Whisper Down the Alley
This one is good for lower levels or intermediate levels with numbers or minimal pairs.
- Choose a sentence or a set of numbers that illustrate a particular lexical chunk or pesky pronunciation point you would like to practice. For example, my German learners might find this one challenging: A kit with forty beds would sink quickly, I think. (the “th/f” is a challenge, the endings with t/d and the adverb as well).
- Explain that you are going to whisper a number/sentence/phrase into the first person’s ear.
- That person will whisper it to the next person and so on.
- The last person in the line writes the sentence on the board and it is compared to the original sentence. You might want to trace where the variations occurred (without making anyone feel bad).
Variation: Have two lines with the same sentence, they get a point for being the first finished and another point for the sentence closest to the original.