7 Fun English Syllables Activities
Alex CaseLearning to count syllables and then produce the correct number is a great way into pronunciation topics like word stress, consonant clusters, and different kinds of vowel sound. This article gives seven interesting classroom activities to teach distinguishing two-syllable words from three-syllable words, etc.
Syllables brainstorming
Students work in teams to write as many words as they can with the correct number of syllables within the time limit, e.g. “Four minutes to write lots of four-syllable words” and “Brainstorm two-syllable animal words for five minutes”. They then get points for any correct answer that other teams didn’t write.
For more challenge, the same can be done with sentences, as in “Seven-syllable requests” and “Ten-syllable sentences”.
Matching syllables reversi
Make a list of words which are useful for your students such as recent textbook vocab which have synonyms with the same number of syllables (e.g. the two-syllable synonyms “happy” and “cheerful”). Make cards with one word on one side and the same length synonym on the other. Students spread the cards across the table, either side up. One student then guesses what is on the other sides of the cards, continuing until they make a mistake. Any they guess correctly stay the other side up after they turn them over to check. The next person can then do the same with the same cards (but the other way around) and/ or other cards. The winner is the first person to do the whole set without any mistakes, or the person with the longest string of correct guesses.
The same can be done with antonyms which have the same number of syllables like “good” and “bad”.
Syllables conversations
Syllable humming conversations
Give students sentences that need replies like “Can I borrow your eraser?” and “How was your weekend?”, making sure each sentence has a different number of syllables. One student hums one of the sentences (“Hmm hmm hmmhmm hmm hmmhmmhmm?”), and the other students try to respond in the correct way (with words, as in “Of course, here you are”).
Fixed syllable conversations
Make a pack of cards with a range of numbers on them to represent different numbers of syllables (or just circle such as “o o o”), and ask students to deal them out. One student asks any question, then someone responds with something suitable with the number of syllables on their card or cards. For example, if the question is “How’s work?”, they could respond with “Great” with a one-syllable card or “Absolutely terrible” for a four-syllable card plus a three-syllable card.
Syllable totals
Students are told what total number of syllables to count up to, e.g. “ten”. They listen to a list of words, phrases or sentences and shout out whenever they are sure that they speaker has reached exactly that number, as in “An Englishman, an Irishman, and a” “Ten!”
Syllables things in common
Make lists of words which all have something in common, e.g. uncountable nouns, compound nouns related to travel, positive adjectives, and adverbs of degree. Put each list in an order that has something to do with syllables, e.g. increasing and then decreasing in length, or alternating between two-syllable and three-syllable words. By listening and then looking at a worksheet, students must work out what the two relationships between the words each list are, e.g. “Adverbs with more and more syllables”.
Syllables screenwriting
Students try to write dialogues with particular stress patterns, e.g. the same number of syllables in alternate lines or increasing the number of syllables by two in each line (a two-syllable line, then a four-syllable line, etc). These patterns can be given to them, chosen from a list, or just decided as they write the dialogue.