LESSON PLAN

Pronunciation: /t/ & /d/ sounds

Group members:
1. Trần Thùy Linh
2. Hứa Phương Linh
3. Phạm Lệ Vân

1. Learners’ description: First-year English majors at Pre-intermediate level.

Students are in the second semester.
Most of them are from big cities in the North.
2. Class size: 24 students (both males and females)
3. Lesson objectives: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
o Distinguish between the sounds /t/ and /d/.
o Make the correct sounds of /t/ and /d/ in isolation and in words.
o Read the transcription of the words containing /t/ & /d/.
o Produce their own stories with words containing sounds /t/ & /d/.
4. Materials and teaching aids:
o Textbook (Pronunciation in Use)
o Computer
o Projector
o Loudspeaker
o Whiteboard
o Handouts
5. Duration: 90 minutes

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 Lesson
Teacher’s activities Students’ activities Objectives Time Materials
stages

1. Review • T introduces a game “Picture sounds”. Pairwork. • Check if Ss can 10 • Whiteboard

recognize the minutes • Handouts
• T gives each pair different versions of • Ss receive handouts, form pairs, transcription of
pictures in the handout. Ask Ss to find the and find out the differences learned vowel
differences in the pair of pictures they between the pictures together and sounds /ei/, /ai/,
received. write them down. /əʊ/, /u:/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/,
/i:/.
• T divides the board into columns. At the • Ss call out the differences they
top of each column write the targeted found in the pictures in front of • Check if Ss can
phonetic symbol of the vowel sounds the class and tell T which pronounce these
including /ei/, /ai/, /əʊ/, /u:/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/, /i:/ phonetic symbol column the sounds correctly.
and examples of a word containing the words should go in.
sound.

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2. Presentat • T distinguishes English consonant letters Classwork • Help Ss detect 15-20 • Computer
-ion and English consonant sounds and shows • Ss look at the screen and watch the difference minutes • Projector
Ss the phonemic chart. the video. between letters • Loudspeak
• T elicits the minimal pairs /t/ and /d/. • Ss listen to teachers’ instruction and sounds. er
• T lets Ss watch a video of side carefully. • Whiteboard
pronunciation and explains to the students • Introduce how to • Handouts
the way to make the correct sound of /t/ produce the
and /d/. sounds correctly
• T summarizes the manner to produce the (place and
sounds /t/ and /d/. manner of
• T models the sounds /t/ & /d/. T asks the articulation).
whole class to look at T’s mouth and
imitate.

3. Practice - • T asks Ss to pronounce the sounds /t/ and 10-15

Minimal Pairwork. • Help Ss identify • Handouts
/d/ in pairs. T goes around the class to minutes
pairs check and correct any mistakes of Ss. • Ss form NEW pairs and practice the sounds in
• T calls some Ss randomly to check their to make the correct sounds of /t/ words and
pronunciation. and /d/ with their partners. remember the
• T notices Ss spelling of words with /t/ and • Ss listen to their peers carefully. pronunciation of
/d/ sounds. • Ss read words containing sounds /t/ and /d/.
• T asks the whole class to practice each /t/ and /d/. (through words)
word once or twice, and then call some Ss
to pronounce.

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4. Practice - • T shows a sample Bingo card Individual work • Help Ss 10 • Projector
Bingo • T delivers to each student one 5x6 Bingo • Ss listen to T’s explanation recognise the minutes • Handouts
card (12 versions for whole class) that carefully and may ask questions. sounds /t/ and /d/ • Markers
contains 15 minimal pairs. • Ss repeat the rules of the game. in words.
• T randomly read out the word on card. Ss • Ss take Bingo card and face it (through
listen, locate and mark the pronounced down. listening)
words on their card. Game stops when one • Ss listen and mark the
student crosses out five words in a row corresponding words. • Motivate
horizontally, vertically, or diagonally and students by using
yell out “Bingo!”. He or she is the winner. game with
prizes.

5. Practice – • T tells students that they are going to play Groupwork • Help Ss 10 • Projector
Join the a game called “Join the dots” in groups of • Ss form groups of three. construct words minutes • Handouts
dots three. • Groups read the phonetic (spelling and
• Within 3 minutes Ss need to collaborate to transcription and identify the pronunciation)
match the correct transcriptions with the words, then join the dots to find from
words. Then, they will join the dots in the the hidden content in the picture. transcriptions.
picture in the same order with the list of • Ss stick their pictures on the
phonetic transcription to uncover the board. • Motivate
hidden picture. students by using
• After 3 minutes, all groups must stop game with
working and stick their pictures on the prizes.
board. The winne has the correct answer
and can name the picture.

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6. Practice • T asks Ss to say 3 tongue twisters in Classwork and pairwork • Help Ss produce 10 • Projector
– Tongue Vietnamese to get Ss familiar with the • Ss listen to T’s explanation clear utterances mintues • Audio
twisters game as well as engaging them in the carefully. containing the file
activity. • Ss say some Vietnamese tongue two sounds /t/
• T shows 4 tongue twisters (1 phrase and 1 twisters.
and /d/.
sentence for each sound) on slide.
• For each phrase/sentence, T calls one • Ss read tongue twisters over and
student to read the tongue twister once or get familiar with the text. • Create a fun
twice without making any correction. learning
• T asks the whole class to listen to the • Ss listen carefully and practice environment.
audio file and then read aloud each word pronouncing in chorus.
and line by line once or twice (depending
on how well Ss pronounce).
• T asks Ss to work in pair and practice • Ss practice tongue twister in
tongue twister phrases and sentences with pairs.
/t/ and /d/ sound in turn within 3 minutes.
• T randomly calls Ss to read aloud in front
of the class to check accuracy.
• T shows pictures and says that Ss need to Groupwork • Help Ss create 20 • Handouts
7. make a story based on the pictures. The • Ss work in group to make a story. their words minutes
Production - story must have as many words with /t/ • Ss brainstorm the key words ending in /-t/ and
Story telling and /d/ sounds as possible. containing /t/ and /d/. /-d/ with high
• T calls at least 3 groups to present their • Ss check the logical connection accuracy.
story. The whole class listens carefully between the words.
and vote for their most favorite • Ss practice telling the story in • Promote
performance. group. creativity.

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 III. Anticipated Problems and Solutions

No. Stage Problems Solutions

• Ss can identify the differences but can’t explain • T should go around the class to give hints.
1. Review clearly.
• The level of the class is quite low. • T needs to extend the time for the game.
• Ss may find difficult to describe the manner of • T elicits some vocabularies of articulation parts to help Ss.
articulation in producing the sounds /t/ and /d/ • T asks Ss to hold a piece of paper, pronounce the sound /t/. If the
2. Presentation
due to lack of vocabulary. piece of paper moves, they make the correct voiceless sound.
• Ss may not know how to make the voiced and • T asks Ss to touch their neck and pronounce the sound /d/. If they
voiceless sounds. feel their vocal cord vibrated, they make the correct voiced sound.
Practice
3. - Minimal • Ss may find it hard to start. • T makes some models for them.
pairs
• Students may be unclear about the instruction. • Teacher asks questions to help them clarify what they have to do.
• There may be some students who get “Bingo” at • T checks their Bingo cards. If all of them are correct, they are all
4. Practice the same time. winners.
- Bingo • There may be a student yelling out “Bingo!” too • T checks his/ her card. If correct, T gives his/ her bonus point and
early (after 5-15 words). asks the rest to continue the game until the second one calls out
“Bingo!”. T checks and announces two of them are the winner.
• Some students may feel confused because they • Teacher uses questions to help them clarify what they have to do or T
Practice are not familiar with this task. can take an example to make them clear about the task.
5. - Join the
dots • Some students may finish the task earlier than 3 • T informs students at the beginning of the game that the quickest
minutes, some may need a lot of time to fulfil it. group will receive some bonus points if they submit their paper early.
6. Practice – • There might be new words in the sentence. • T explains and focuses Ss on pronunciation, not the meaning, and
tongue then provides phonetic transcriptions of some new/difficult words.
twisters
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 • For low-level Ss, they may find the picture too • T suggests some key words such as digger, dump, dust or provides
ambiguous for them. some sample sentences like “This is Dan. Dan drives a digger…”
7. Production • Ss might use words containing /-t/ or /-d/ but do • To lessen this risk, T notifies Ss that unless their story is meaningful,
not have the logical connections within the story. the words would not be counted.
• For some high-level Ss, 5 minutes is too long for • T considers shortening the time for the activity.
them.

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Picture Sound
Answer Key

/ei/: ace, label, radio, railway, suitcase, table, train, weight.

/ai/: kite, light, mice, pipe, type-writer, wine.
/əʊ/: comb, bowl, banjo, hole, rope, saxophone, sofa, telephone, toast, toaster.
/u:/: boots, newspaper, moon, soup, spoon.
/ɒ/: clock, dog, golf clubs, lock, salt, sausages, sock, swan, washing machine, yacht.
/ʌ/: cup, duck, gloves, golf clubs, gun, monkey, mug, skull, jug.
/i:/: fields, meat, sheep, teapot, teeth, trees, cheese.
/i/: chin, cigarette, finger, fish, guitar, lips, picture, pig, violin, window, bridge, giraffe, jacket, message, orange, chicken.

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MINIMAL PAIRS

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BINGO

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JOIN THE DOTS

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 TONGUE TWISTER
/t/ sound:
1. A tutor who tooted a flute died to tutor two tooters to toot.

2. He says that a two twice-twisted twine twisted twice twists twice as tight as a one once-twisted twine twisted twice.
/d/ sound:
1. Down the deep damp dark dank den.

2. When a doctor doctors a doctor, does the doctor doing the doctoring doctor as the doctor being doctored wants to be
doctored or does the doctor doing the doctoring doctor as he wants to doctor?

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STORY TELLING

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References/ sources

1. Video files:

2. Audio files:

3. Pictures from:

4. Illustrations (minimal pairs, phonemic charts) from:

5. Ideas for Game from:

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