Lesson Plan of Problem-Consonants for Non-native Speakers of English
English Grade V
Students’ Learning Outcomes
· Pronounce in minimal pairs, shared problem-consonants for Pakistani speakers of English
Information for Teachers
· There are five vowels in English language. They are: a, e, i, o, u. the remaining English letters are consonants.
· Difficulties in consonants for Pakistani Speakers of English:
Ø Students have a difficult time distinguishing between two similar sounds like ‘I’ and ‘r; (light, right/led, red), ‘p’ and ‘b’ (pat, sat/ pit, sit),‘s’ and ‘z’ (sip, zip) and their meaning.
· Minimal pairs:
Ø Minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases that differ only in one sound in a word and have totally different meaning.
Ø Practicing minimal pairs can help students localize the often minute differences in pronunciation between one word and another.
Ø Minimal pairs are for vowels and consonants both.
Ø In this lesson focus is only on consonant minimal pairs.
Material / Resources
Chalk/marker, board, duster, chart, textbook
Worm up activity
· Recap the vowels and consonants sounds and letters with students.
Expected response: Vowel: a, e, I, o, u.
Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, I, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, s, t, v, , y, z
Development
Activity 1
· Students list some words starting with the letter‘s’.
(Expected Answer: school, screen, style, special, soap, salt, sentence, start, stop, sharpener, etc.)
· Record their answers on the board like this:
School screen style soap salt
· Check their pronunciation. Words having a vowel after letter‘s; are correctly pronounced but the ones without a vowel after letter ‘s’ are pronounced by Pakistani speaker of English by adding a vowel letter ‘s; like sakool, sacreen, satyle, sapecial, satart, satop.
· Discuss with them that these are errors we make while pronouncing the consonants of English language.
· Ask students now to work in pairs and think of words where we add a vowel ourselves like:
|
Word
|
Incorrect pronunciation
|
Correct pronunciation
|
|
Class
Saturday
Wednesday
School
Screen
Start
stop
style
|
Calass
Sachurday
Wed-nes-day
Sakool
Sacreen
Satart
Satop
satyle
|
Class
Saturday
Wensday
Skool
Screen
Start
Stop
style
|
· Teach them that when vowel comes after the first consonant letter then that word is pronounced properly by them but when a consonant comes after the first consonant letter then there is no need to add a vowel to it.
· Students read, repeat and recite the words correctly.
· Students add letter ‘g’ to the following minimal pairs: kin, ran, thin, win, sun,
· By adding letter ‘g’ it become: king, rang, thing, wing, sung. The meaning and pronunciation of the words change in minimal pairs.
· Write them on the board.
· Play the game: play with volume. Ask students to say it in a louder voice, increasing the volume (by wary of the classes next door) or ask students to speak in a whisper, very quietly.
· Play game 2: Experiment with speed. ‘How fast can you say it?’, building up speed like a train.
· Look at the board and tell the difference and similarity in the list of words maintained on the board. (The consonants and vowel letters are same just by adding letter ‘g’ to the list of words made the difference)
· Reinforce the concept of minimal pairs amongst students.
Sum up / Conclusion
· Ask children to repeat the words in class by answering questions like:
Ø Mark ‘school’ on the writing board and ask them. ‘How is it pronounced?
(Expected answer: skool not sakool or iskool)
Ø Mark ‘class’ on the writing board and ask them. ‘How is it pronounced?
(Expected answer: class not calass.
Ø Mark ‘Saturday’ on the writing board and ask them. ‘How is it pronounced?
(Expected answer: Sat-ur-day not Sa-chur-day)
Ø Mark ‘screen’ on the writing board and ask them. ‘How is it pronounced?
(Expected answer: screen not sacreen)
Ø Mark ‘study’ on the writing board and ask them. ‘How is it pronounced?
(Expected answer: Study not satudy or istudy)
· Share with them that the Urdu version for the words sometimes leads to incorrect pronunciation in English.
Assessment
· Assess student’s responses during class activities and follow up activities.
· Teacher is also required to involve the student in solving the problems given in the exercise at end of unit/chapter.
Follow up
· Make a list of five minimal pair words with letters ‘en’ and ‘ap’.
Phonics word families: “ap” words
|
Cap
|
Lap
|
|
|
Nap
|
Map
|
|
|
Rap
|
Sap
|
|
|
Tap
|
Gap
|
Phonics word families: “en” words
|
Ben
|
Den
|
|
|
Ten
|
Hen
|
|
|
Men
|
pen
|
Possible responses: are mentioned above.
