This is an interactive reading game that concentrates on individual student’s pronunciation in a class activity. It is suitable for all levels and ages and creates a perfect active learning environment.

Begin with reading the required story or text to the students while they listen and read along.

For younger students encourage them to use their reading finger, that is, their pointer finger, to point to the words as the teacher reads.

Round One

Read the story or passage of text phrase by phrase and ask the students to repeat after you. Listen for the student’s group pronunciation and practice individual word sounds to correct pronunciation together.

Round Two

Before you begin the second round, introduce the Pronunciation Out chair. This is a chair at the front of the room. Ideally, your classroom has an open seating layout with chairs/ desks in a circle or open format so that this chair is the centre of everyone’s focus. Explain that if a student makes a pronunciation error when they read they will have to sit in the Pronunciation Out chair and you will sit in their chair.

Begin by instructing students to read one word one after the other. For example:

There once was a very stubborn young man and an equally stubborn young woman who met, fell in love and got married.

In a class of ten students the above passage would be read like this: Teacher – There, S1 – once, S2 – was, S3 – a, S4 – very, S5 – stubborn, S6 – young, S7 – man, S8 – and, S9 – an, S10 – equally, Teacher – stubborn, S1 – young, S2 – woman, S3 – who … and so on.

It helps if the teacher doesn’t spend time verbally explaining but demonstrates to the students what to do and say by walking around the room pointing to each student and saying the corresponding word.

Begin the round and listen for individual pronunciation errors, for this round do not be strict on long, difficult, or new vocabulary but strict on words you know they should be able to say correctly.

When a student (eg. Sam) makes an error say, ‘pronunciation out!’ and correct Sam’s pronunciation, then move to her chair. The reading continues with the next word and the next student. When another student (eg. Billy) makes an error, Billy moves to the Pronunciation Out chair and Sam sits in Billy’s chair, in this way the students making errors will need to sit in different places around the room.

If students are of the age where boys & girls don’t like each other don’t force them but do allow them to create a space between the chairs if they need to. Don’t give it more attention than it needs to ensure the game continues quickly.

Round Three and On

Continue the rounds and as you do become stricter with their pronunciation and encourage them to read faster.

It’s important to encourage students to use a loud reading voice and their reading finger; they need to listen to each other carefully to know where everyone is up to in the passage. Students will say the words for each other across the room; discourage this because it is distracting, but do allow support from students next to each other. Encourage them to listen to each other and to help each other say the words correctly.

Once you’ve played the game, come back and let me how it worked out for you.

Image Credit: chair

Disclaimer: This game may be the same or similar to another game found online, therefore it is possible it was originally authored by someone else. Due to the number of free ESL games available online it is impossible for me to source where I found the original game. Please let me know if this is your game so I can credit you accordingly.