Talk a Lot How to Use Connected Sentence Cards – Sample Lesson Plan Activity Type: Discovery; learn the techniques of connected speech Level: Elementary - Pre-Intermediate Skills: Vocabulary; Speaking & Listening; Pronunciation; Stress Class Size: Students work in pairs or small groups with a maximum of six in a group This lesson also works well with individual students in a one to one situation Time: hour Aim: To learn the techniques of connected speech Materials: set of eight cut-up sentences per six students (or one cut-up sentence per pair/small group, depending on the level of your students and what they can handle!), whiteboard and pens; students have their notebooks and pens (Note: you could teach exactly the same content and concepts using the connected speech templates (see p.4.1) However, the cards give a more tactile experience (which is great for students who learn through physically doing something) and allow students to put together the sentences and identify the content and function words, i.e to start the whole process at the beginning, whereas the connected speech templates not.) Procedure Students should be in small groups – six per set of connected sentence cards Give out the sets of cards, with each sentence in a separate group Students put all the cards face up on the table Ask them to put the words into order to make the sentences and tell you what verb form is used, e.g “Present Simple” or “Future Forms” One student from each group writes one (or more) of the sentences on the board Elicit any spelling corrections from the group Let’s say, for example, that one of the sentences that students have unjumbled is this one from the “Money” topic in Book 3: Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office Different students read all the sentences aloud Check the students’ understanding of meaning, sentence and word stress, and pronunciation (what they naturally produce) Students identify content words and move the cards up so that they stand out The words on the table in front of the students will look something like this: content words: function words: Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Elementary English Banana.com 3.3 Talk a Lot How to Use Connected Sentence Cards – Sample Lesson Plan Students identify how many syllables there are in each content word, e.g no of syllables: 2 1 1 Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office Roger is paying his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office Students identify the strong stressed syllable in each content word of more than one syllable Every word in English has one strong stress, which is always on a vowel sound See example sentence below Students could use a dictionary to look at the IPA stress marks, if required They should consider features such as suffixes, compound nouns, weak stresses, contractions, and stress patterns Highlight this information on the board, so that students become aware of rules that can help them to identify word stress Highlight patterns, e.g compound nouns almost always have the stress on the first syllable (See “Focus on Connected Speech”, sections 11-17 for more information and activities.) (strong stressed syllable) suffixes in bold; no compound nouns st 1st 3rd 1st (Rog)er is (pay)ing his gas bill and elec(tric)ity bill at the post (off)ice ois payin his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office all function words here can be weak forms; “Roger is” could be contracted to “Roger’s” Students identify the vowel sound of each strong stressed syllable, using symbols from the IPA chart (see p.18.6) For example: The sound spine of the sentence: vowel sounds on the stressed syllables of content words: LflL LÉfL LôL=LfL LfL LfL=============L]rL==LflL (Rog)er is (pay)ing his gas bill and elec(tric)ity bill at the post (off)ice ois payin his gas bill and electricity bill at the post office Practise saying the vowel sound patterns out loud with your students: LflL LÉfL LôL=LfL LfL LfL=============L]rL==LflL Highlight that this is the “sound spine” of the sentence This sequence of vowel sounds is the “distilled essence” of the spoken sentence It’s what we need to hear if we are to understand the sentence For example, it’s much easier to understand the speaker if the vowel sounds are correct but the consonant sounds are wrong, than the other way round (see example on p.4.3) Students identify how to link from one stressed syllable to the next, using the techniques of connected speech (see p.11.3) Notice how function words are squashed and mashed up between the strong stressed syllables Students practise saying the sentences using connected speech For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Elementary English Banana.com 3.4 Talk a Lot How to Use Connected Sentence Cards – Sample Lesson Plan Elicit from students the following conclusions: If a listener can’t understand your spoken English, it could be because: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) you’re saying the wrong vowel sound on a stressed syllable you’re stressing the wrong syllable in a word you’re stressing too many syllables in a word you’re not stressing any syllables in a word you’re not connecting together words in a sentence you’re not giving stronger stress in a sentence to content words over function words all of the above (I really hope not!) Consolidation Use the connected speech templates (see p.4.1) for more practice on these techniques They’re great for either classroom use or homework activities For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Elementary English Banana.com 3.5