Alphabet Poem

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Alphabet Poem by Mark Hancock

For awareness of pronunciation features including sounds and spelling, and features of connected speech, for B1 upwards: put this poem on the board and ask students to read it and work out what it's all about. Here's what happened when I tried: they all looked totally blank. One or two asked for vocab items, like 'gee!', which I then explained. Then a few students started to get a kind of 'I know that, but I don't know why' expression, until one of them shone with a eureka moment. I asked her to read it aloud, and once she had done so, the rest of the class understood also: it's the sound of the alphabet, as pronounced in (British) English - with zed, not zee at the end. Then you can look at the surprising moments, like 'Ate Shy Jake' for H I J' plus the first half of 'K'. For a similar idea with well known songs, try

Yes, Today

Hay Chewed

Something

White Christmas

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