Miss Elise
Pronunciation Coach
Transform Your Students’ Pronunciation in One Hour
Comprehensive lesson plans designed for in-depth, engaging classes.
Elevate your ESL teaching with structured, one-hour pronunciation lessons. These detailed plans provide everything you need to guide your students toward confident, clear American English. Perfect for teachers looking to create impactful learning experiences with practical techniques and proven methods.
Or, dive deeper to discover essential habits and techniques for mastering American English pronunciation with confidence.
The Sound of B
Part 1: Lead in, 5 min warm up.
Choose one student to read the quote to the class, and then ask your students what they think of the passage. Do they agree or disagree? Why?
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
– Nelson Mandela
Part 2: The Sound of B
The teacher will read the description of how the letter B is formed and have students mimic her movements. The teacher will then read out just the B sound and have the students repeat it until everyone feels confident that they can adequately produce it.
Description: B is a voiced sound. You must make a slight sound with your voice when producing it. Press the lips together as you did for the B, then force them apart while making a slight murmur.
Practice the B sound with students by repeating the following, making only the sound:
B, B, B
B, B, B
B, B, B
B, B, B
Part 3: B Words
Once your students feel confident that they can produce the B sound, the teacher will read out the B words slowly, emphasizing the B sound and reviewing any challenging words. Students will repeat after each word is pronounced. The teacher will repeat this exercise twice.
Ba, be, bi, bo, boo, by; Ba, be, bi, bo, boo, by
Bat, baffle, ball, bark, berry
Bee, bid, bin, born, bowl
Boon, boom, boil, bore, boat
Abbot, abbey, bubble, ember, kebab
Label, libra, cabal, zebra, web
Part 4: Practice complete sentences emphasizing the B sound.
The teacher will read out one sentence at a time and have students repeat reviewing any challenging words. The teacher will repeat this exercise twice.
1) The bald eagle bathed in the blessedly cool bath.
2) Betty believed that the boat was blocked because of the branch.
3) The bedazzled Brody bottle-fed the baboon’s baby.
4) The lab was grubby and unbalanced, stated Brianna after she stubbed her toe.
5) Becket wanted to baptize his baby badger, but his mother bargained that she knew best.
6) The barracuda was baited by Bryce and Bart and almost besieged before beating a hasty retreat.
7) The bespectacled Bennet was bankrupt and badly battered.
8) The bartender began becoming boorish with the baseball team, so they left.
9) She misbehaved before the benchmark event because she was beside herself.
10) Britney benefited from all the blizzards by reading books to better herself.
Part 5: Student Practice
When Part 4 is finished, the teacher will ask students if they have any questions or need help with the words and sentences they just practiced. If all is well, students will be placed in pair groups and take turns reading out loud the B words and the sentences to each other, emphasizing the B sound.
Part 6: Informal student test
Once the above exercise is finished, the teacher will randomly choose a B word or a complete sentence and pick a student to read it out loud, correcting any target pronunciation errors as they are made.
Part 7: Tell a B Story
Below is a list of names, nouns, verbs, and adjectives with the letter B. Place students in small groups or pairs and give them about 10 minutes to create a B story that they will recite to the class. Make sure that as they develop their story with their classmates, they correctly pronounce the B sound. Circulate around the class, correcting target pronunciation as needed. They may use words outside the list, but whichever group can use the most B words (logically!) and tell the best story wins. This is great for laughs!
Bobby - Brave - Befriend - Beloved - Belief
Balance - Bella - Bedazzle - Bobcat - Bagel
Bubbly - Ball - Brenda - Bilingual - Breathtaking
Bargain - Become - Baboon - Becca - Banana
Bouncy - Become - Bee - Brownie - Bloom
Brighten - Buddy - Bear - Blue Cheese - Bless
Part 8: Game Time!
If you have time, there is no better way to wrap up a class than with a short game. Just like starting a class with a warmup quote to get students in the learning zone, ending a class on a happy, fun note is a wonderful way to get them excited about returning to your next class. There are numerous pronunciation games, including bingo, rhyming activities, and sound chains. I have attached a few links to get you started.
You can also choose to wrap up your class with something completely different, like placing students in pairs and tackling a few questions from the Conversation Topics or playing a game of hangman or sinking ship.
https://www.tefl.net/elt/ideas/pronunciation/top-fun-pronunciation-games/
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/pronunciation-games-esl/
https://blog.youragora.com/adult-english-learning-esl-games-for-adults