HOMOPHONES can be one of the reasons students spell or hear something incorrectly. By raising students’ awareness of these types of words in a fun way, teachers can help them understand why they have difficulty with a particular listening activity or even with spelling words. The following activity helps students notice the problems.
Step 1: Choose eight to ten homophones to dictate, e.g. band (banned) / I’ll (aisle, isle) / nose (knows) / right (write) / there (their) / sun (son) / past (passed) / cell (sell) / flu (flew) / knot (not).
Step 2: Tell students you are going to say about ten words for them to write down.
Step 3: Ask students to stay silent while you dictate and not to check with a partner.
Step 4: Dictate each word clearly and allow students time to write.
Step 5: Have students check what they have written down in pairs. As students check, you should write the words (not in brackets) up on the blackboard.
Step 6: After the students have finished, they may see differences in their lists. Ask the whole class if they have written down the same as the list on the blackboard. Note that many students may feel they have written down the wrong words if their own words are different from the list on the blackboard.
Step 7: Write the second, same sounding word (the homophones in brackets), and ask students if their lists are similar to these words. Tell students to find out the differences between the two words. They should state the spelling and also the meaning.
Step 8: Ask the students what the similarities of the words are. Write these differences and similarities on the blackboard.
Step 9: Introduce the word “homophone” and see if students know of any other English homophones.
MINIMAL pairs are pairs of words that have one phonological element that is different. Practicing minimal pairs can help students identify the minute differences in pronunciation between one word and another. Teachers can do it in the following way.
Step 1: Write examples of minimal pairs on the blackboard, e.g. lit — light / read — red / sing — sang / bed — bad / saw — sought. If students have learned the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), it is a good idea to write up the phonetic transcriptions of the words on the blackboard.
Step 2: Demonstrate the correct pronunciation of the minimal pairs written on the blackboard.
Step3: Ask students to give examples of other words that use the same changing phonemes.
Step 4: Distribute the minimal pair sheet. For lower levels， you should reproduce the minimal pairs in chorus by first giving the example and then having students repeat together. For upper levels, you should have students work in pairs taking turns reproducing the minimal pairs.
Step 5: Have students use the minimal pairs sheet as a model to produce their ownminimal pair sheet.
Step 6: Have students distribute their minimal pair sheets to other pairs.
Step 7: Added activity — if students are proficient in the IPA, have them transcribe the minimal pairs as a means of strengthening their knowledge of the IPA.
