Ministry of higher education, science and innovations of the republic of uzbekistan andizhan state institute of foreign language institute

...words that are already known to the learners or that have a meaning for them 
should be avoided. The meaning of the words may take the learners’ attention away 

---

- 12 -
from the sounds, and their past failure to make the sounds correctly in those words 
could increase difficulty [5.284]. 
It is possible to do this by including game or competition-like elements into 
these activities. 
4) “Don’t be tricked” activity - another option how to variegate activities for 
young learners is represented by changing the roles of a teacher and learners. In 
“Don’t be tricked” activity a learner plays the role of the teacher and points to one 
of several words written on the board. The teacher playing the role of a learner 
pronounces it; s/he can say the word correctly or in a wrong way. Therefore, the 
learners’ main task is to say whether the teacher is right or wrong and not to become 
tricked by him/her. 
5) Sound dictation - this activity tests whether the learners are able to hear the 
words in a correct way. The teacher dictates new or even nonsense words and 
learners try to write them down. Another option is to use numbers for the vowels, 
consonants 
or 
diphthongs. 
When 
a 
word 
including 
the 
particular 
vowel/consonant/diphthong is pronounced, the learners write the appropriate 
number on the paper. 
Activities based on production. 
Listening and repeating sounds activities - in this type of activity teachers 
pronounce new, unknown or somehow difficult and complicated words, while 
learners must listen carefully and then repeat the particular words after the teacher. 
As Scott and Ytreberg state, exercises involving listening and repeating represent 
usually a “great fun and give the pupils the chance to get a feel for the language: the 
sounds, the stress and rhythm and the intonation”. Rodney Jones states that although 
the method of listening and repeating is nowadays “widely discredited in the areas 
of grammar and vocabulary teaching”, it persists in pronunciation teaching.
As Jones describes, cutout pictures of the face can be used “with the teacher’s 
hand acting as the tongue”. The front view of the mouth is often beneficial, 
especially for practicing vowels or /9/, /d/, /f/ and /v/, /w/. 

---

- 13 -
1) Rhymes and songs - as Scott and Ytreberg state, both rhymes and songs 
represent the forms of “listen and repeat” activities. One of the advantages of songs 
and rhymes is that most of the young learners love them and will want to repeat them 
repeatedly. Currently there is a wide range of rhymes, which can be included in the 
lessons. Teachers can choose either traditional or modern rhymes. As the authors 
explain, rhymes have a repetitive function, “they have natural rhythm and they have 
an element of fun, of playing with the language”. Since young learners play with 
language also in their mother tongue, this is a very familiar part of their world having 
an important part to play in their learning process. In Vilaplana’s opinion, songs and 
rhymes are considered to be a good way how to begin with the study of English 
rhythm. She states: 
“It has been observed that people that have a very strong foreign accent in 
spontaneous speech have a less strong accent when they sing or even recite. This is 
so because the rhythmic patterns of the song and the verse help the student to sound 
more natural”. 
However, Opal Dunn puts the stress on the proper choice of songs. She warns 
that all those songs, which have difficult vocabulary and language or complicated 
music, need to be avoided at this early stage of learning. According to her, it is 
usually more difficult for young learners to transfer language from songs rather than 
from rhymes. As a good example of how to overcome this difficulty, Dunn suggests 
saying songs instead of singing them. Teachers can also modify the songs and set 
their own words to well-known songs which make the process of learning and 
pronouncing the words easier. 
2) Tongue twisters - include words or phrases that can be usually problematic 
or difficult to pronounce for learners because they are consisted of similar sounds 
such as /r/ and /l/ or consonant clusters /fr/ and /fl/. The main aim is therefore to 
pronounce them as quickly as possible. However, as in the case of songs, it is highly 
recommended to use only those tongue twisters which have relatively easy to 
understand vocabulary. Kane adds that tongue twisters represent an effective warm-
up tool for all those learners who want to improve alliteration, pronunciation, and 

---

- 14 -
vocal technique. He also suggests starting slowly at the beginning. As he says, 
“accuracy is more important than speed”. Learners should therefore pay attention to 
pronunciation of the individual words and make sure that their mouth, tongue and 
lips move in the way that they are supposed to for each vowel and consonant type. 
3) Drilling - is, as Jones states, one of the oldest method of teaching 
pronunciation involving exercises in elocution. Kelly explains that drilling is 
technique during which a teacher pronounces a word or structure and the rest of the 
class repeats it. Drilling helps young learners achieve better pronunciation of 
language items, and to help them remember these items. At first teachers and 
learners usually drill 'chorally' which means that the learners are asked to repeat the 
items in unison. This way of drilling enables learners to build confidence, and offers 
a chance to drill items relatively anonymously. Individual drilling, where learners - 
one by one - have to repeat items, typically follows choral drilling. Concerning 
drilling technique, several types can be distinguished. These are for example: 
a) Chain drill - this type of drill gets its name from “the chain of conversation” 
which forms around the classroom as pupils, one-by-one, ask and answer questions 
of each other. The teacher starts the chain by asking one pupil a question. This pupil 
responds and turns to another pupil sitting next to him or her. Although chain drilling 
is limited, it allows some controlled communication and gives the teacher a chance 
to check each pupil’s speech. 
b) Substitution drill - involves, as Kelly states, “drilling a structure, but 
substituting items of vocabulary into the sentence being dealt with”. Substitution 
drilling can be subdivided into single-slot substitution and multiple-slot substitution 
drill. In single-slot substitution, drill the teacher pronounces a line usually taken from 
a dialogue and then he or she says a word or phrase - called the cue. Pupils repeat 
the line, which the teacher has mentioned them, and substitute the cue into the line 
in its proper place. The difference between single and multiple-slot substitution drill 
is that during multiple-slot drill the teacher gives cue phrases, which fit, into 
different slots in dialogue line. The pupils need to recognize what part of speech 

---

- 15 -
each cue is and then say the line, fitting the cue phrase into the line where it belongs. 
Other drilling types include: 
c)