Pronouncing Places, Products and Planets

Students compare the pronunciation of proper nouns (cities, brands, planets, elements) in English versus their first language, noticing systematic differences.

Procedure

1. Display one of these lists on the board:
   • Cities/states: Paris, Moscow, Quebec, Budapest, Beijing, Seoul, Johannesburg, Edinburgh, Rio de Janeiro, Brussels, Siberia
   • Products/companies: Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Toyota, Skoda, Ikea, Qantas, Volvo
   • Planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth
   • Elements: Aluminium, Arsenic, Chlorine, Helium, Hydrogen, Iodine, Neon, Radium, Uranium
2. If students' L1 uses Latin script, ask them to write how each word is written in their language and note differences. Discuss results.
3. Say each word. Students note whether the English and L1 pronunciation is nearly the same, different, or very different.
4. Elementary: students say the "different" words in both languages. Advanced: discuss what the differences reveal about general phonological differences between English and L1 (stress patterns, vowel sounds, consonant clusters).

Tips

• Also works with personal given names that have equivalents across languages (e.g., "John").
• Can extend to cognates: names of school subjects, scientific terms, digital technology words.
• Follow-up homework: students list words borrowed from English into their L1 (or vice versa) and compare pronunciations in the next class.
• Useful for both pronunciation and vocabulary building.