Word mazes are a word puzzle where students must follow the correct sequence of words to make their way from the start of the maze to the finish. The correct choice is vertically or horizontally connected to the previous word. Diagonal moves are not allowed.
Word Stress
Awareness of stressed syllables is crucial in helping non-native English speakers to improve their pronunciation and comprehensibility. These word mazes student focus attention on word stress.
- two syllable word maze
- three syllable character traits word maze
- four syllable word maze
- five syllable word maze
Silent Letter Word Maze
Use this word maze to help make students more aware of combinations of letters which usually contain an unpronounced letter.
Grammar Word Mazes
Word mazes can also be used as grammar activities. If you have any other ideas for word mazes, please leave them in the comments section below.
Hello! My students really enjoyed the word stress mazes, until they found an error! In the three-syllable word maze, the word frustrating does not have the oOo stress pattern. Perhaps you could update the maze with another word. Thanks!
Hi Lisa, thanks for the comment, I’m very happy when people point out errors that I can correct. But in this case, I’m puzzled. Where would you put the stress then? On the first syllable? In British English, the stress is on the second syllable. This site agrees with me https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/frustrating. What do other readers think?
Hi Andrew, I teach in the United States and we say ‘frustrating’ with the emphasis on the first syllable. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frustrating I was unaware of this particular American/British pronunciation difference. I try to tell my students of some of the differences (the way Americans say ‘schedule’ is different from the British pronunciation). It’s interesting that the word in question is frustrating — this is frustrating!! Anyway, I’ll use the mazes again, and just choose another word. I love your website; lots of great ideas! Thank you!
Hello! My students really enjoyed the word stress mazes, until they found an error! In the three-syllable word maze, the word frustrating does not have the oOo stress pattern. Perhaps you could update the maze with another word. Thanks!
Hi Andrew, I teach in the United States and we say ‘frustrating’ with the emphasis on the first syllable. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frustrating I was unaware of this particular American/British pronunciation difference. I try to tell my students of some of the differences (the way Americans say ‘schedule’ is different from the British pronunciation). It’s interesting that the word in question is frustrating — this is frustrating!! Anyway, I’ll use the mazes again, and just choose another word. I love your website; lots of great ideas! Thank you!
Thanks for writing back Lisa and thanks for the nice words. I’ll swap Frustrating for another word as soon as I get the chance.
I just apprised my student of the same difference in stress. FRUStrating in AE!! But the rest of the game is a good exercise! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Lorraine,
Thanks for the nice feedback. I thought I had changed it but evidently not. Thanks for letting me know. I have now definitely swapped out ‘frustrating’ for a less controversial substitute.
This is the world of English – I teach in Ireland, and standard British pronunciation often doesn’t work – but where are all the resources we use from? Yep.
But I tell them what the US pronunciation is, the different British ones, the Irish, the Australian – they’ll need them all if working in multinationals.
Hi! My students really enjoyed the silent letter maze. I was going to use the “do or make” maze but on the answer key, “a drawing” is marked as the correct answer. At that point in the maze, I don’t see any words that could be used with ‘do’.is this an error?
I’m glad you enjoyed the silent letter maze. I’m pretty confident that do a drawing is quite normal, at least in British English. If you google that phrase you’ll find lots of matches.
I am an American who grew up in New York City and went to many art schools. Either “do” or “make” can go before “a drawing” from what I have heard from many varieties of accents.
Excellent mazes, thanks! My students love them.
How about some more mazes? Here are a few ideas:
ed-endings (follow the ending sounds from start to finish). There could be 3 mazes: /d/ /t/ and /id/ sequences.
Fill in the blanks: first complete the past tense version of the words and then go from start to finish using a particular sequence, e.g., the /id/ sound.
Actually, there are practically endless possibilities.