Talk a Lot How to Use Connected Sentence Cards – Instructions Packs of connected sentence cards have eight sentence block sentences on them – with one word on each card The aim of the cards is for students to learn about: a) sentence building: how to make a sentence; the order in which we put the words b) sentence stress: which words are content words and which are function words c) connected speech: how we join together the words in a sentence; how we connect the sound at the end of one word with the sound at the beginning of the next word There are lots of ways in which you could use these cards, some of which are suggested here There is also a detailed lesson plan on p.3.3 which outlines how to use the cards to teach the techniques of connected speech From p.3.6 there is a detailed demonstration of how you could use the cards to teach connected speech by focusing on the vowel and consonant sounds that occur between words in a sentence First of all, print the cards (on thin card, if possible) If you are able to laminate them, that would be ideal, because you will be able to use the same set of cards again and again! Ideas for using the connected sentence cards: • • • • • Ask students to work in pairs or groups to put together the cards to make the sentence You could give one sentence (of the eight sentence block starting sentences) to each pair or group in the class; when they have finished their task, tell them to go and help put together the other sentences Mix up all of the cards from a set of eight sentences and ask students to put words into groups according to the kind of word, e.g nouns, adjectives, main verbs, auxiliary verbs, and so on Elicit from them which kinds of words are content words and which are function words (see p.12.1) Get students to write their own starting sentences Check them for accuracy, then ask students to make their own connected sentence cards using the blank template on p.3.2 Then, they swap their sentence (or sentences) with another group and try to solve the sentence(s) that they get in return Follow the detailed lesson plan on p.3.3 Use the demo (from p.3.6) as a guide for building lessons that explore connected speech For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now! Talk a Lot Elementary English Banana.com 3.1