Warming up

 

5. Types of phonetic warming up

 

Warm-up activities, which are considered a valuable component of interactive classes, were included as interactive activities in the methodology. It is useful to begin each class with a warm-up activity. For example, students can be shown cartoons about English language teaching and asked to comment on them, or students can be given phonetic riddles or puzzles to solve. Other warm-up tasks included contests such as sound review games, cloze completions, and problem-solving tasks. We can define a number of types of phonetic warming up.

1. sound pronunciation

The task is divided into three parts: initial (comprised of words that begin with the same sound), final (with words that end with the same sound), and medial (containing words that share the same vowel sound). For each condition children listen as a series of four words are spoken. They asked to identify the ‘odd one out’ of the four words (the word that does not share a common sound component with the other three words). After that children are trying to pronounce “odd” sounds as clearly as they can.

One of the most difficult barriers to overcome in learning to speak English is clear pronunciation. Sounds such as "R," "L," "th," "V," and "Z" are especially difficult for English language learners. So it is useful to include these sounds in the task as often as possible.

2. Mouth Exercises

English pronunciation is difficult for many English language learners because English requires the use of oral muscles that some other languages do not use. Therefore, in the same way that it's important to warm up the voice before lesson, it's important to activate and strengthen the muscles of the mouth to pronounce English sounds correctly. Smiling, frowning, yawning, and laughing are all actions that stretch and work the muscles of the mouth. Children can mime various actions and emphasize exaggeration. For example, they can pretend to bite into a large apple and chew it up.

3. Tongue twisters and rhymes

Tongue twisters are useful for practicing specific target sounds, plus they're fun. Even native speakers practice with tongue twisters to improve their enunciation Tongue twisters are great to relax the palate, throat, lips and tongue, which are instrumental in the articulation of words and notes. Tongue twisters are useful for improving pronunciation as well, as students give proper exercise to the tongue and it can be twisted as they want. Many tongue-twisters use a combination of alliteration and rhyme. They have two or more sequences of sounds that require repositioning the tongue between syllables, then the same sounds are repeated in a different sequence.

4. Spelling

Having identified some problem areas for the class, the teacher makes a list of instructions containing these. Below is such a list.

Draw a sheep on the board. (Teacher can draw a ship if the word is mispronounced).

Write the letter "P" above the sheep. (Teacher can write " B").

Use the "P" as the start of the word "pleasant" and write the word (Children often pronounce the word "present ").

Draw a mouse next to the word "light". (Teacher often draw a mouth)

Draw a pear next to the mouse. (The word can be mispronounced as “a bear”)

Other examples can be added.

According to the theme of lesson, level of children and their interest, teacher can choose an appropriate type of warming up in order to practice the phonetic skills of students and create friendly atmosphere in the classroom.

 

 

2 PHONETIC SKILLS ACQUIRING THROUGH WARMING UP

2.1 Developing sound pronunciation

 

An important aim of the course - paper is to enable students to appreciate how native and non-native speakers of a language produce speech sounds under varying phonetic conditions, and to note how they relate to standard phonetic descriptions of English. It is vital for students to reduce their accent and improve their pronouncing skills. We offer different kinds of warm-up which serve the above-mentioned aim.

The purpose of this kind of warm up is to focus the students’  attention on the sound at the different parts of words. Modern English is exceptionally rich in homonymous words and word-forms. In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. Some of them have slightly differentiation in pronunciation, others have not. it is always useful for student to try and guess the meaning of a word according to its spelling. Thus we consider appropriate using homophones (which are allocated to the pure lexicology) as a part of teaching phonetics.

1. Many jams are made from ___.

a. buries

b. berries

2. Let's ___ the hatchet and be friends.

a. bury

b. berry

3. The children were brown as ___ after playing outside all summer.

a. buries

b. berries

4. A small forest is called a ___.

a. would

b. wood

5. I ___ do it if I got the chance.

a. would

b. wood

6. The family was in ___ after their son died.

a. morning

b. mourning

7. What are you going to ___ to the party?

a. wear

b. where

8. Could I have my ___ well done?

a. stake

b. steak

9. The ___ is very clean in the country.

a. air

b. heir

           10. I went ___ hunting in October.

a. dear

b. deer

For additional exercises see Appendix A.

During the first 10 minutes of the lesson it can be useful to offer students the following exercise. In this training, students select 5 words that are not related and don't rhyme. As an example we can take hat, book, beat, low, ride. At this point students want to find four words that rhyme with each of your words. Students may use a rhyming dictionary, or they could come up with their very own. In our opinion it is better to try on their own first to test rhyming skill of students. If they get stuck, then they will use the rhyming dictionary. Students can do whatever is easiest for them. So here are example rhyming words:

Hat: bat, rat, sat, and mat

Book: look, took, cook, and rook

Beat: heat, treat, eat, and meat

Low: mow, tow, bow, and row

Ride: hide, tide, guide, and fried

Now students need to take these words and make a verse for about a minute. They should apply each of these rhymes. What they are doing as they are practicing is memorizing these rhyming words. The more students practice with these words, the more they will be part their vocabulary luggage. Students will find that they don't need to think about them. They will naturally become part of their rhyming vocabulary.

It is better to practice this exercise several times each day. Each time that they practice they can add 5 new words. At the end of each day, if students practice 5 or 6 times a day, they are adding a lot of rhyming words to their vocabulary. [Appendix F]

It is impossible to teach students the whole phonetic alphabet at once, but it can be useful to look at one or two sounds in turn. Teacher asks the group to look up cup and put in their dictionaries and find the phonetic symbol for each of the vowel sounds. First the two sounds are practiced then the students are asked to find the other words on the worksheet and put them in the correct box. When they have finished, they say the words alternately from each box.

For example: cup – butter, tub, puzzle

put – bull, cushion, butcher, pull, pudding, full

One more short exercise for practicing vowels indicates the way sound quantity may have impact on meaning. For example: feet (ноги) — fit (вмещаться), steel (сталь) — still (все еще).

Exercise A: lead — lid, mill — meal, pill — peel, keel — kill, sit — seat

Exercise B: been — bean, did — deed, pit — peat,  fit — feet, it — eat, lid —  lead

Exercise С: bin — bean, meet — meat, see — seat — seed,  meal — seal — mean  pea — Pete — peat sea — see    meet bee — been — feet mean — lean — keen

This type of work is called “minimal pairs”.  These  are  pairs  of words/sentences  which differ  by only  one  sound. For additional exercises see Appendix E.

This work  sometimes  helps  students  to hear  - and  then  pronounce  - sounds that are  difficult for them.  Practice  of minimal pairs  may be conducted during the warming-up through  playing  the following games.

Card  games 

Teacher photocopies  and cuts out cards  of  minimal  pairs. These pairs may be invented by the teacher or taken from other recources.

Ear – air

The  ear  isn't  good. - The  air  isn't  good.

Beer – bear

It's  a sweet  beer. - lt's  a sweet  bear.

Pier – pear

That's  an  old  pier. - That's  an  old  pear.

Hear – hair

How  do  you spell  “hear”? - How  do  you spell  “hair”?

Teacher shuffles the cards and deals them  face down  to make a pile  of cards in  front of each  player.

Students take  turns  to quickly  turn  top  card face up and put  it on top  of a new pile in the middle of the table.  When  they see  two cards  together that are a minimal  pair, they quickly say 'Snap!' and put hand on the pile. Then they can add all those cards  to their pile.

They should collect as many cards as  they can in a  time limit,  e.g.  ten minutes.

“Fingers” 

For  each  pair,  teacher says words  rapidly at  random,  e.g.  sheep  sheep sheep  ship  ship  sheep  ship.  Students  show  with one  or two  fingers  if they  hear  sound  I or sound  2.  Students  practice  in pairs  and  then  back to back.

“Mingling”

Each  student  has  one  of  the minimal pair cards.  Students mingle (move  around  randomly),  not showing  their cards  but repeating  their word to find the others  with the same  sound.  They form a group, which checks correct membership.  The  first group  to complete  their  set  of words  with  the  same  sound  wins.  Students  swap cards  within  their  group  and  check  pronunciation  of new  words before  all mingling again  to find the person  in the other group with the other  half of  their minimal pair. Students  change  cards  with that person  and  check  each  other's  pronunciation.  Then  start  the mingling game  from  the beginning  so  both  sounds  are  used.

“The mask”

The  purpose  of  the mask  is twofold:

1. to allow  students  to listen  to and  practice  the minimal pair sounds first  in words  and  then  in sentences  without being  distracted  by  the written word
2. for extra  practice  of sounds  they  find difficult.

“Mask” means covering minimal pairs in order  not to see them thus practicing sounds.

Another way of practicing sounds is representing short funny dialogues, e.g.:

- Tell me about  your  Uncle Phil, Carol.

-Well,  he's  small. And he's  old and wrinkled  ... and he smiles  ... and he travels all  round  the world  with  his  twelve animals. And he sells beautiful  jewellery.

-What  a very unusual  uncle!

This dialogue serves as the example of practicing final  ll and  ll belore  a consonant.

Sound [l] is a  little different  when  it comes at the end of a word or before a consonant. To make this  [l] sound, one should move the back of the tongue up towards the roof of the mouth.

First students practice  this sound in words from  the dialogue. They should read  the words aloud.

[l] at  the end  of a word:

Bill  tell  I'll  Paul  fall  pull  small

[l] before  a consonant:

help  difficult  fault  spoilt  child  holding  salesman myself always

Syllabic  [l]  -  each  [l]  sound  is  a syllable:

little  uncle  careful  special  bicycle  sensible  beautiful gentleman

Tongue Twisters

Students work to improve their enunciation skills and to communicate effectively by pronouncing tongue-twisters. Later on they can write their own tongue twisters. Students practice effective communication skills by using proper enunciation, identify and correct errors when repeating several tongue twisters, have fun with language as they write tongue twisters.

It is necessary to explain that tongue twisters get their name because they are hard to pronounce. Tongue twisters are difficult to say quickly because they require one's mouth to move in different positions for each word.

We can take the famous tongue twister as an example.

Betty Botter's Better Batter

Betty Botter had some butter,

"But," she said, "this butter's bitter.

If I bake this bitter butter,

It would make my batter bitter.

But a bit of better butter,

That would make my batter better."

So she bought a bit of butter –

Better than her bitter butter –

And she baked it in her batter;

And the batter was not bitter.

So 'twas better Betty Botter

Bought a bit of better butter. [28]

This famous tongue twister is loaded with potential teaching opportunities. Not only is the obvious "b" sound used here (which can be used to emphasize the minimal pairs b/p), but tons of vowels sounds are used, as well.

It is usually useful to give the text of the tongue twister to the students before the class. This gives them an opportunity to read it over and become familiar with the text.

During class, students read the tongue twister once or twice aloud. Teacher doesn't make any corrections at this time. He points out anything that is particularly off or possibly a new term. In "Betty Botter," most students are not familiar with the contraction " 'twas."

Then students read line by line with teacher reading the line and the student repeating the line. They might do one or two lines at a time. It depends on how well the student is pronouncing everything.

This activity is good practice to achieve proper enunciation. The students should have fun with tongue twisters and improve their phonetic skills. For additional exercises see Appendix B.

This tongue twister activity can be used quarterly to assess individual student progress in proper enunciation.

Another type of this kind of work is developing pronunciation skills through set phrases, idioms, sayings and proverbs. For example, for practicing sound [au] the following set of proverbs and sayings can be used:

When in doubt, leave it out.

To make a mountain put of a molehill.

To be out and about.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Students should read these sentences, pay attention to the sounds, trying to articulate them properly, and try to memorize them.

One more kind of warming-up is called “steps”  due to its appearance and step-by-step character:

Bob

Bob’s dog

Bob’s dog got

Bob’s dog got a pot

Bob’s dog got a hot pot

Bob’s dog got a hot pot of porridge.

Bob’s dog got a hot pot of porridge and some chops.

The task is to read these sentences as quickly as possible. This warming-up allows work through such sounds as [b], [d], [g], [p].

The following game aims to developing students’  pronunciation of sounds in the context of a single word.

Teacher writes a word on the board or computer projection screen and students call out a word that begins with the last letter of the 1st word, then using the last letter of the 2nd word, call out a new word. This is the variant of the game Chain Spelling. For example: cat, tomato, open, nose, elephant, etc... Students try to pronounce correctly the first/last sound paying special attention to their surroundings. Then the teacher writes these words on the board, review the list with the students when they are finished.

For elementary age students teacher can start daily lesson plan with a verse of  some easy song. The first verse is at a slow / regular pace and the second verse, same as the first, students sing much faster, like a speed round, so children can see the sounds’  change in a rapid speech.

So, on the English Lesson, beginning-of-class warm up is a great way to start class and get students in an English-learning frame of mind.

 

2.2 Teaching correct pronunciation of words, with special attention to stress

 

A multi-syllable word has a prominent syllable. This is called a stressed syllable.

Stressed syllable is longer in duration, higher in pitch, and louder in volume [14, 30].

Duration is the primary attribute to the prominence of a syllable.

In English, multisyllabic words are most often stressed on one syllable only. There are exceptions like "blackboard" in which both syllables are stressed. Also, there are a few conventions. For most two-syllable nouns (approximately 90 percent), the stress is on the first syllable. For two-syllable verbs, the convention is (60 percent of the time) to stress the second syllable. However, in English, the stress can move on words that all come from the same basis. For instance, in photograph, photographer and photographic, the stress moves. Word-stress exercises can help students learn the rules. When a syllable is stressed, it is pronounced:

1. longer in duration
2. higher in pitch, and
3. louder in volume [1, 125]

The warming-up exercises can be devoted to the word stress training.

These exercises have a variety of forms. In one, a word is broken into syllables and the student must select the correct syllable to stress. In another, several words are provided as choices and the student might be directed to select the word that sounds different from the rest or might be asked which of the words does not rhyme.

 

two syllables design about          after

three syllables vanilla Canada graffiti

four syllables indifferent Arizona available

five syllables university cafeteria laboratory

Teachers can make up their own crosswords and mazes, putting them on paper to be handed out. In class, these can be done as assignments or, for fun, teacher can institute them as races where the first student to complete the crossword or maze correctly wins a small token prize. Teachers should be prepared to have several of these as handouts, as students will likely want a rematch to try again. To ensure other kids can win, perhaps winners should be excluded from following races.

As an additional assignment, it is useful to have a printout that comes from a passage in a book. The students should have room to mark the stresses on each word. For additional difficultly, teacher can add in lines from poems in which the stresses might be artificially altered.

In this test students mark the stressed syllable. Students should read aloud a lot to practice word stress.

photograph

• pho
• to
• graph