Pronunciation activities for ESL students.

Acing clear and correct pronunciation of the English language will help your students become better at communicating. By practicing pronouncing words correctly, your students will gain confidence when speaking English inside and outside of the classroom.

Here are a few ESL pronunciation activities for younger learners, teens, and adults that might just do the trick.

ESL pronunciation activities for young learners

Younger learners tend to be more open-minded to new sounds and love to move around during class activities. These following practices would suit them best.

• ESL sing-along

Phonics songs are a fantastic strategy for ESL students as it allows a total physical response for better retention of the material. By learning and hearing an English song over and over again, students will become more familiar with the English sounds and the pronunciation thereof.

• Pronunciation Bingo

Prepare Bingo sheets with sample words for each of the individual sounds that you wish to review during your lesson. Take a flashcard with a single letter on it and let the students cross off a word that has that letter in it; for example, if your flashcard said “A” then the word ticked off could be “hat”. This game is great as it could be played in pairs or individually!

• Rhyming activities

Include rhythmic rhyming activities in your lessons where students should repeat after you. You can move in the rhythm you choose by creating fun rhythmic pairs such as joy and soy. You can even switch it up a little and change the rhyming pattern in a new direction!

ESL pronunciation activities for teenagers

Teens are usually a bit shy when it comes to being in the spotlight! So here are a few activities that would suit them best.

• Rhyming pair memory game

In this activity students get to have fun while learning! Make cards that rhyme and place them face down so that students can take turns to turn over the cards and find the pairs that rhyme. Always be sure to practice a repetition drill of the target sounds before playing this game.

• Correct the teacher

Trying to teach your students stress and intonation? We have the perfect exercise for you. You can say a sentence in a natural or unnatural intonation and your students can guess whether it is correct or not. If it is incorrect, they can say it back to you in the correct way.

• Minimal pairs slap game

An engaging group activity to keep your students on their toes! Hand out different sets of flashcards to each group of students and tell them to spread it out on the table. Say one word of a minimal pair such as “pat”. The students can find and slap the card of the minimal pair partner such as “sat”.

ESL Pronunciation activities for adults

Pronunciation activities for adults are a great way to target common pronunciation errors as well as target specific sounds.

• Rhyming poetry

Give your students the opportunity to express themselves while learning. Rhyming Poetry is one of the best forms of literature and can be used for beginner to advanced levelled students. By giving your students the opportunity to read and write their own rhyming poem, you can easily spot certain pronunciation errors and specific sounds.

• Sound chain

Increase student talking time! Let your students create a circle and come up with a key word. Then let the next student repeat the previous words in the right order before adding their own. This creates a fun environment where students can even tell a story with the words they came up with.

• Tongue twisters

Create an energetic and enjoyable atmosphere in the classroom by using tongue twisters. There are heaps of tongue twisters out there. Every student should try out the sentence or phrase and, if they don’t struggle, make sure to add a few difficult ones or encourage your students to say it as fast as they possibly can. This creates team building and loads of fun in the classroom. The plus side to this activity is that it makes everybody comfortable enough to speak!

Speaking like a true native English speaker is one of the most important challenges of an ESL learner. A good way to achieve this goal is by meticulously going through all the sounds of English and practicing them daily at home and in class.