This activity practises discrete vowel sounds. It practises both speaking and listening skills. It works well in pairs or in groups and usually generates lots of fun. You need to print out one copy of the worksheet for each student. You may need to ask learners to make up telephone numbers if they are not comfortable in giving out their real numbers to their classmates or if they don't have a telephone. It can be adapted to include other sounds, minimal pairs or stress patterns.

Procedure

• Draw the face of a mobile telephone on the board.
• Elicit the numbers and then dictate a number to the students.
• One by one, erase the numbers and replace them with the words on the worksheet, drill the pronunciation as you do this.
• Dictate another number to the students this time saying the words and not the numbers.
• Students then work together as a class, in groups or in pairs and repeat the procedure with their own telephone numbers.
• If they have given their real numbers, you could get the students to actually phone the number and check.

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Adaptation
To practise scan reading skills.

• Give out a classifieds section of a newspaper.
• Students choose a number and dictate it using the procedure above.
• Students then scan the newspaper page to find the corresponding classified and either write it on the board or shout it out. This could be done as a team game.

 

Written by Derek Spafford, BC Thailand

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