My ESL students have trouble remembering the words "thirteen" and "fifteen". Is there any way to help them?

Question

They always said them as "threeteen" and "fiveteen" no matter how many times I have corrected them.

Answer 1

I think a few of these suggestions are a little sophisticated for English-learning students.
Others of them I'm sure you would have already tried.

How about a lesson on Limericks, (5 line nonsense poems. 1st.,2nd. & 5th. lines rhyme and 3rd. & 4th lines rhyme,)
e.g. THERE WAS A BOY NAMED PAUL
WHO LOVED JUST KICKING A BALL.
HE KICKED IT SO HARD
IT WENT OUT OF THE YARD
AND NOW HE HAS NO BALL AT ALL.

Then teach them a limerick with thirteen in it.

I KNOW A HANDSOME YOUNG MAN
WHO HAS A WONDERFUL PLAN,
HIS NAME IS MURTEEN
HE IS ONLY THIRTEEN,
AND HE WILL GET RICH WHEN HE CAN.

The rhyming should help retention of the word.

You could do the same with fifteen also.
You could also make it a practise to count in fives at the start of the lesson, up to about 40, & get each student to do it.
The continual repitition should help.

Answer 2

Only 'thirteen' and 'fifteen'? Not the other teens, or is it because the others start with a recognisable number?

1 - You could try putting parallel lists up on the classroom wall (or better still, get you students to make their own lists and display the results):
1 - one 11 - eleven
2 - two 12 - twelve
3 - three 13 - thirteen
4 - four 14 - fourteen
5 - five 15 - fifteen
and so on.

2 - Think of some games which the answer is one of the teens eg. ages, prices - and get the students to make up the questions, too, if they're at the right stage to do this. If they're not at this sort of age, maybe their brother / sister / dog / cat / horse / tortoise / goldfish is...

3 - A calendar (assuming the students should know the numbers up to 31) with students' birthdays, school / class dates. Could make this into a wall display and / or use the info in an activity.

Answer 3

How long have you been trying with this? I think there must just be something about those two numbers that takes a while to "get it." When my kids were little and learning how to count, they always skipped 13 and 15 at first. All three of my daughters did the exact same thing! And, as a substitute teacher, I've seen it with other young students, too.

Answer 4

There is some debate about the effectiveness of student correction. If your student says "threeteen eggs" and you say "thirteen eggs!" it's unlikely to make an impression on the student or the class generally.

I recommend using a variety of games and activities to drill and practice the TL, for example those suggested by other Yahoo Answers users.

Answer 5

I suggest trying to make a visual connection between the sound of the word and an object.

"Thir" - "her" First, review the sound and meaning of "her". Then, take some photos of girls holding signs that show the number "13". Put these signs around the room and the students will start to equate "thir" with "her". When a student makes a mistake, point to one of the pictures on the wall instead of correcting them. First they will self-correct, then they will remember.

Do the same for "fift" and "gift". First, review the sound and meaning of "gift". Then, write "15" on small pieces of paper, wrap them in gift wrap and distribute to your class. Let them open it up and then review the connection between the sounds. On the wall, put some square of wrapping paper and write "15" on them in big letters. When the students make a mistake, use the same procedure as above.

Answer 6

All languages have anomalies. Ask your students for one in their language.
Explain that 13 and 15 are two of the anomalies in English and spoken the way they are for ease of pronunciation and flow.

Certain ideosyncracies have to be learned as often words change for the ease of speech. Some say, "Doncha" like Johnny Depp? instead of,
"Don't you. . . ."

I once heard an American apply what he thought was logic to another language based on the ideosyncracies of English. After a number of such challenges, the exasperated instructor finally replied, "Spanish didn't evolve for foreigners."