Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Alyallen]

Hello all,

I started a new warm up for my 5th and 6th grade classes. I go over one sentence each class that contains some words or sounds that they have a problem with.

For example, today I taught them this sentence.

The zoo is big.

So the idea is to get them to work on the "th-", "z" and "b" sounds. But I am wondering if someone has a better or more effective approach. Some students seem more aware of those sounds and take the time to pronounce them properly but I'm not sure if I am really helping or hindering their progress.

Here's a list of sentences or words I have or will use

I�ve been to France.
The zoo is big.
The pig is very big.
The Jeonju zoo is full of people.
The lion is roaring.
The king is gigantic.
David
This and that.
David thinks the theory is dumb.
The Jeonju zoo
Elizabeth
Matthew
Alyson
Bob

Thanks!

[passport220]

Sorry, nothing for the specific sounds you are looking for, but I use "The Little Plant" from this page for warm up: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems22.html

I posted the whole page as some of the other poems are useful as well.

[tomato]

Hello, Alyallen!

You have a good idea.
My only suggestion is to deal with one phoneme at a time.
I once had a student whose English name was Cathy but the other students called her Cassy.

So I made a picture book using a photograph of Cathy and pictures which I got from a Google search.
It went something like:

Cathy has three things.
What are those things?
Those things are thimbles.

Cathy . . . thumbtacks.

Cathy . . . thermometers.

Cathy thinks.
What does Cathy think about?
Cathy thinks about three thimbles.

Cathy . . . thumbtacks.

Cathy . . . thermometers.

Thank you, Cathy.

Cathy objected, so I replaced her picture with a picture of a girl named Thelma.

[kimchi story]

[cranura]

Wonderful. I also deal with enunciation with short sentences with similar sounding words; for example, "I gave the litter of little puppies a liter of milk." It could also fall under the category of 'tongue twisters' -- but so be it!

[tomato]

Try reading the class a story which has lots of plural nouns.
Give one child a letter S, another child a letter Z, and another child an E and an S.
When you read the story, point to the appropriate child whenever you come to a plural noun.
Then read the story again, seeing if they can hold up the letters without your pointing.

Or try reading a story which has lots of past tense verbs.
This time, give one child a D, another child a T, and another child an E and a D.

If you use this idea with the younger kids, they will throw their hands in the air and yell, "저요! 저요!"

[wings]

With little kids I like to do a lot of silly nonsense sounds to practice pronounciation and then apply that practice to words.

I have big cards with nonsense sounds and real words repeated eg:

Big big big big
boo boo boo boo
ble ble ble ble
Big brown bears

I get them to stand and say this in a variety of ways, quietly, almost yelling, getting louder, getting quieter, whisper (not good for voiced sounds as they loose their voicing)

Before you get them to practice making the sounds make sure they can pick out the difference, or else your efforts will largely be in vain.

[cbclark4]

Try the Pairs:

pink pound Plower put pool
fink found Flower foot fool



First run the through and practice each word tell the students to be careful and listen for the sounds. Exaggerate the 'f' sound, show your teeth and the way the sounds are different. Explain how the air is generated before the sound in the 'f' and after the pop in the 'p'.

There is a site where the have a animation of the sound.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html

Use the fly swatter game. I think I got that from DD.

Two Fly Swatters (Pa Li Cha) (2 for buck at the dollar store)
Flash cards with words above.
Write the words on the chalkboard or whiteboard.

Two teams, divide the room in half.

Choose one player from each team. They can only look at the board.

You raise each card the rest of the students say the words. Hopefully pronouncing correctly. The contestants swat the correct word. You score points against the one that gets it wrong, low score wins. (Minus points)Take the opportunity to correct the group on pronunciation. It's a team, you have to pronounce correctly so your teammate can hear correctly. This game runs about a half an hour giving each set of contestants 2 minutes.

I've been looking for other pairs to use. I need the 'th' vs 'f'. I've made them do the Larry and Laura drills from the text book, they like that for some reason. Sometimes I just do a spot drill of Larry and Laura.

Thirty three is another drill, thirty, thirteen, three, thirty three, thirteen, different combinations.

cbc

[kimchi story]

Darn cbclark, that's a wicked good site. I was checking it out and randomly clicked on the linguapalatal fricative, then pressed play. The office is quiet except for a teacher across the room talking to the vice principal and as he finished an audible 'sshhhh' came from my computer. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a teacher at a desk behind me turn around and stare my way for a minute.

I'm kinda gunghover after drinks with the vice principal last night so I just smiled and carried on.

[EFLtrainer]

OP, you may want to start your work with each sound - even each lesson to focus and warm up - with minimal pairs.

jam/sam
bit/bet

par/far

zit/bit

It can be hard to think of pairs for some sounds, but it's helpful if you can find them.

Your list/sentences is/are too generalized/attacking too many sounds at one time for initial teaching or practice, I think. Senences working on one sound would be better for the early part of the lesson.

That's Thomas? Thanks!
That's Thomas with those math book? Thanks!

As a practice after working on the specific sounds, you might use the sentences in your list, or as a test/quiz or for assessment.

my 2c.

[cwemory]

I give the students a handout with the numbers 0-9 assigned to similar-sounding words featuring the sounds we are learning. For example, if we are learning r and l, 0-long, 1-wrong, 1-light, 3-right, 4-pilot, 5-pirate, 6-fly, 7-fry, 8-glass, 9-grass.
The students, in small groups, ask and give each other their phone numbers to each other. Except that instead of saying numbers, the student gives the words that correspond to the number. The students listening change the words into numbers. for example if a students number is 010-3495-5500, he would say grass-long-grass-light-right-glass-pilot-pilot-pilot-grass-grass. The students listening would write 010-3495-5500. It helps force the students to pronounce the words clearly and listen carefully.