Spotlight: the whiteboard game that drills pronunciation without telling students they're drilling pronunciation
One student stands with their back to the board while the class shouts a word you've written behind them, and they repeat what they hear — the entire class becomes a pronunciation mirror, and the mistakes fix themselves by round three.
Park English · 2026-08-31 · 4 min read
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You write a word on the board. One student stands facing the class, back to the board, so they can't see it. The rest of the class shouts the word. The student repeats what they heard. If they get it exactly right, they sit down and someone else takes the spot. If they get it wrong, you write what they said next to what you meant, and the class shouts again.
That's the whole game. We've been running it since 2018 and it works at every level we've tried, from elementary kids who can't hear the difference between "ship" and "sheep" to high schoolers who flatten every final consonant. The reason it works is that the student at the front isn't being corrected by you — they're being corrected by twelve voices at once, and they adjust fast.
How to set it up
Pick six to ten words. They should share the problem you're targeting: words that end in -th, or minimal pairs like "right" and "light," or past tense -ed endings your students are swallowing. Write them on a list you keep, not on the board yet.
One student comes to the front and stands with their back to the board, facing the class. You write the first word large enough that the seated students can all see it. On your signal, the class shouts the word once, together. The student at the front repeats what they heard.
If it's correct, they sit down and you call up the next student. If it's wrong, you write their version next to the target word so everyone can see both, then the class shouts again. Usually it takes two tries. Sometimes five.
When a student gets their word right, erase the board and write the next word for the next student.
The things that break and how to fix them
The class shouts at different speeds. Fix: you conduct them. Raise your hand, then drop it sharply. They shout on the drop, once, then stop.
One loud student dominates. Fix: "Everyone shouts or no one does." If one kid is doing all the work, pause the round and restart with a rule that they all shout together or you stop the game.
The student at the front keeps turning around to look. Fix: tell them before they stand up that if they turn around, they're out and the next person gets a turn. Most students want the turn badly enough that this works once.
Your low-level class can't read the word fast enough to shout it. Fix: show the word to the class for three seconds before the student turns around, so they've already processed it. Or run the game with picture cards instead of written words — you hold up a card, they shout "umbrella," the student repeats.
How to scale it by level
| Level | Word choice | Variation |
|---|---|---|
| Elementary (low) | High-frequency nouns they mispronounce: three, tree, knee, key | Use pictures instead of text |
| Elementary (high) | Minimal pairs: bat/bad, cop/cup, pen/pan | Student at front writes what they heard on a mini whiteboard before you reveal it |
| Middle school | Consonant clusters they simplify: texts, asks, world, film | Two words per round; they have to repeat both in order |
| High school | Word stress: PHOtograph, phoTOgraphy, photoGRAPHic | Class whispers instead of shouts (makes stress harder to hear) |
| Advanced | Sentence stress: I didn't SAY she stole it (seven variations depending on which word is stressed) | Class shouts the sentence, student repeats with the same stress pattern |
The sentence stress version is hard and good. You write a single sentence but underline a different word each round. "I DIDN't say she stole it" vs. "I didn't say SHE stole it" — they mean different things, and the student at the front has to hear which word the class is hammering.
Why this game instead of repetition drills
Because the student isn't repeating after you. They're trying to match what they heard from fifteen people at once, and if they get it wrong the evidence is right there on the board. You've written both versions. They can see the gap. The second shout almost always lands closer.
Also: the rest of the class stays engaged because they're responsible for the signal. If they mumble, the student at the front fails, and they know it. We've had classes get genuinely annoyed at each other for not shouting clearly enough, which is exactly the peer pressure you want in a pronunciation drill.
Run it for ten minutes, or until you've cycled through the list twice. If a particular word is breaking everyone, stop the game and drill that word separately for thirty seconds, then return to Spotlight with a different list.
One last thing. When you write the student's incorrect attempt next to the target word, don't comment on it. Just write both. Let the class see the difference and shout again. The less you talk during this game, the faster it moves.