How would you use the

phonemic chart in class?

Case study
 LEGAL
FRAMEWORK

ANY OTHER
CURRICULUM
LOMCE REGULATIONS
ACT
AND PROJECTS

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Learner-centred approach

Adrian Underhill, Jeremy Harmer, Halliwell… who claim the

importance of pronunciation in the FLT. The chartprovides a
standard from which to teach and learn pronunciation.
 WHY a phonemic
chart?
A fast and
It provides a
effective tool
standard from
For for teaching
which to To better use
autonomous pronunciation
teach and dictionaries*
learning and for
learn
correcting
pronunciation
errors
 PREMISES

Not teaching symbols;

Instruct learners on the Take pronunciation out of the
students will learn them
phonemic chart in a ludic head and into the body: a
physical activity.
though: we’ll use symbols
way. as reminders of the sounds.

Still, we can
have a sound
syllabus.

We need them
all right from
the beginning.
GET THE CHART
INTO
CIRCULATION
ONCE STUDENTS
HAVE BEEN
INSTRUCTED
 • It help learners
Approach of understand how
awareness the sounds are
made physically
 If the students
confuse two
similar sounds, it
is obviously
useful to
contrast them so
that students
Say the sound in can hear the
isolation so that differences
students can Say the sound clearly. (minimal
focus on it. within a word. pairs)

Describe how Make the

the sound is students repeat
articulated. the sound in
chorus and
individually.
 Use mime The teacher
A physical A visible (mouth) and repeats
GIVING activity (find approach to gestures (with The teacher several times
MODELS where the pronunciation hands) to says the sound and so do
muscles are) (deaf) make sounds students
visible (drilling)
• /i:/
– Mime
– Gesture
– Fingers in front of lips (what do we notice against our fingers?)
– Thumb and forefinger in the corners of our mouth (what
happens to the fingers?)
– Say /i:/ and put finger on the tip of our tongue and without
losing touch, say /i:/-/u:/ (what happens to our tongue?)
• /u:/
– Mime
– Gesture
– Fingers in front of lips
 /h/ as if
/z/ a buzzing
panting after
bee
a race
/ɘ/ same as
above but /r/ a puppy
shorter (not pulling a rag
so idiot!)

/m/ rub
/ɜ:/ look like
tummy,
an idiot (doing
seeing tasty
nothing)
food.

/˄/ Tongue back,

jaw down (as if
/a:/ an opera trying to bite an
singer GESTURES apple hanging
from a tree
without using your
hands)…
The chart is placed
permanently
beside the board

To work on
pronunciation issues
arising from normal
course work To work on a specific
pronunciation problem
A CONTRASTIVE
ANALYSIS

The teacher should

IDENTIFY problems
in pronunciation.

Make students
aware of
differences

Sound in context
Make your own wallchart with the phonemic symbols.

Ask students to match flash cards with each symbol. For

example, /i:/ can be matched with a picture of cheese.

Then ask them to draw the symbol and the picture on the
top of a large piece of coloured card. These cards are then
stuck to the wall for the next class.
Chinese whispers
The teacher sits the learners in a circle and shows a student a symbol,
also whispering it in their ear.

The sound is passed around the class. If the sound is correct at the end
for the symbol the students get a point, if not the teacher gets a point.
 • Rhyming pair game
• Phonemic journey
• Phonetic maze
ACTIVITIES • Phonemic bingo
• Phonemic snakes and ladders
• Etc…
 PRONUNCIATION

Stress, rhythm and Speech chain /

Sound level Word level
intonation connected speech

Clapping, snapping
fingers, stomping
Mime, gestures Stress: word level Shadow reading
our feet on the
floor, humming…