I’ve heard it said that a single page of text can be used to teach all the pronunciations and intonations of English. So let’s see what we can use from a single holiday. The vocabulary associated with Halloween offers some fun onomatopoeia to practice….OOOOOOOH and BOOOOOO and EEEEEEEK are opportunities for students to stretch out those vowel sounds and become more comfortable with the feel of continuous vocal chord vibrations.
Words with /æ/ are always important to work on. Since this sound occurs in few other languages, it’s harder to acquire: vanish, black cat, magic, black hat, candy, mask.
Another challenge for many English learners is differentiating these two vowels, short I and long E, found in: trick or treat.
And we can practice lengthening the stressed-syllable-vowel as well as the final ‘y’ of: halloween, spooky, creepy
And if you are interested in how the supernatural is used as a metaphor in politics and the press, check out Andrew Gallagher’s Metaphors of Halloween! post.
Happy Spooky Teaching!