Last Thursday I taught what must have been one of my most successful "talk sessions" ever. For my students, a talk session is where a large group (up to 15 people) of a similar level get together to do just that: talk. I facilitate the conversation, I interject questions when things start to go dry, or I orchestrate games or debates. This week with a group of upper-intermediate to advanced students, I decided to take the talk to a new level and concentrate on pronunciation.
There is a great board game that I remembered playing back in America called "Mad Gabs". Basically you have a card with what looks like nonsense written on it and you have to read it out loud until you figure out what you are saying. To take a really simple example, "Bri Tinys Pears" would be, as you probably guessed, "Britney Spears".
My objective was to force the students to stop depending on the written words in front of their face and to open their ears. I wanted to put everybody on an equal playing field by getting everybody just outside of their "comfort zone" rather than having one or two students with more confidence guessing all of the answers.
The way I set the game up was by having students read phrases off of a paper that were written how they sound and not how they should be spelled. Words ran into each other -- "aryagona getta kupa kofy" -- to get them thinking about where we put liasons in speech. Depending on where the native English speaker is from liasons can happen almost anywhere so this is tricky, but making students aware is the first step.
After everybody had read a phrase and was sufficiently relaxed/prepared, we started the game. I made it into an individual competition rather than a team or partners exercise by having each student read a phrase and the first person to guess it correctly was awarded the point. It took a lot of coaxing -- "you are doing great, repeat it again please" -- to get them into it, but by the end of the hour we were all laughing and they truly couldn't get enough of it. I have already decided that I will try this tomorrow with a slightly lower level of students to test how it will go, and that this will be a game my higher level students will play again in the future.
Here are the "warm up" phrases that I had the students read:
Shwist Art Nao
Dywanna gedda koghy?
Eyve taleve
Ahye Gonaseim Biforee Gos?
Shizbin Promo Tidd
Shewiz Let
Didjego Winto Theofiz
And without further ado, the Mad Gabs printables that I found here:
Isle of View
Easel Aid Ease Man
Eye Pillow Fizz Sigh
Of Lions Quarrel
Downed Rink Hand Arrive
Dew Wino Hue
Sea Can’t Higher Dove Fit
Ape Hand Hub Hair
Pretty Shack Scent
Dant Sir
Ail huck each arm
Brit Knees Peers
Black Beer Herd
Bon Knee Ankle Hide
By Chore Dung
Abe An An Appeal
Abe Autumn Lisp Hit
Abe Ax Tree Tally
Abe Hum Pen Thin Height
Ago Tidy Yeah
Ahems Hand Which
Ace Date Tough Gay Hoss
Ace Heck Hunch Ants
Ace Kits Offer in Hick
Ace Leap Lesson Height
Ace Lie Soap Eye
Ace Nose Dorm
Ace Pea Ding Tea Kit
Ache Hand He Eye Pull
Ache Hick Kin Tub Hut
Ache How Cue Later
Ache Leans Hurt
Ache Off Cores
Ache Up Puck Off He
Acre Hill Uh
Age High Knees West Want
Aged Who Woe
Agree Nap Hull
Backed Ooze Queer Won
Bagged Who Thief Huge Her
Baldy Gull
Aid Are Crank Loud
Aid Arrive Her Slice Sins
Aid Hay Huff Ache Asian
Bee Way Rough Thud Hog
Bet Relate Thin Heifer
Aid Inn Hearse Owl Add
Aim Adder Rough Open Yen
Monk Ease
Can Grew
Cause Mid Ticks Urge Jury
Aim Hiker Owes Cope
Aim Honey Bag Care Runt He
Aim Other Ranch Howled
Aim Us Key To
Aim Who Vi
Stumped as to what they could be? Read them out loud as you'd have your students do until you find the answers! I'll post the answers next time so that you can test how you did.
This is only a selection of the phrases Wuzzles and Puzzles had available, so feel free to check out their site to get more. To make it more adapted to a particular group you could even go as far as to make your own with key expressions and vocabulary words for their jobs/needs. I could have included something like "Gew Gull Anna Lit Tics" for my favorite web analyst, for example.
Thinking about giving it a try? Print off the list, cut them apart and let the games begin.
How do you practice pronunciation and listening with your students?
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