Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 1; January 03

Christiane Van Opdenbosch, Dutch teacher at IEPSCF, Belgium
christiane.vanopdenbosch@skynet.be

Level: beginners Language focus: aural discrimination and pronunciation Time: 10 minutes Materials: cards to draw on Preparation: selection words containing a few sounds the students tend to get wrong. Technique: classification Aim: gradual self-correction and growth of self-confidence in the language.

Examples: ( in Dutch) vier boek fiets huis deur oor pijp

Procedure:

I draw on the cards and ask the students to name the objects drawn:

1. one card with the word "book"
2. one drawing for the word "boat".

I stick the 2 cards on the board, one to the left and the other to the right.
I show a few more to the students and they name them as well.

Together we decide whether to put the cards under "book" or " Boat", according to the sound. The students suggest other words they know. I draw these as well, each on a separate cards and the students have to put them in the correct column.

To round off the activity, we take the cards from the blackboard and put them up on a permanent board, somewhere else in the room.

Note: the key idea in this exercise is to get the students to associate pictures with the sounds they find hard.
Each time a student gets a sound wrong that has already been "illustrated",
I ask the class to point to the relevant picture and see if the student can self-correct.