets, bats, butts; letter, latter; pet,
pat, putt; send, sand; palm, Pam; uncle, ankle; cup, cap; dumb, dam; drug,
drag, dreg; lump, lamp; puddle, paddle, pedal/peddle.
(Intermediate) bland, blend; Kendal, candle; cattle, kettle; phonetic,
fanatic; fancies, fences; neck, knack; melody, malady; mallow, mellow;
mansion, mention; access, excess; wreck, rack, ruck; sacked, sect, sucked;
celery, salary; barrel, Beryl; calm, cam, come; Sam, psalm, some/sum;
buggy, baggy; butter, better, batter; badge, budge; brush, brash; campus,
compass; sucks, sacks/sax, sex; fanfare, funfair; mutter, matter; ramp,
rump; salmon, summon; slam, slum; snug, snag; stamp, stump; thrush,
thrash, thresh.

You can therefore spend some time cementing the difference between these
vowels by practicing the pronunciation of these minimal pair words.
You can also elicit the spelling patterns of these vowel sounds. The fol-
lowing percentages, using BrE, come from Carney (1994).

• /æ/ is spelled a (virtually 100% of the time).


• /e/ is spelled e 84% of the time (e.g. ten), ea 6% (e.g. dead), and
various other spellings 9% (e.g. bury). There are only two words
where a = /e/: any and many.
• /ɑ:/ is spelled ar 60% (e.g. park) (and pronounced with an /r/
sound in AmE), a 34% (e.g. father), and other spellings 6%.
• /ʌ/ is spelled u 63% (e.g. mud), o 27% (e.g. ton), ou 8% (e.g. touch),
and others 2%.

Create your own: it is in fact quite simple to produce such a maze-type game.

1. Decide which vowel sound you want to concentrate on.


2. Work out which other vowel sounds your learners often confuse
this vowel sound with.
3. While you do not need to fnd minimal pairs in order to create this
maze, minimal pairs are very useful in the debrief when discussing
mistakes the learners have made. A very useful list of minimal pairs
in English is Higgins (2017). While his lists use BrE pronunciation as

Allan or Ellen? ◆ 145


the reference, most of the words apply in AmE as well; check this.
Make sure the words are at the right vocabulary level for the learners.
4. Use a format such as the spider’s web used here. Enter the target
words, making sure there is only one correct answer/route. Then
add the other, distractor words.

146 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


Worksheet 1

You are the spider. Make your way to the center of the web by passing
through only those words containing the /æ/ vowel (such as bad and
trapped /bæd, træpt/).

gas

track drank

bets

bag palm mad drug

crash cat Ellen slapped

lump land cup trapped uncle damp send

pack any pan Brad

le er fash Dad pet

puddle

bad dumb

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Allan or Ellen? ◆ 147


Worksheet 2

You are the spider. Make your way to the center of the web by passing
through only those words containing the /æ/ vowel (such as stamp and
trapped /stæmp, træpt/).

ramp

celery fancies

access

phonetic fanfare buggy badge

mallow mu er snug slam

thrush barrel mansion trapped calm ca le neck

Kendal bu er salmon Sam

melody sucks brush bland

wreck

stamp campus

sacked

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

148 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


E4
Do We Invite Yvonne?

Pronunciation point: Learners cannot be expected to pronounce words correctly


if they do not know which sounds make up the words; that is, what their target
sounds are. Often, but not always, this can be deduced from the spelling.
Minimum level: Intermediate
Exercise type: An individual exercise, checking whether names contain
the /ɪ/ vowel
Approximate time: 20 minutes (exercise), 5 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Illustrate the /ɪ/ sound, for example with the
word indistinct /ɪndɪstɪŋkt/.
Conducting the exercise: Learners identify which of the names contain
the /ɪ/ vowel.
Debrief notes: The following names do contain the /ɪ/ vowel: Bill, Chris, Crystal,
Cynthia, Dick, Dylan, Evelyn, Gwyneth, Jim, Liz, Lynn, Phyllis, Robyn, Sid, Tim, Yvonne.
This vowel is spelled with i 61% of the time (bit), y 20% (rhythm), and e
in unstressed syllables 16% (become). However, these letters may represent
other vowel sounds in English. Names that are examples of these various
spelling-sound correspondences are used in this exercise.
Many of these names form minimal pairs with other words with the /i:,
eɪ, e/ vowels, with which /ɪ/ is often confused, e.g. Lynn, lean, lane, Len;
Wayne, wean, win, when.
Create your own materials: This kind of sound recognition exercise is easy
to create. Determine the sound(s) that your learners fnd diffcult, or that
they confuse with other sounds. Then, perhaps using Higgins (2017), prepare
a list of words, some using the sound, and some using the confusable sounds.

◆ 149
Worksheet

You are holding a party, but only want to invite people whose names
contain the /ɪ/ vowel. Here is the total list of possible people. Which
ones will you invite, i.e. which ones’ names contain the /ɪ/ vowel?

Party invitation list

Invite? ✓ or ✗
 Bill  Guy  Pete
 Brian  Gwyneth  Phyllis
 Chris  Jane  Raymond
 Clive  Jim  Reg
 Crystal  Keith  Robyn
 Cynthia  Kendal  Ryan
 Dave  Kylie  Sid
 Diana  Liz  Tim
 Dick  Lynn  Tyrone
 Dylan  Michael  Wayne
 Evelyn  Neil  Wendy
 Fiona  Penny  Yvonne

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

150 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


E5
United or Untied?

Pronunciation point: Learners from certain countries have problems pro-


nouncing the /j/ sound of English. This may be because (i) it is not pro-
nounced in their native language, and (ii) it is not reliably represented by
any particular letters in English spelling.
Minimum level: Two exercises are given, at elementary and intermediate
level. The difference is in the vocabulary used.
Exercise type: A maze, best conducted individually
Approximate time: 10 minutes (exercise), 10 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Illustrate the /j/ sound, for example with the
word yes. Point out that, although it is often written with the letter y, and
people may think of it as “the y sound,” this is not a reliable clue (less
than one ffth of the time; Carney, 1994, p. 255).
Conducting the exercise: Learners identify, as quickly as possible, which route
through the maze contains /j/ words. They can move forwards or sideways,
not diagonally. It can be made into a race, to see who fnishes frst.
Debrief notes:
Answers

use, yoga, few, cute, Europe, value, yellow, unique, review, music, year, barbe-
cue, nephew, computer, amuse, onion, argue, your, unicorn
beauty, uniform, young, yogurt, uranium, usual, stimulate, mule, yesterday,
regular, volume, feud, ukulele, euthanasia, immunity, curious, canyon,
funeral, utopia

◆ 151
You might like to derive observations about the occurrence and spelling
of /j/:

• It is not spelled with the letter y often (4% in terms of separate


words, and 19% in terms of any text, i.e. taking into account how
frequent those words are; Carney, 1994, p. 255).
• The digraph ew is pronounced /ju:/ (but see below).
• It often occurs before the /u:/ vowel sound spelled with the let-
ter u. If the /u:/ vowel is spelled with oo, there is no /j/. This
gives us pairs like beauty/booty, feud/food, mute/moot (Carney, 1994,
p. 200).
• Words that begin with the u letter pronounced as /u:/ have the
/j/ too, e.g. united (but not untied).

Most AmE speakers do not have /j/ after /θ, t, d, n, s, z/, e.g. enthusiasm,
tube, steward, duty, introduce, new, revenue, pseudo, pursue, Zeus, presume.
The /j/ is pronounced in BrE in these contexts. There are no examples of
such words in this exercise.
Create your own materials: Like other exercises in this book, this is a maze
format that can be used for many pronunciation features—not just sound
recognition.

152 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


Worksheet 1

You are the mother T. Rex. Return to your nest by treading only in those
adjacent footprints (horizontally or vertically, not diagonally) where the
word contains the /j/ consonant, as in “You’re huge!” /jɔ:(r) hju:dʒ/.

jazz onion argue your unicorn

cool amuse ooze junk two joker

Jurassic computer nephew barbecue year music

noodles Japan cookie judo mood review

use yoga few cute judge unique

John oops Europe value yellow

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

United or Untied? ◆ 153


Worksheet 2

You are the mother T. Rex. Return to your nest by treading only in those
adjacent footprints (horizontally or vertically, not diagonally) where the
word contains the /j/ consonant, as in “You’re huge!” /jɔ:(r) hju:dʒ/.

ukulele euthanasia immunity curious Uber

feud jetlag Cooper canyon funeral utopia

volume regular yesterday jumbo goodbye jungle

January through mule stimulate usual moose

goose Jeremy chute jade uranium journalist

beauty uniform young yogurt oodles

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

154 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


E6
Happy Hour

Pronunciation point: Learners cannot be expected to pronounce words


correctly if they do not know which sounds make up the words; that is,
what their target sounds are. Often, but not always, this can be deduced
from the spelling.
Minimum level: Two sample exercises are given, one at elementary level,
the other at intermediate level. The exercise is exactly the same (searching
for words that contain the /h/ sound). The only difference is in the level
of vocabulary assumed.
Exercise type: A maze-type recognition exercise, best conducted
individually
Approximate time: 5 minutes (exercise), 20 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Recap the /h/ sound, to make sure the learners
understand which consonant sound they are trying to identify. This is
especially important for learners from languages like French and Spanish,
that do not have the /h/ sound. Emphasize that they are looking for the
/h/ sound, not the h letter; all the words in fact contain an h letter.
Conducting the exercise: Learners identify, as quickly as possible, which
route through the clouds contains /h/ words. They can move forwards
or sideways. It can be made into a race, to see who fnishes frst.
Answers: The only route is:
(Elementary) happy, half, hello, hedge, manhood, who, Harry, keyhole, height,
hotdog
(Intermediate) hippie, hostile, Hogwarts, rehearse, hybrid, whole, backhand,
hospital, loophole, handsome.

◆ 155
Debriefng note: Once the correct route has been found, get the learners
to pronounce all the /h/ words. You could also ask them how the other
words (without /h/) are pronounced. Eventually, you should arrive at
the rule that, in English, /h/ only occurs at the beginning of a syllable.
So, for example, two-syllable manhood is /mæn.hʊd/, where the “.” shows
the syllable division.
In terms of spelling correspondences:

• In a few words, it is spelled with wh: who, whom, whose, whole,


whooper, whore.
• Otherwise, it is reliably spelled with the letter h.
• However, vice versa, the letter h may often be silent: heir, honest,
honor, hour, oh, yeah, pharaoh.
• The letter h combines with several other letters to form digraphs
(two letters representing one sound): chest, phone, shirt, thirty,
wheel.

Create your own materials: Again, this is a maze format that can be used
for many pronunciation features—not just sound recognition.

156 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


Worksheet 1

You are flying the plane. Make your way to the airport by passing through
only those words containing the /h/ consonant sound (such as hug and
happy /hʌg, hæpi/).

fish what hotdog hand

rich keyhole height rhythm helmet

Harry vehicle stomach Deborah

dough who manhood hedge rhino

cheetah stomach honest hello

school rhyme ghost earth half

hour hug teach happy

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Happy Hour ◆ 157


Worksheet 2

You are flying the plane. Make your way to the airport by passing through
only those words containing the /h/ consonant sound (such as hug and
happy /hʌg, hæpi/).

chaos handsome ghastly Bangladesh

harvest exhibition loophole hospital exhaust

Helen Thomas machine backhand

thirty s itch hybrid hole rhapsody

Hog arts rehearse month monarch

hostile anthem gheo honorable ealthy

hippie heir Thailand such

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

158 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


E7
So, Do Go!

Pronunciation point: English spelling uses an alphabetic system, where the


letters (a, b, c, etc.) represent consonant and vowel sounds. However, the
English spelling system is probably the least consistent alphabetic system
of languages of the world. Learners may therefore come from languages
with much more regular letter-sound correspondences. That is, in their
languages’ spelling systems, x, y, z are pronounced /x, y, z/ regularly and,
vice versa, /x, y, z/ are spelled x, y, z regularly. They may therefore carry
over to English the expectation that words can be reliably pronounced from
their spellings. As this exercise shows, that is not the case.
Minimum level: Elementary
Exercise type: A pen-and-paper exercise involving pronouncing out loud
and thinking about sounds. It is best conducted individually, but can be
conducted in pairs, depending on the learners.
Approximate time: 15 minutes (exercise), 15 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: A fun way to introduce the fact that English
spelling is not a reliable indicator of pronunciation is to use the following
poem:

When the English tongue we And think of goose and yet with
speak, choose.
Why is break not rhymed with Think of comb, tomb, and
freak? bomb,
Will you tell me why it’s true Doll and roll or home and some.
We say sew but likewise few? Since pay is rhymed with say,
And the maker of the verse Why not paid with said I pray?

◆ 159
Cannot rhyme his horse with Think of blood, food, and
worse? good.
Beard is not the same as heard. Mould is not pronounced like could.
Cord is different from word. Wherefore done, but gone and lone—
Cow is cow but low is low. Is there any reason known?
Shoe is never rhymed with foe. To sum up all, it seems to me
Think of hose, dose, and lose Sound and letters don’t agree.

The origins of this poem are not conclusively known. It appeared in the
Simplifed Spelling Society newsletter of 1917, but may date back to the
Spectator magazine of 1902. See the English Spelling Society (n.d.) for this
and other example poems.
Conducting the exercise: Distribute or show the worksheet. Explain that
in each row, two of the words have the same-sounding ending (they
rhyme), while the third does not (it has a different vowel sound). Learners
should tick the odd one out.
Debrief notes: The odd ones out are whose, give, do, put, have, were, most,
pull, glove, bear, blood, quay, four, does, worm, pint, bury, height, canoe, laughter.
Notice that many of these are very common words of English; some of
the commonest words have irregular spellings.
Create your own materials: Carney (1994) lists the spelling-to-sound cor-
respondences of (British) English.

160 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


Worksheet

Each row below contains three words. Two of them have same-sounding
endings; that is, they rhyme. The third one has a different-sounding end-
ing, with a different vowel sound. Tick the odd one out.

1  rose  whose  nose

2  give  alive  five

3  so  go  do

4  put  cut  shut

5  wave  have  shave

6  mere  here  were

7  lost  most  cost

8  pull  gull  dull

9  stove  grove  glove

10  dear  clear  bear

11  blood  food  mood

12  stay  quay  play

13  pour  four  flour

14  does  goes  toes

15  storm  form  worm

16  mint  pint  hint

17  fury  jury  bury

18  height  weight  freight

19  toe  canoe  foe

20  laughter  daughter  slaughter

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

So, Do Go! ◆ 161


E8
Who? When? Where?

Pronunciation point: English has many silent letters; that is, letters in the
spelling that represent no sound in the pronunciation. This is often because
the sounds were pronounced in earlier versions of English, but while the
sound has disappeared, the letter remains.
Other languages have no—or far fewer—silent letters. In other words,
their spelling systems are more regular.
Minimum level: Intermediate (because of the vocabulary level)
Exercise type: A sound recognition exercise. It is best conducted individu-
ally, but can be conducted in pairs, depending on the learners.
Approximate time: 10 minutes (exercise), 15 minutes (debrief)
Preparation: Make one copy of the worksheet for each learner. Alterna-
tively, to save paper, either make the worksheet accessible in soft copy on
learners’ devices, or show the worksheet on a screen.
Introducing the exercise: Introduce the notion of silent letters in English
with common words such as bread, comb, sign, knife, damn, receipt, island,
listen, guard, answer, where the underlined letters are silent. In the exercise,
all the silent letters are in initial position in the word.
Conducting the exercise: Individually or in pairs, learners identify which
of the three words has a different beginning from the other two. For hour
and heir, the silent h represents no initial consonant (an empty onset); they
are thus homophones of our and air.
Debrief notes: The odd ones out are psalm, white, kite, Peugeot, gash, house,
who, perish, key, wing, hair, wolf.

162 ◆
All the silent letters in this exercise are in initial position. The following
lists are all the common words that, with their related words (who, whose,
whom, etc.), pattern like the examples in the exercise:

gnarl, gnash, gnat, gnaw, gnome


heir, honest, honor, hour
knack, knead, knee, kneel, knew, knickers, knife, knight, knitting, knob, knock,
knot, know, knuckle
pneumatic, pneumonia
psalm, pseudo, psyche, psychedelic, psychiatrist, psychic, psychology, psychosis
ptarmigan, pterodactyl
who, whole
wrack, wrap, wrath, wreath, wreck, wren, wrench, wrestling, wretched, wrig-
gle, wring, wrinkle, wrist, write, wrong

Create your own materials: Carney (1994) lists the spelling-to-sound cor-
respondences of (British) English.
The exercise can be extended by considering silent letters in non-initial
position. There are many websites of silent letters in English on the
internet.

Who? When? Where? ◆ 163


Worksheet

In each of the following sets of three words, tick the word that starts
with a different onset (consonant sound(s), or no consonants, before the
vowel sound) from the other two.

1  palm  psalm  Pam

2  white  write  rite

3  knight  night  kite

4  Peugeot  neurotic  pneumatic

5  gnash  Nash  gash

6  hour  house  our

7  who  when  where

8  pterodactyl  terrible  perish

9  key  knee  need

10  wring  wing  ring

11  air  heir  hair

12  whole  wolf  hole

* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

164 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


E9–15 Communicative Minimal Pair Work

All the following exercises have the same format. The difference is in the
sounds being contrasted. Whether you use the particular exercises given
here depends on the particular segmental pronunciation problems your
students have. If you have a class of fairly homogeneous students who
can distinguish, say, /r/ and /l/ easily, quite possibly because the pho-
nology of their native language distinguishes them, then that exercise
(E12) is not needed. In a class of mixed nationalities, some students will
have certain problems, while other students will have different ones. It is
therefore a good idea to mix nationalities in the pairings. It may be that
one learner who does make the distinction can coach the other learner,
who may fnd it diffcult.
Pronunciation point: See the individual exercises, where this is explained.
Minimum level: Elementary (although some vocabulary may need to be
introduced)
Exercise type: Pairwork production and perception exercises
Approximate time: This varies depending on the exercise. Some exercises
have more examples than others. Some exercises relate to sounds that
particular students may fnd very diffcult, while other students may
pronounce and hear them easily.
Preparation: Make one copy of the sentence worksheet and one copy of
the response worksheet for each learner. They could be printed back to
back, so that the learner can only read either the stimuli (on one side) or
the responses (on the other).
Introducing the exercise: See the individual exercises, where guidelines
for introducing the pronunciation differences are given.
Conducting the exercise:

• Divide the class into pairs. Mix the nationalities, if possible and
appropriate.
• Distribute the sentence and response worksheets.
• Explain that, for each item, one member of the pair (A) will be the
speaker, and the other (B) the listener. So, A should not look at the
response worksheet, and B should not look at the sentence work-
sheet. This forces the two members to listen carefully.
• A chooses either the frst or the second sentence, e.g. “Did the
shepherd take his pig?” and says it out loud to B. B listens care-
fully to what A says, and works out which of the two alternative
responses makes sense as a response to the stimulus, in this case,

Who? When? Where? ◆ 165


“Yes, and he sold it at market”—not “Yes, he chose the red tractor”
(which would follow “Did the shepherd take his pick?”).
• Provided A agrees that B’s response makes sense as a response
to the sentence, they go on to #2. If it is the wrong response, i.e. it
does not make sense, this could be because (i) the speaker did not
pronounce the sentence clearly enough, and/or (ii) the listener did
not listen carefully enough. A and B should work out the problem.
• In each set of sentences, A could take the role of the speaker in the
frst half of the items, and B in the second half.

Debrief notes: One of the beauties of this exercise is that it emphasizes to


the students that their classmates did not understand what they were
saying. This may come as a shock to the students. This may even happen
where the students are of the same nationality.
Create your own materials: It is not easy, but not impossible, to create
your own versions. The particular segmental pronunciation problems of
your students may not have been covered by the sample exercises given
here. To create items, (i) fnd out the minimal pairs distinguished by your
students’ pronunciation problems (Higgins, 2017 is a good place to start,
although it is for BrE pronunciation), (ii) create two identical sentences
except for the minimal pair, (iii) create two alternative responses, where
the frst response works for one of the sentences and not the other, and
vice versa.
Another variation would be not to allow the speaker to choose which
sentence to pronounce; you may fnd that speakers choose the one that
they know they can pronounce clearly. Instead, prepare a new sentence
worksheet with only one sentence each time, alternating randomly between
the two sounds; that is, for example, sentence 1 only contains the /r/
sentence, while sentence 2 only contains the /l/ sentence, and so on.
For the above reasons, these communicative pairwork exercises have an
advantage over conventional minimal pair exercises, which are often little
more than uncommunicative drills. A well-known saying in ELT circles
is, “A drill is a device for boring.”

166 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


E9
A Big Pig

Pronunciation point:
A major problem for some learners is distinguishing the so-called voiceless
plosives /p, t, k/ from the so-called voiced ones /b, d, g/.
They are “so-called” because voicing is not usually the clearest signal to
be focused on. Indeed, voiced plosives may often be virtually voiceless.
There are three clearer signals.
Firstly, in syllable-initial position, the voiceless ones are usually released
with a burst of voiceless air (aspiration), before the voicing for the follow-
ing vowel starts up. Thus, there is aspiration in pin, but not in bin. A piece
of paper or a feather held in front of the mouth makes this obvious.
Secondly, vowels preceding the voiceless set /p, t, k/ are shorter than
those preceding the voiced set /b, d, g/. They do not become different
vowels (e.g. long /i:/ does not become short /ɪ/), but are shorter versions.
So, the vowel in beat is shorter than that in bead.
Finally, the phenomenon of linking should not be forgotten. If your learn-
ers have a tendency to drop fnal plosives, put them in contexts where
the following word begins with a vowel sound, so that they can be linked,
and not dropped, e.g. swap it versus swab it. In such contexts, the differ-
ence between voiced and voiceless may be more obvious.
Stimuli 1–10 relate to initial plosives; 11–20 to fnal plosives; and 21–25 to
fnal plosives being dropped. Note that there are no examples of plosives
in the middle of words, especially between vowels, because in AmE the
voiceless /t/ is usually changed into the voiced /d/. Thus, Plato and
playdough may be identical. This is known as intervocalic voicing (making
something voiceless into voiced, between voiced vowels).

◆ 167
Worksheet

Sentences

1 Was the peach enjoyable?


Was the beach enjoyable?
2 How big is your class?
How big is your glass?
3 Where does this train go?
Where does this drain go?
4 Is it pouring?
It is boring?
5 Do you like tennis?
Do you like Dennis?
6 Did you see the coast?
Did you see the ghost?
7 How long was the pan?
How long was the ban?
8 Did you hear that Greek?
Did you hear that creak?
9 Did you try the blue sweater?
Did you dry the blue sweater?
10 What was next to the path?
What was next to the bath?
11 What’s that, on your back?
What’s that, on your bag?
12 What is that rope made of?
What is that robe made of?
13 Tell me where the boy hit the ball.
Tell me where the boy hid the ball.
14 Did you buy some tacks at the stationery shop?
Did you buy some tags at the stationery shop?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

168 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


15 Where did the taxi driver leave his cap?
Where did the taxi driver leave his cab?
16 Are the stripes on your car white?
Are the stripes on your car wide?
17 What’s that, in the muck over there?
What’s that, in the mug over there?
18 Did you buy those wooden clocks in Amsterdam?
Did you buy those wooden clogs in Amsterdam?
19 Why did the zookeeper examine the cup?
Why did the zookeeper examine the cub?
20 How should I write to my grandmother?
How should I ride to my grandmother?
21 What was in the picture?
What was in the pitcher?
22 Did you mix your late-night drink?
Did you miss your late-night drink?
23 My son has a problem with addiction.
My son has a problem with addition.
24 Why is the box so big?
Why is the boss so big?
25 Which section do the violinists belong to?
Which session do the violinists belong to?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

A Big Pig ◆ 169


Worksheet

Responses

1 It was delicious.
No. It was crowded.
2 Not too large: 100 cc.
Not too large: 16 students.
3 Manchester Central station.
The sewer.
4 No. I find it really interesting.
Yes. I’ve never seen such heavy rain.
5 No. I prefer badminton.
Yes. He’s a lovely man.
6 No. I don’t believe in them.
Yes. It’s very beautiful.
7 Fifteen inches.
Three years.
8 Yes, but I couldn’t understand him.
Yes. I think that floorboard is loose.
9 No. It really wasn’t wet.
Yes, but it didn’t fit me.
10 A soap dish.
A wire fence.
11 A tattoo.
A New Zealand badge.
12 Toweling.
Wire.
13 In his pocket.
Through the window.
14 Yes, and I pinned up all the notices.
Yes, and I tied them onto my luggage.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

170 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


15 Outside, with the engine running.
On the dining table.
16 No. They’re red.
No. They’re narrow.
17 Tea.
A pig.
18 Yes, but the cuckoo’s not working on this one.
Yes, but they’re very uncomfortable to wear.
19 Because it had broken its leg.
To see if the handle was chipped.
20 Take an Uber taxi.
Include some of our holiday photos.
21 Pepsi.
A landscape.
22 Yes, it was delicious.
Yes, I was thirsty later on.
23 Don’t worry, lots of kids are poor at arithmetic.
Oh dear, is he on drugs?
24 There’s a washing machine inside.
He eats too many business lunches.
25 The string section.
The afternoon session.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

A Big Pig ◆ 171


E10
I Sought; I Thought;
I Taught

Pronunciation point:
There are three main pairs of sounds that learners confuse with /θ, ð/:
/t, d/, /s, z/, /f, v/.
/θ, ð/ are dental fricatives. Dental means that the tongue sticks out between
the teeth, but not very far. This means that learners can easily see the
difference between /θ, ð/ (dental) and (i) /t, d, s, z/ (alveolar), where
the tongue does not stick out, and (ii) /f, v/ (labio-dental), where it is the
lower lip that moves, not the tongue. All this is clearly visible.
Fricative means that the tongue comes towards the upper teeth, without
touching them, but leaving a small gap through which air passes, creat-
ing a hissing sound. Since air escapes, the sound can be prolonged. This
distinguishes /θ, ð/ (fricatives) from /t, d/ (plosives), where there is
contact, and once the contact is released, the sound ends, i.e. they are
not prolongable.

172 ◆
Worksheet

Sentences

1 Why is your thigh so dirty?


Why is your tie so dirty?
2 This sum is giving me pain.
This thumb is giving me pain.
3 Boat trips to France are enjoyable.
Both trips to France are enjoyable.
4 We held a tense meeting.
We held a tenth meeting.
5 How did the general send his thanks?
How did the general send his tanks?
6 I have free tickets to the Taylor Swift concert.
I have three tickets to the Taylor Swift concert.
7 Why did you choose a new theme for the project?
Why did you choose a new team for the project?
8 Fate brought my husband and me together.
Faith brought my husband and me together.
9 Jane is really useful.
Jane is really youthful.
10 The teacher thought that Man was descended from the apes.
The teacher taught that Man was descended from the apes.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

I Sought; I Thought; I Taught ◆ 173


Worksheet

Responses

1 It was in my soup.
I’ve been playing football.
2 I hate arithmetic too.
Did you hit it with the hammer?
3 But I get seasick.
But I can only afford to go on one trip, not two.
4 Why? Did you not solve the problem in the first nine meetings?
Why? Was everyone nervous that the company would be sold?
5 Overland.
By fax.
6 Lucky you! They must be worth a lot of money.
Who are the two other people you’re going with?
7 Because the previous one couldn’t get along together.
Because the previous one had already been investigated.
8 You accidentally met him at a party, didn’t you?
You attended the same church, didn’t you?
9 Yes, she knows so much about IT.
Yes, how does she keep looking much younger than she really is?
10 But some biologists think otherwise.
But that’s not part of the syllabus!
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

174 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


E11
Take the Dose, Then Doze

Pronunciation point:
As for the plosives (see E9), the main difference between voiceless /s/
and voiced /z/ is not usually voicing.
Being the voiceless member of the pair, /s/ usually has more hiss (frica-
tion) than the voiced member, /z/. The same is true of /f, v; θ, ð; ʃ, ʒ/.
As we saw with the plosives, the voiceless member in fnal position short-
ens the preceding vowel. Thus, Bruce is shorter than brews. The same is
true of leaf, leave; teeth, teethe; Confucian, confusion. (In fact, there are very
few minimal pairs for /θ, ð; ʃ, ʒ/ and for initial /s, z/.)

◆ 175
Worksheet

Sentences

1 Where can I get some peace?


Where can I get some peas?
2 What did you think of the race?
What did you think of the rays?
3 Did you buy the sink?
Did you buy the zinc?
4 What’s above the ice?
What’s above the eyes?
5 I fell on my niece.
I fell on my knees.
6 Can you hear a bus?
Can you hear a buzz?
7 The price was too much.
The prize was too much.
8 What’s the problem with the precedent?
What’s the problem with the president?
9 What did the vet do with the deceased dog?
What did the vet do with the diseased dog?
10 Can you see the spice?
Can you see the spies?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

176 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


Worksheet

Responses

1 The supermarket is still open.


Try the library.
2 It was very fast.
They were very bright.
3 Yes. It’s stainless steel.
Yes, and I’ll fix it onto the roof tomorrow.
4 Eyebrows.
Fishermen’s huts.
5 Oh dear! Did you damage your kneecaps?
Oh dear! Is she all right?
6 Yes. I think one’s just round the corner.
Don’t worry. It’s just my smartphone vibrating.
7 Yes. Jackpot winners usually waste what they win.
Yes. You can buy it cheaper elsewhere.
8 Everyone will want to do it now.
He intends to resign.
9 He buried it.
He gave it an injection.
10 Of course not. They’re hiding.
Over there, in the rack.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Take the Dose, Then Doze ◆ 177


E12
Jerry Ate a Jelly

Pronunciation point: Learners from some native languages have problems


with these two sounds, because they are not distinct sounds in their language.
However, the distinction between the two can be important in English.
There are various points to note about these two English sounds:

• /r/ is probably the consonant sound with the most variation in


English. That is, it can be pronounced in various different ways.
• Rhoticity refers to whether the /r/ sound can occur in syllable-
fnal position, as in car park, or not. Accents of English that have
this are called rhotic (AmE, and others such as Scottish and Irish),
while those that do not are non-rhotic (the BrE accent used here,
and others such as Australian and New Zealand).
• On the other hand, /l/ has little variation in pronunciation and
occurrence.
• The main distinction in the pronunciation of /r/ and /l/ is that
for /l/ the tongue tip touches the roof of the mouth (alveolar
ridge), whereas in /r/ it does not (for most variations of /r/). This
is something that is easy to feel.
• Another, minor difference is that /r/ often has some lip-rounding,
while /l/ does not.
• One common feature of learner English (and of some native accents)
is for this tongue contact to be lost, or for the /l/ to be dropped alto-
gether. For example, all /ɔ:l/ becomes awe /ɔ:/. Sentence 10 (rolled
versus rowed) is an example of this (for both AmE and BrE).

Putting together the points above, examples 3, 6, and 7 in the exercise


(e.g. temper versus temple) give the following possibilities:

• For AmE classes, the distinction is between fnal /r/ and fnal /l/.
• For BrE classes, it is between fnal /l/ and no fnal consonant.

178 ◆
Worksheet

Sentences

1 What kind of sheep is a ram?


What kind of sheep is a lamb?
2 How do you spell the girl’s name Irene?
How do you spell the girl’s name Eileen?
3 Why did your mother go into a temper?
Why did your mother go into a temple?
4 Did you use a red battery?
Did you use a lead battery?
5 What happened after the pirate boarded the ship?
What happened after the pilot boarded the ship?
6 Why was the patient’s medical report stamped “Cancer”?
Why was the patient’s medical report stamped “Cancel”?
7 Do we need a litter bin?
Do we need a little bin?
8 What did the teacher do after she corrected the homework?
What did the teacher do after she collected the homework?
9 Is there a lot of royal support?
Is there a lot of loyal support?
10 What did the crew do after they rowed the boat to the shore?
What did the crew do after they rolled the boat to the shore?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Jerry Ate a Jelly ◆ 179


Worksheet

Responses

1 A young one.
An adult male.
2 I, R, E, N, E
E, I, L, E, E, N
3 Because my sister had taken her handbag.
Because she wanted to pray.
4 No, I used a lithium one.
No, I used a green one.
5 He killed the captain with his sword.
He guided it safely into port.
6 Because he had been sent home.
Because his lungs were infected with it.
7 Yes. There isn’t much rubbish.
Yes. There is a lot of rubbish.
8 She added up the total marks.
She corrected it.
9 Yes, our local football team always gets large crowds.
Yes, the Queen strongly approves of it.
10 They got out.
They got in.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

180 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


E13
Caesar’s Scissors

Pronunciation point:
This distinction ought to be easy for learners because it is exactly what it
says it is: the long vowels /i:, ɑ:/ are longer than the short vowels /ɪ, ʌ/.
In terms of the quality of the sounds, as determined by the position of
the tongue and lips, they are similar (but not identical).
There are three factors to consider:
Firstly, in many languages of the world, there is no clear distinction
between long vowels and short vowels, all vowels being a similar length.
Learners from these languages are therefore likely to need some readjust-
ment for English.
Secondly, there is another distinction in length in English between vowels
before voiceless consonants, and those before voiced consonants. We have
already alluded to this in E9 and E11. However, while the vowel in beat
is shorter than the vowel in bead, it is the same vowel sound (phoneme),
and thus the same symbol: /bi:t, bi:d/. It is simply a long or short version
(allophone) of the vowel (phoneme) /i:/. The vowel has not changed to
the short phoneme /ɪ/ as in bit or bid.
Finally, there are four long versus short vowel pairs in English:

• /i:, ɪ/: These are distinguished in all major varieties of English,


and there are plenty of minimal pairs. The frst exercise below
uses /i:, ɪ/ and can be used by all learners.
• /ɑ:, ʌ/: These are distinguished in all major varieties of English.
However, the /ɑ:/ vowel is very often followed by /r/ in AmE
and similar accents (known as rhotic): car park /kɑ: pɑ:k/ (BrE),
/kɑ:r pɑ:rk/ (AmE). As a result, there are very few minimal pairs,
because /ʌ/ is not similarly followed by /r/. An additional issue
is that what is pronounced with /ɑ:/ in BrE and similar accents is

◆ 181
often pronounced with /æ/ in AmE, e.g. grant, graph, pass /grænt,
græf, pæs/ (AmE), /grɑ:nt, grɑ:f, pɑ:s/ (BrE).
• /ɔ:, ɒ/: These are a long and short pair in BrE, and thus like the
above pairs. However, in AmE, /ɒ/ is often pronounced /ɑ:/, as
in lot, dodge, possible, quality /lɑ:t, dɑ:dʒ, pɑ:səbəl, kwɑ:ləti/.
• /u:, ʊ/: These are a long and short pair in AmE and BrE. How-
ever, some accents, notably Scottish, do not distinguish the two.
Also, there are very few minimal pairs.

In light of the above points, there is a full exercise below for /i:, ɪ/, which
any teacher can use. The exercise for /ɑ:, ʌ/ can only be used by non-AmE
teachers. There is also no exercise for /ɔ:, ɒ/ or /u:, ʊ/. However, if learn-
ers master the /i:, ɪ/ distinction, we can expect them to also master the
other distinctions since they are the same difference between long and
short vowel phonemes.

182 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


Worksheet 1

Sentences

1 Why did he sleep on the floor?


Why did he slip on the floor?
2 How long is a week?
How long is a wick?
3 If you eat that peel, it might make you sick.
If you eat that pill, it might make you sick.
4 I hear the boxer beat his opponent.
I hear the boxer bit his opponent.
5 When did Muhammad leave?
When did Muhammad live?
6 He’s preparing the peach.
He’s preparing the pitch.
7 What kind of feeling do you have?
What kind of filling do you have?
8 Were there many beads for the necklace?
Were there many bids for the necklace?
9 It was a terrible scene.
It was a terrible sin.
10 Did the high heels make her feet sore?
Did the high hills make her feet sore?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Caesar’s Scissors ◆ 183


Worksheet 1

Responses

1 It was soapy.
He found the bed uncomfortable.
2 Seven days, of course.
Usually an inch or two.
3 But my doctor gave it to me!
Nonsense! Oranges are good for you.
4 Yes, on the ear.
Yes, he won the title.
5 My friend Muhammad left five minutes ago.
Prophet Muhammad lived 570 to 632.
6 By mowing the grass?
By peeling it?
7 I’m disgusted.
My donut has strawberry inside.
8 Only one buyer was interested in it.
Not enough to complete it.
9 Yes. The traffic accident left two people dead.
Yes. He should go to prison.
10 Yes, she should wear lower ones.
Yes, she should climb lower ones.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

184 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


Worksheet 2

Sentences

1 What do you find in barns normally?


What do you find in buns normally?
2 Where did those tasks come from?
Where did those tusks come from?
3 If you calm down, we can discuss your problem.
If you come down, we can discuss your problem.
4 Why is that carp in the water?
Why is that cup in the water?
5 Who wrote this psalm?
Who wrote this sum?
6 There’s a new drama for the group.
There’s a new drummer for the group.
7 Why is the staff still here?
Why is the stuff still here?
8 I’m painting a picture of a park.
I’m painting a picture of a puck.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Caesar’s Scissors ◆ 185


Worksheet 2

Responses

1 Cattle.
Raisins.
2 They were imported illegally from Africa.
My English workbook.
3 Why can’t we discuss it up here?
I am not angry!
4 They’re trying to breed them.
It needs washing. It’s got lipstick on it.
5 The Prophet David.
My arithmetic teacher.
6 He’s very loud.
It’s a historical tragedy.
7 They are refusing to leave the office.
I haven’t thrown it out yet.
8 You’ll need lots of black, then.
You’ll need lots of green, then.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

186 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


E14
We Are Phonetics Fanatics

Pronunciation point:
The two vowels contrasted here are both short vowels. The difference is
in the tongue position, specifcally tongue height. The one of the pair that
typically causes problems is /æ/. For /æ/, the tongue is lower than for
/e/; that is, the mouth is wider open. Also, the lips are drawn wide apart
sideways.

◆ 187
Worksheet

Sentences

1 My cousin’s name is Ellen.


My cousin’s name is Allan.
2 There’s a band in the road.
There’s a bend in the road.
3 Why did he mark the tree with an X?
Why did he mark the tree with an axe?
4 My father is dead.
My father is “Dad.”
5 What is the price of that gem?
What is the price of that jam?
6 What was in the rack?
What was in the wreck?
7 How much is your celery?
How much is your salary?
8 Why did the cattle feel so hot?
Why did the kettle feel so hot?
9 Why was Jim paddling so hard?
Why was Jim pedaling so hard?
10 Which track did you like best?
Which trek did you like best?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

188 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


Worksheet

Responses

1 I know. I’ve met him.


I know. I’ve met her.
2 They’re playing a march.
Slow down—it’s a sharp U-shaped bend.
3 To indicate that it was to be preserved.
Because he couldn’t find a penknife.
4 I call mine “Papa.”
Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.
5 $5.
$5,000.
6 Toast.
Treasure.
7 $30,000.
$3.
8 Some of them had a fever.
It had just been boiled.
9 He was approaching a steep hill.
There was a strong current in the river.
10 The one by Taylor Swift.
The one in Nepal.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

We Are Phonetics Fanatics ◆ 189


E15
Pause, Then Pose for the
Camera

Pronunciation point:
Diphthongs are vowel sounds whose quality changes because the tongue
and/or lip position changes during the vowel. They are in contrast with
monophthongs, where the tongue and lips stay relatively stable, and the
vowel sounds the same throughout.
As a result, diphthongs are represented by two symbols in transcription
(e.g. /eɪ/ in pain), whereas monophthongs have only one symbol (e.g. /e/
in pen). Diphthongs are long, while monophthongs can be long or short.
There is a lot of variation in the diphthong/monophthong distinction—and
in vowel sounds generally—between accents of English. The vowels of
made and mode are very diphthongal (involving a lot of change) in Aus-
tralian accents, but largely monophthongal (with little movement) in Scot-
tish accents. Because non-rhotic BrE accents do not pronounce an /r/ in
here, where, poor, they have diphthongs instead: /hɪə, weə, pʊə/. For many
of these accents, the vowel of where is a long monophthong rather than a
diphthong.
For reasons like the aforementioned, it is diffcult to give exercises that
are widely applicable since it depends on the reference accent used for
pronunciation teaching.
The exercise below covers the monophthong-diphthong distinctions /e,
eɪ; ɔ:, əʊ ~ oʊ; ɒ ~ ɑ:, əʊ ~ oʊ/.

190 ◆
Worksheet

Sentences

1 Show me where the pen is.


Show me where the pain is.
2 Why is Henry so bald?
Why is Henry so bold?
3 My cousin’s name is John.
My cousin’s name is Joan.
4 Could I borrow the pepper please?
Could I borrow the paper please?
5 What did he do with the lawn?
What did he do with the loan?
6 How big are wells, usually?
How big are whales, usually?
7 Why do we need a new cot for the baby?
Why do we need a new coat for the baby?
8 What was Jane sawing?
What was Jane sewing?
9 When does he want to sell his boat?
When does he want to sail his boat?
10 Who is the famous Paul you met at the party?
Who is the famous Pole you met at the party?
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

Pause, Then Pose for the Camera ◆ 191


Worksheet

Responses

1 It’s here in my shoulder.


It’s here in my briefcase.
2 His whole family have little hair.
Yes. He’s never been afraid of taking risks.
3 I know. I’ve met her.
I know. I’ve met him.
4 Sure. The football results are on the back page.
Sure. And here’s the salt.
5 He put in a flower bed.
He bought himself a car.
6 At least 20 feet long.
At least 20 feet deep.
7 The old one’s too small. It barely covers his tummy.
The old one’s too small. He keeps banging his head against the
sides.
8 The trunk of the tree that blew over.
A dress for the new baby.
9 As often as possible.
As soon as possible because he needs the money.
10 I actually met Paul McCartney!
Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Munich.
* This page is photocopiable for classroom use only.

192 ◆ Vowels and Consonants


References

Abercrombie, D. (1967). Elements of general phonetics. Edinburgh


University Press.
Allo Allo Wiki (n.d.). Offcer Crabtree. alloallo.fandom.com/wiki/
Offcer_Crabtree
Bostrom, A. (2018). Good moaning France!: Offcer Crabtree’s Fronch phrose
berk. Waterside Press.
Bradford, B. (1988). Intonation in context. Cambridge University Press.
Brazil, D. (1997). The communicative value of intonation in English.
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Brazil, D., Coulthard, M. & Johns, C. (1980). Discourse intonation and
language teaching. Longman.
Brown, A. (2000). Priorities in pronunciation teaching: Responses from
Singaporean trainee teachers and international experts. In A.
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Association for Applied Linguistics.
Brown, A. (2014). Pronunciation and phonetics: A practical guide for English
language teachers. Routledge.
Carney, E. (1994). A survey of English spelling. Routledge.
Discovery Education (n.d.). Puzzlemaker. http://puzzlemaker.
discoveryeducation.com/WordSearchSetupForm.asp
English Spelling Society (n.d.). Poems showing the absurdities of English
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misc.pdf
Follow the Fleet (1936). RKO Radio Pictures.
Higgins, J. (2017). Minimal pairs for English RP. minimal- http://
minimal.marlodge.net/minimal.html
Higgins, J. (2018). English (RP) homophones. http://minimal.marlodge.
net/phone.html
Honikman, B. (1964). Articulatory settings. In D. Abercrombie, D. B. Fry,
P. A. D. MacCarthy, N. C. Scott & J. L. M. Trim (Eds.), In honour of
Daniel Jones (pp. 73–84). Longman. Also in A. Brown (Ed., 1991).
Teaching English pronunciation: A book of readings (pp. 276–297).
Routledge.
Hulme, J. (1981). Mörder Guss Reims. Clarkson N. Potter, Inc.
Laroy, C. (1995). Pronunciation. Oxford University Press.
Lexico (n.d.). Oxford dictionaries. www.lexico.com/defnition/rhubarb
Mr. Men, Little Miss. (2020). www.mrmen.com

◆ 193
Pickett, W. (2004). A believable accent: The phonology of the Pink
Panther. California Linguistic Notes, 29(1), 1–13. http://english.
fullerton.edu/publications/clnArchives/pdf/picket_pink.pdf
Planchenault, G. (2015). Voices in the media: Performing French linguistic
otherness. Bloomsbury Academic.
The Pink Panther (2006). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia Pictures.
The Pink Panther 2 (2009). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia Pictures,
Robert Simonds Company.
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976). Amjo Productions/United Artists.
van Rooten, L. D. (1967). Mots D’Heures: Gousses, Râmes. Viking Adult.
Wells, J. C. (2006). English intonation: An introduction. Cambridge
University Press.
Wikipedia (n.d.). Mr. Men. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Men

194 ◆ References

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