Students work in groups of 3-4. Put a few minimal pairs on slips of paper (one word per paper) and give a set to each group. Then call out a word. The students race to grab the correct word. Keep calling until there's none left. Then get the students working within their groups. One student calls out the words, the others grab the word he/she said. Encourage lots of competition to keep them motivated.
Minimal Pair Bingo
I hated bingo at school - I was too shy to draw attention to myself if I thought I'd won. But lots of students love it. Basically, students choose 9 words from the minimal pairs you give and write them in a 3*3 square. You call out the words and they tick them off as they come up. If they think you've said all the words, they shout "Bingo!"
Here are some minimal pairs to use:
/i/ pit bet
/e/ pet bit
/p/ hip pub
/b/ bat pat
/t/ tick dip
/d/ day bay
/k/ kick tick
/g/ guy day
/f/ fall vet
/v/ view few
/s/ slip zip
/z/ zap sap
/m/ man ban
/n/ night light
/l/ love none
/r/ rent lent
/w/ wack yack
I thought of the Bingo activity on my own but then I was looking for other ideas and came across this website and wanted to share this site with everyone. The website is: http://www.tinyteflteacher.co.uk/teacher/pronunciation/minimalpairs.html
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI like your activity because it is interactive and fun. When students play games, they don't even realize that they are learning. Although it might take more than 5 minutes, ELLs will like it and realize the differences. There might be some ELLs that will struggle a little more with minimal pairs so they will need a teacher's help.