CELTA Online Unit 24: Using the Chart

Read the bullet points below and listen to Annie, an experienced teacher, talk about making students
comfortable with the chart.

 Encouraging students to learn the chart

 Referring to the chart
 Lexical bags

Commentary
By encouraging students to learn the phonemic chart, learners will become more aware of their own use
of sounds. For example, once the students are familiar with the chart and can recognise the sounds, a
teacher could highlight to Hongju that she was using the sound to say pronunciation instead of /s/.

In order for learners to be confident using the phonemic chart, it is important for teachers to refer to
the chart frequently in class. As was mentioned in Pronunciation 1, teachers can record language on the
board with certain phonemes highlighted so that learners become comfortable with the chart and can
recognise particular sounds.

In addition, many teachers record the new language that has emerged in class on strips of paper or card
and these are kept in a box or bag to be used for recycling activities. Teachers can also record certain
phonemes or even the whole word or expressions on the back of each card so that learners can recall
both the lexis and its pronunciation.