1. Home
  2. Teaching adults
  3. Activities
  4. Pre-intermediate A2

Sound discrimination

This is an activity to help students differentiate and produce the short / I / sound as in 'milk' and the longer / i: / sound as in 'beef', although it can be adapted to any pair of sounds which your students have differentiation problems with.

A learner and teacher looking at the phonemic chart on a tablet
Author
Kevin Thomson

My students often claim that they can't hear the difference.

Procedure

  • To help students hear the difference I explain that I am going to say a word with the / I / sound several times then change to a word with the / i: / sound. The students should raise their hands when they hear the word change. I then say "ship, ship, ship, ship, ship, sheep, sheep,…". This procedure can be repeated with other words ("hit"/"heat", "it"/"eat" etc.)
  • To help students differentiate these sounds in the context of longer utterances, I then do the same with a sentence: "I saw a big ship, I saw a big ship, I saw a big ship, I saw a big ship, I saw a big sheep, I saw a big sheep…" until the students can hear the change.
  • I then write, in phonemic script, the words 'Steve' and 'Jill' on the board above a picture of a man and woman. I ask the students "Who is this?" When it has been established that the two characters are Steve and Jill I ask "Who is Jill's partner?" (and point to the / I / sound). An acceptable answer would be 'Chris', 'Phil', 'Kim', 'Tim', 'Jim' or any other name containing the / I / sound. If you want to make it easier, you could ask "Who's her partner, Chris or Pete?" Students should understand the idea of this game quite quickly.
  • I then ask "What's Jill's favourite food / drink?" Answers could be 'milk', 'fish', 'chips', 'gin' etc. I write this information on the board and continue asking questions about Jill and Steve until there are two columns with information about Jill and Steve's lives (where they live, favourite colours, animals etc.)
  • I then drill sentences such as "Jill likes fish and chips", "Jill likes Brad Pitt" or "Steve lives with Pete Reid".
  • In subsequent lessons, when a student makes a / I /or / i: / pronunciation error such as saying 'deeficult' instead of 'difficult', I write the word 'difficult' on the board and ask "Is this a Steve word or a Jill word?". Students can answer then be asked to pronounce the word correctly.
Language Level
Pre-intermediate: A2
Bookmark this

Comments

Submitted by Hiruni Fernando on Tue, 11/26/2024 - 02:26

This activity requires the students to be attentive, thereby getting the students to differentiate between the short and long vowel sounds and helps them to learn with fun. In an overcrowded classroom, the teacher needs to be loud and clear enough as there will be interruptions time to time. Other than raising hands, the students can be requested to do some other actions based on the vowel sound to make this activity more interesting while increasing their active participation.

Submitted by @gemechu6447 on Mon, 11/18/2024 - 04:06

I will perform it during teaching

Submitted by Mih.Hurtado on Thu, 11/14/2024 - 03:42

Having difficult to differentiate these two sounds is very common for Brazilian students. They usually say 'f/i:/sh' instead of 'f/I/sh' and loads of other words with this short sound /I/. Thanks for this activity!

Submitted by Brownie2003 on Tue, 11/12/2024 - 16:15

This is a quite interesting technique to use in the classroom. Could you please give advice for large-sized classroom?

Hi Brownie2003

Thanks for your comment. With a larger class, I think you could still use this technique. Asking learners to put up their hands when they hear a change in sound would still work well with a large class. Learners could answer the questions about Jill and Steve (and write their answers down) in small groups and then you could check at the end. You would still make sure all learners had a table at the end with a list of words with the different sounds, which will help them distinguish the long and short vowel sounds - that's basically the idea here.

If you try this with a large class, please let us know how you get on!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by CherryB on Sat, 11/09/2024 - 09:01

It is an excellent method of technique for teaching pronunciation.The students will definitely benefit from these.Thank you for sharing.

Submitted by Syeda Suhaila on Sun, 10/27/2024 - 16:26

Very nice method for teaching sound discrimination..Thank you, I will try in my lesson.

Submitted by MARIA ALMEIDA on Wed, 10/23/2024 - 01:56

Thank you for sharing. Definitely a great method and I'm going to use it in some pronunciation lessons.

Submitted by Delia4me on Sat, 10/19/2024 - 15:09

I will definitely try this technique with my students.

Submitted by ZHONGWENJUN on Sat, 10/12/2024 - 06:08

It is really beneficial to teach students to hear the difference

Submitted by nia.buchari on Thu, 10/10/2024 - 10:02

This is sound interesting how to introduce the correct pronunciation to the learners. I will try to use this in the classroom

Submitted by RehmatSakina. on Mon, 10/07/2024 - 09:48

The way of transitioning between the sounds is so thought provoking. That I loved it how it's going to help my students.

Submitted by MicaelaMoreira on Sat, 09/02/2023 - 20:05

Excellent concept. Many Argentinian pupils struggle to distinguish between the short / I / sound and the longer /:i/ sound. This activity will be helpful for them.

Submitted by Jussara Martin… on Thu, 08/31/2023 - 12:50

Great idea. For many Brazilian students it is quite difficult to differentiate the short / I / sound and the longer /:i/ sound. This activity will help them. Thanks for sharing.

Submitted by marianasilva on Wed, 08/30/2023 - 13:34

Loved it! Thank you.

Submitted by MicaelaMoreira on Wed, 08/30/2023 - 01:26

This is an excellent technique to introduce pupils to the concepts of sound discrimination and phonetic symbol recognition. They will be able to hone their ear as well as their tonged position in response to various sounds.

Submitted by profhasabo on Fri, 08/25/2023 - 09:26

Drilling of word pronunciation is very good, especially for beginners.
This a good example repeating like this ("hit"/"heat", "it"/"eat" etc.)

Submitted by TeacherPeter03 on Thu, 08/24/2023 - 23:25

What a great ideas are here, I´m going to use it with my students.

Submitted by Don Scratch on Thu, 08/24/2023 - 16:03

I like how easy it is to understand and how simple it is structured. Teachers can use these detailed explanations to make their lessons more involving and easy when it comes to sound identification.

Submitted by Oreoluwa Olabisi on Wed, 08/23/2023 - 19:57

My students will love this method and grasp the difference faster.

Submitted by ChayilGrace on Tue, 08/22/2023 - 07:13

This is very simplified for students. The example used has been very helpful

Submitted by Moazeez9099 on Mon, 08/21/2023 - 11:07

That is a great job. Also one of the ways to discriminate voiced and voiceless sounds is by touching the glottis .

Submitted by sandylady on Mon, 08/21/2023 - 10:34

This is an interesting way of teaching sound discrimination. Thanks

Submitted by tr.walaa on Sun, 08/20/2023 - 17:34

That is an amazing way that is precise and simple, and it can help my students know the differences quickly in pronounciation

Submitted by Yasmine77 on Sun, 08/20/2023 - 00:39

Amazing technique to diffrenciate between long towels and short vowels in the sound and how about to say a word and let them think about different to words with the same sound

Submitted by wafaagafaar on Sat, 08/19/2023 - 18:30

I think that a very interactive and unique way for sound discrimination . I hope that I do it with my class

Submitted by wafaagafaar on Sat, 08/19/2023 - 18:27

I think that a very interactive and unique way for sound discrimination . I hope that I do it with my class

Submitted by AmiraFatehy on Sat, 08/19/2023 - 09:34

it is new and enjoyable method we have a new technique for teaching pronunciation, it is beneficial, and I assure this to my learners. discrimination is a strong step

Submitted by Dinaahmed on Thu, 08/17/2023 - 16:36

teaching ss the differences between long and short vowels is important in learning pronunciation.

Submitted by Moazeez9099 on Tue, 08/15/2023 - 14:21

An amazing technique that enables students to practically differentiate between long and short vowel phonemes and making minimal pairs at the same time.

Submitted by profhasabo on Tue, 08/15/2023 - 13:48

I have a new technique for teaching pronunciation, it is beneficial, and I reflect this to my learners.
Thank you.

Submitted by Mona Muhammad on Tue, 08/15/2023 - 11:03

This is a good method for teaching pronunciation and an interesting way that help the students to differentiate sounds

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

See our publications, research and insight