Pronunciation of the regular plural 's'

by Anissa Khaldi | 02 Mar 2020

This lesson plan uses the approach suggested by Celce-Murcia et al. (2016) for teaching pronunciation. It starts from presentation, and moves through controlled practice, then to communicative practice. It revolves around the topic of 'healthy eating habits'. Part of the information in the lesson is taken from the website of the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet )

Resource Type: Lesson Plan

Audience: University

Audience Language Proficiency: Intermediate, Advanced

Duration: 1 hour and 55 minutes

Materials And Technology:

worksheets, mobiles

Objective:

To raise learners' awareness of how the 's' of the plural can be pronounced.
To help learners produce the correct forms of the regular plural.
To extend learners' vocabulary of healthy eating.

Language Skill: Other

Language Skill Other: Pronunciation

Content Area: EFL, Health

Procedure:

Presentation (10 min.): the teacher will

- produce the words and ask learners to notice how the ‘s’ of the regular plural is pronounced.

- conclude the rules with learners.

- draw learners’ attention to voiced and voiceless consonant sounds.

Controlled practice: the teacher will

- ask learners for some examples, and provide feedback (15 min.).

- divide students into pairs and give them handouts. Each learner reads the handout to check the meaning of new words, if necessary, and find the correct pronunciation of the plural in the underlined words (5 min.). Then, the task is for each student to read the sentences, and the other student circles the correct pronunciation of ‘s’ in the underlined words (10 min.).

- move around, give feedback, check answers.

Communicative practice: the teacher will

- give students the survey. Each student reads the questions and checks the meaning of the new words. The task is to ask four classmates the questions, then write a summary of the answers to report it to the classroom (20 min.).

- ask learners to record their summaries in their mobiles, listen to themselves and make the necessary corrections and changes (10 min.).

- ask learners to report back to the classroom (20 min.).

- discuss with learners if they are willing to adopt the pieces of advice in the survey (15 min.).

- give feedback on the pronunciation of ‘s’ (10 min.).

References:

Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D.M., Goodwin, J.M., & Griner, B. (2016). Teaching pronunciation: A course book and reference guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Healthy diet. (2018, October 23). WHO. Retrived February 16, 2020 from

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/healthy-diet

Supporting Files:
Pronunciation Of The Regular Plural 'S' 2.pdf

TESOL Interest Section: English as a Foreign Language, Higher Education