Research studies have showed the advantages of using L1 as a bridge to learn L2. Bilingual teaching accelerate language vocabulary and diminish language attrition. Jean, USA Speaking from my own experience as a student where my teachers seemed more interested in practicing or showing off their knowledge of my L1, my recommendation is to use it only as a last resort with beginning students and very quickly wean off. My listening skills in L2 were greatly stinted by such teachers - anxious to quickly translate their instructions or explanations into my L1, not giving me time to think through and figure it out in L2.
Here are my favorite minimal pairs activities. Hand all the pieces of paper out to your students. Now read words from your list of minimal pair words. This activity is active listening and perception.
As a teacher, you get good feedback. You can make sure every student is participating, and you can easily see which students are catching on.
If a student is hesitating and looking around before putting their pieces of paper up, you know they need a little bit more practice. The goal is for every student to hold up the correct piece of paper as quickly as possible. Pronunciation Journey Pronunciation Journey is a game that almost every one of my pronunciation classes has loved.
This page has the instructions and worksheet needed to play it. You might want to make some modifications to the worksheet. You can either create your own in Word or otherwise modify the pdf your computer.
What I usually do is simple: Then you have a journey worksheet that can be used for any list of minimal pairs, rather than just the Esl class on the page.
To help yourself as a teacher, you can make up a list of different word combinations taken from your minimal pair lists that lead to different cities. If you get a good list together, you can give it to a student and have them call the words and lead the class.
I really encourage pronunciation teachers to try this game out. It can take 2 minutes or 20 with different minimal pairs, different callers, etc. I use it several times throughout the semester when I teach pronunciation and students never get bored of it.
Choral Repetition Once your students have practiced enough passive perception, they can move on to some controlled production. Choral repetition is a super common way of teaching pronunciation: The teacher says a word, and everyone in class repeats it.
The Pronunciation Pairs textbook has great minimal pairs with corresponding pictures so students can look at their book as they read, connecting the visual, sound, and writing.
You could also have a Ship or Sheep webpage up on an overhead connected to the computer — same idea. Smartphones Depending on the demographics of your class, many of your students might have smartphones.
You can utilize them to practice minimal pairs. Siri is the most famous. Cortana, Google Now, and Amazon Echo are some others. Basically, they listen to what you tell them and follow your command. Although, of course, your command has to be pronounced correctly to get the right action from them.
Then tell your students to say the same two sentences to Siri and see if they get the same pictures.
As we all know, technology is never foolproof. Abstract ideas and most verbs will not yield good image results. Strange, but it works. Make sure to try out the words you plan on using with your class before you give them out.
Unlike a game like Pronunciation Journey, where you need a lot of different words to keep the game fresh, you only need a few minimal pairs for Siri because your students will practice again and again until they get the pronunciation right.
Pair Sentence Reading Another great way to practice production with minimal pairs is with pair sentence reading.Free English Classes. English Classes | Information Sessions | Drop-in English Conversation Classes. English Classes. The New York Public Library helps adult students improve their communication skills in English.
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Research studies have showed the advantages of using L1 as a bridge to learn L2.
Bilingual teaching accelerate language vocabulary and diminish language attrition. ESL ashio-midori.com's free English classes: study 45 free online ESL classes Each free English class helps you study English grammar or vocabulary in use.
After you study an online English class, go to the English practice message boards where you can practice using the English grammar and vocabulary by communicating with English students around the world.