Information collection & exchange

evelop communicative tasks that incorporate the problem sounds 
ere is an example of a low intermediate level communicative task, called "I'm Not Well," that focuses on the 
who offers advice. Student A receives a card with a drawing of a body, with arrows pointing to the parts 
4. Develop exercises so that you can review the problem and provide students with practice of the target 
sounds in new contexts. 
5. Develop self-monitoring practices in your students.
Identify problem areas 
If you do not systematically note down problem areas, and
w
And you have no guarantee that t
s
for your pronunciation teaching plan. The number of problem areas will vary depending on the number of 
hours you have with a class. For a class taking five hours of English a week, set yourself the goal of 
identifying five for each trimester. 
Some of these problem areas are predictable. For example, you can easily suppose that Spanish speakers 
may have difficulty in differentiating between the consonants /b/ and /v/ ("ban" - "van"). French speakers may 
have difficulty with the vowels /i/ and /I/,("beat" - "bit"). Arabic speakers use word or
c
speakers of English may ha
d
"hold" may become "ho." 
Find or write sentences that have a natural occurrence of the problem sounds 
Once you have identified your target problem areas, begin noting down sentences in which you these 
problems are likely to appear. Look out for examples in the literary or technical texts your students may be 
studying. Comb the grammar exercis
If, for example, you have identified the confusion between /1/ and /r/ as a problem (as happens with Bantu 
and Southeast Asian speakers of English), you may end up with a list that includes sentences like this: 
Fries carry germs.
So much lain last night!
Fled wants to see you.
The meeting is on Friday. 
By the time you have collected 20 examples of each problem, or instances where the problem might arise, 
you will be ready to move on to developing tasks which allow your students to practice the problem sounds 
in a communicative context. 
D
H
voiceless /th/ sound in English (as in "mouth," "fifth," and "teeth"). 
1. Teach the names of body parts, making sure to include teeth, tooth, mouth, thigh, throat, and thumb. 
Present and write on the board cue sentences for giving advice, such as "You should ___," "Perhaps 
you'd better ___," "You must ___," "You ought to ___.” 
2. Divide your class into pairs. Student A role plays someone who is sick. Student B role plays a friend 

---

that hurt. Student B has to find out what's wrong and offer appropriate advice. The pair dialogue should 
develop like this:
A: I'm not well.
B: Perhaps you should see a doctor. 
ev
structing student A to resist student 
role play is 
r, and st
ent A has gone through
ll his or her complaints, ask your students to form new pairs, only 
time stu
nt B role plays a sick person and student A gives advice. 
suse of stress. In spoken English a speaker gives a listener 
t parts of the message by putting stress on the words which 
ost information. The following exercise, "Headlines," will help your students identify the most 
arts of a message, and w
es of which words to str
Bring t
s which consist of l
f words 
d as 
Choose 
ple headlines 
ch as 
E
RIME VICTIMS 
FIGHT BACK.
have been left out. Discuss why these 
words were not important. Contrast reading aloud the headline, where you will stress every
. Ask your students to write headlines for news stories and events, and then to expand the headlines 
Re
Two weeks later, you may want to review the /th/ problem. This time you could use an exercise called 
"Da
2. Give student B a card with questions to ask student A, such as:
How many days are there in this month? 
What's the date of the first Friday of this month? 
When is the school football match?
Monday?
When are you meeting with the librarian?
When is your history homework due?
u go to the dentist? 
B: How are you?
B: What's wrong?
A: My throat hurts.
can d
You
elop this role play by in
B's advice. When the 
ove
ud
a
this
de
Your list of problem areas may include mi
nformation about the importance of differen
i
carry the m
important p
ill thus give them the clu
ess. 
1.
o class a few examples of headlines. Avoid headline
ong sequences o
use
modifiers, such as ACCUSED FELON IN MYSTERY BLAZE.
instead sim
su
FIRE KILLS SEVEN, PARENTS ANGRY OVER SCHOOL CLOSUR , and C
2. Present the headlines to the class and ask them what words
word, with reading aloud a full version, where the same words are stressed, but the others are 
unstressed.
3
and to read them aloud to the class. In commenting on your students' readings, remind them of the link 
between importance and stress.