Alphabet help

Questions and answersAlphabet help
The question
Alphabet helpElisabeth, Germany"Hello, I have been working with a class of post-beginners for approximately two years, and they still don't know the English alphabet! I hasten to add that I don't miss any opportunity to practise spelling, but without lasting success. Could anyone help me with an approach that is really effective? Thank you in advance."
Your answers
Taiza, BrazilHangman is something that normally works...you can also use a tic tac toe or the Alphabet Song...
Richard Spurgeon, USAElisabeth, I assume that you are referrng to the names of the letters; if that is so, let me say that one does not need to know the names of the letters to read or spell; it is much more helpful if one can articulate words, phrases, and clauses wth the proper phonological and phonetic qualties, correct stress and intonation. Teach to spell by analogy from a knowledge base of phoneme, digraph, blend, and syllable structures. can't overstress how much I beleive that near native speech is the key to listening, reading and writing structure.
Beverley Wahl, CanadaI had to learn German when my husband and I took a position with a Canadian company in Germany. I learned the alphabet through a song that was taught to me. Sorry, I don't know how you could find the tune. LMNOP were repeated in the song. E.g. ...LMNOP, LMNOPQR...etc. Lots of luck.
Viviane KirmelieneI've used the technique of associating the consonant sounds with the vowel sounds found in "Headway" and it has worked! It's important to prepare a chart (two A4 sheets will do) and to display that on the classroom bulletin board or wall and hand in smaller copies of that for students to paste to their notebooks. That's an example of a chart: A - H/J/K E - B/C/D/G/P/T/V/Z I - Y O - U - Q/W F/L/M/N/S/X R Practice saying the alphabet in the order presented in the chart --- it'll be easier to memorize similar sounds in association. Although some of the letters can't be related to others, students usually learn faster if the alphabet is introduced and practiced this way. Good luck!!!!
Jariya Bunyawate, ThailandJust a simple trick will do.Have the beginners write and say five capital letters a day. Within a week they can write and say all letters.Make sure they co-operate the teacher. The second week, have them write both capital and low case letters in alternate colours. For example Aa(black) Bb(red)...etc. Let them feel free in learning and have fun in drawing the letters. The third week, play games with the capital and low case letters and practise writing and saying easy words, songs or poems and their names. The teacher can teach them the vowels while practising. These steps can absolutely work.
Gina Doyle, EnglandIn teaching basic ESOL skills I have made a set of pelmanism cards for the lower case and capital letters, so that A matches with a, which teaches both letter recognition and the capital. To SAY the vowels as both long a(acorn)and short a(apple) at the same time is important too.
Ah. Jawid Wahidi, AfghanistanThis is a good questions i had faced the same satuation the only way that helped me was to practice it with their classmates names for example (A) (Ahmad) (B) (Bill) (C)(Cristena) and etc. You would rather try it oncce and see how it works.
Jacky Pezukoglu, TurkeyI have found that the easiest way to teach the alphabet is to teach them the song ABCD. This is the first contact that post beginners have and the music helps them to retain it better also if you can give them an activity or make cards which they can hold and shout out the letter will create an interest for them.
Todd, SwitzerlandI have the students learn the letters in groups of five. German mother-tongue students have particular problems with g, h and j, so I have them repeat "f, g, h, i, j" over and over until it rolls off their tongue automatically. I also teach the phonetic alphabet along with the letters, so that students can also pronounce the letters and words correctly. Every class I dictate the spelling of five words which the students then write in the phonetic alphabet after my correctly pronouncing it and their repeating it correctly to get a feel for its correct pronounciation. You can do this with vocabulary words you want to introduce and save some time and get more student use of these words.
Marcus Murilo, BrazilThis might seem fairly stupid but I usually have my beginner students play hangman in order for them to practice the alphabet - and it does work!
Galina Kavaliauskiene, LithuaniaFirst I teach using a technique from Headway Elementary, i.e. a sound versus a letter. For instance, letters A, J, K contain a sound /ei/, etc. A second step is personalizing. If the name of my best friend is ALDONA, so A is her letter. For GIEDRE it is G, and so on. It helps to remember. I also remind my students that R is pronounced like ARE, Y is WHY, etc. Be creative - it helps.
Geetha Muralidharan, IndiaThe children could be taught letters using descriptions like 'A', could be explained as a tent with a stick between. it could impress in the child's mind. Like wise other letters.
Alison, SwitzerlandLearning the alphabet. I have found one way to instill the individual letter sounds is to practice acronyms and abbreviations. for 'e' there's e-mail, for 'i' there's FBI and CIA, for 'j' there's good old JR Ewing from Dallas. Try it. They do serve as prompts and you can yell at some one who again says an 'i' instead of an 'e' ."e-mail!!"
Costas Gabrielatos, UKHave a look at this article: Antonaros, S. (2001, June). 'Say Your ABC’s, but …Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse.' TESOL Greece Newsletter 70. Also online: www.tesolgreece.com/nl/70/7003.html
The BBC and British Council are not responsible for the content of external sites.
Caroline, UKYou could encourage your students to play the alphabet games on the British Council's LearnEnglish Kids site: www.britishcouncil.org/kidsenglish then click on Games and select Alphabet Antics.
George Steed, PolandEnglish lessons often omit writing/printing lessons. Students should be led through a manuscript writing course. Yes, use only the Latin alphabet. Vowels and consonants can be separated. Pictures/flash cards using the letter (Capitals and small letters)are useful teaching aids. Provide lined paper for practice. Caution - your printing should be exemplary. Theory: students will learn alphabet as they learn to write. Evidence: a six year old Polish girl can print both capitals and small letters. She is also aware of the different forms of 'L' and #1. Use 'search' for lesson plans!
Alex, FranceIt sounds silly, but even adults like a good game of hangman. I have an alphabet with a pronunciation key in French below each letter. I review it with the students and then play hangman using recycled vocabulary from the lesson. First with then key in front of them, then without.
Lindsey, GermanyHello Elisabeth This appears to be a general problem and I don't understand why it is so difficult. I think you just have to keep on practising, slipping a quick spelling activity in at fairly regular intervals. Here are two things I do and which the students have liked:1) Hangman2) Battleships/Schiffe versenken.
I draw 2 grids on one page: horizontally are the letters which I see students continually get wrong, eg A-E-H-I-J-R-U-V-Y and vertically are the numbers 1-10. Prepare the grid twice (for Student A and Student B): in the top grid write a different message for each, perhaps revising a useful phrase at the same time, eg Where is the nearest station/What is the time please. The bottom grid on each page remains blank.
Copy the two grids. In pairs: student A calls out a coordinate where s/he thinks a letter might be, eg H3. If s/he is right, student B says "hit" and says the letter. Student A writes this letter in the correct place on his/her blank grid and has another go. If s/he is wrong, B says "miss" and it's B's turn. The winner is the first one to find the hidden sentence.
Sometimes just for fun, we practise the vowels in chorus: A-E-I-O-U or U-O-I-E-A. It's good for the jaw muscles, too!
BKay, ItalySing it! Same with vowels: Old Macdonald had a farm, A E I O U
Carmen Suils-Bernabéu, SpainI guess it must be different with speakers from differente countris. For Spanish speakers, I find it difficult to teach the vowels. Since most of my students are very young children, I made up a story in Spanish where I include the names of vowels, and also the names of two of my students in order to grant their attention. /eI/ in Sp. is used to greet someone waving a hand /i/ is "and" in Eng. - very tricky, since it is the name of the 3rd. vowel in Sp. /aI/ is used to show that someone hurt him/herself /ou/ is somehow used to express surprise, although we just say /o/ Last, /Iu/ is YOU in Eng, as we know. And I end up the story with this question: And now, who wants to tell me the story? YOUUUUUUU. After teaching and practicing the five letters, the consonants are much a piece of cake. I teach the whole alphabet with songs, I use BINGO, or TIC-TAC-TOE, HANGMAN, Spelling Bee and MASTERMIND
Margaret Rafferty, USA/China I got the students to play a version of Bingo with the letters of the alphabet. The students enjoyed it and they had to know the alphabet to play and win! I made a lot of 'Bingo' cards but I got a lot of use out of them. Good Luck.