Onomatopeia. How to explain what Onomatopeia is to my ESL students? Please, help the more you can.?

Answer 1

Try reading the book " Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears". There are a lot of examples in the book of onomatopoeia.

Answer 2

make it a game without labeling it onomatopeia.

1. buzz around the room and encourage students to make a buzzing sound (bzzzzzzzz) too. then write the word "buzz".

2. hiss around the room and encourage students to make a hissing sound (sssssss) too. then write the word "hiss".

3. repeat until students have generalized the concept that sounds can be represented by words.

4. then ask if anyone knows what these special kind of words are called. at this point they have a framework for understanding what you mean when you use the label onomatopeia. leave the list hanging somewhere in the classroom, so students can add to it as they find more examples.

Answer 3

It might be best to come up with examples in their native tongue. Offer several examples. When they demonstrate a good level of comprehension of the concept, you can ask them to try finding examples in English.

Answer 4

when the letters in a word make the sound of the meaning of the word.
give a lot of examples
they will get it with more examples like slither, patter, hiss etc

Answer 5

How about looking right here
--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomatopeia

Answer 6

well as I'm sure you know it when words sound like their meaning...I think that examples are the best way of doing it...'Lisp' is a good example.

Answer 7

i would recommend getting your students to say what 'crash', 'sparkle', 'ow', 'thump' etc are in their own language. you often find that onomatapaeic words are similar in other languages.

Answer 8

This is a good link; http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/english/poetryframes.htm