This is an excellent activity for students to gain awareness of pragmatical competency and pronunciation problems they may have.
In pairs, students silently “mouth” very slowly, the questions from a handout. Simple questions. Go here for many lists – use the simple ones like “Favorites” or “Getting to know you”. The other student responds with one or two simple sentences.
Students see if they can follow the other person. Doing this they will gain important information about how to get more information than the ear allows and increase their ability to read facial information – so important for language learning/speaking. Plus, they will just have a lot of fun!
This website from the U. of Iowa is the perfect compliment for this exercise and a must site for pronunciation!
Silent Speaking,
