When I started teaching the English alphabet I was really sure that it will be fun and easy to achieve. My students had no problem learning the alphabet itself, but when they should have used it, they were making a lot of mistakes. I have tried everything. We tried using finger alphabet, some information gap exercises where spelling was necessary and so on. However, all these activities had very poor results. Seeing my failure I decided to create an audio-lingual computer based activity. It is a simple drill but I believe that those who will pass the test will be able to spell correctly.
Advert:
[showmyads]
Alphabet – introduction
As I write above learning the alphabet from A to Z was no problem. The students were greatly helped by several alphabet songs and games. The best ones came from British Council pages on alphabet. We really enjoyed these.
To help my students more I have created the following mind map. I hope you will find it useful too:
Alphabet – audio-lingual quiz
I tried to find some recordings with spelling but I was shocked that I managed to find only two of them in different textbooks. So I had to created some myself. I asked a native speaker to spell 25 different English words and these I put into the following quiz. You should listen and then write the words you hear. It is not easy and the passing score is really high. Will you succeed?
At the end there is a game for you. Both the quiz and the game are in HTML5 so they will play on any mobile device too. Alphabet – Audio-lingual quiz
Alphabet – Treasure hunt
My students love this game. Even more so, if I bring a reward for the winners.
Start the game and display the grid. Call the students to say a pair of letters and then click on the appropriate square. If they do not hit the treasure blue square appears. Call the students randomly. The one who finds the treasure gets the reward.
There are two slides with the grid so, you can play two games.
Alphabet – share
If you do not have an internet connection you might find the following files useful. You can upload the files to your own site or use them off-line.