This is a pronunciation wordtree that compares the pronunciaton (and
perceived sound) of the initial "r" and "l" sounds. This is
useful/relevant because, as Japanese only uses a variant of the "r"
sound, students need to develop these recognition & pronunciation
skills in order to successfully communicate in English. This is a good
warm-up activity. I took the tree template from another file that was
on here (Brendon's?), and inserted seperate text and pictures.

Procedure (How to use):

Intro

1. Pass out one copy of the sheet per student. 

2.
Repeat the vocabulary on the list with special attention to
pronunciation. Introduce the vocabulary by asking students the meaning
in Japanese. Discuss any new or difficult words. 

Game

3. The ALT chooses one word from the similar sounding pair at the top of the pyramid (i.e. "fog" and "hog") and repeats it. 

4. The students listen and decide which of the pair the ALT has spoken. 

5. The ALT moves on to the second tier of the pyramid and the procedure repeats.

6. Finally, the JTE (and the students who correctly identified all the words) will arrive at one correct number.

Variant

A
good variant of this is one I saw Stephan do: do the above a couple of
times (choosing different words each time). The third time, cover your
mouth so that the students cannot identify the word from the shape of
your mouth / location of your tongue etc. They are thus forced to
depend solely on listening. 

Attached Files

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