CALL Lesson Plan

Original version

Time : 1 hour 30 minutes (double period)
No. of students : 15-30
Setting : Computer Lab
Level of proficiency : Primary school students (Standard 5-6)
Theme : Pronunciation
Topic : Learning how to pronounce British and American English
General objective : To enable students to pronounce English words correctly
with the aid of computer software.

Specific outcomes : By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
1. Pronounce correctly
2. Widen vocabulary
3. Expose the students to the British and American pronunciation.

Skills involved :
1. Listening
2. Speaking


Content : 1. Whole-class discussion
2. Pair-work

Teaching Aids : 1. Desktop Computer
2. Dictionary Software
3. Microsoft Power-Point (slide-show)
4. Projector

Reflection :
1. Students become less dependent on the teacher in learning English.
2. Teachers can save time for explaining every meaning of the words that students do not understand.

Stage/Time
Content Presentation/Rationale

Set Induction
30 minutes

Introduction to dictionary software and exercises. Software demonstration.
1. The teacher explains about the exercises they will be doing which is to create simple sentences and pronounce the sentences correctly by referring to the Bilingual dictionary for meanings and using the Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary for the correct pronunciations.
2. The teacher shows the techniques on how to use the dictionary software efficiently through the projector. The lesson starts when the students understand how to use the dictionary. Teacher checks on each student to make sure they know how to use the software.
3. The teacher calls names randomly to know about the level of English generally by asking them to construct a simple sentence about them. For example, a student stands up and tells the class about his hobby (“My hobby is collecting stamps”).


Development
Stage 1
30 minutes

Individual task.
1. The teacher provides students with some words and asks them to produce a sentence based on the words. For instance, the words ‘dog’, ‘yellow’ and ‘big’. Students construct a sentence which contains all the words given. i.e. “Mary has a big yellow dog”.
2. The teacher asks the students to use both softwares as reference for meanings and pronunciations to aid them in constructing their sentences.
3. The teacher asks the students to share their sentences to the whole class one by one.

Rationale
Students are informed of the
importance of the exact
pronunciation and to encourage them to refer to a dictionary every time they do not understand a word.

Stage 2
30 minutes

Pair-work
1. Teacher asks students to sit in pair for pair-work exercise where the students must create a short dialogue where the student copy the way of speaking British and American English as accurate as possible. The teacher gives a situation where an American and a British communicate with each other using their mother-tongue.
2. The words are given by the teacher to the students. Those specific words are such as ‘colour’, ‘neighbour’, ‘metre’. The students refer to the Cambridge dictionary to differentiate the spellings and pronunciations and at the same time, the Bilingual dictionary in order to look up for meanings that they do not understand. i.e. British guy:“excuse me sir, what is the colour of your house? American guy: “the color of my house is white”.
3. Students will be asked to present their dialogues in front of the class.

Rationale

The students can differentiate the spellings and pronunciations for British and American English and students learn to pronounce English better.

Closing
1. Teacher evaluates the performance of the students based on correct pronunciations and sentence structures by giving the comments on their over-all works.
2. Students disperse.

Reflection on the assignment

We started the assignment with little knowledge on the methods of devising a lesson plan. With some guidance, we managed to figure out the necessary elements for the lesson plan and started creating it.

We have very little problem in finding the suitable computer software to be used in the lesson plan. Knowing how to operate the software is another thing but we managed to overcome that in a few days.

We also faced some difficulty in devising a proper exercise that fully utilizes both speaking and listening aspect of the language at the same time. However, by putting the exercises in proper arrangement solves this problem.



Improved Lesson Plan

Time : 2 hours (double period)
No. of students : 40
Setting : Computer Lab
Level of proficiency : Primary school students (Standard 5-6)
Theme : Pronunciation
Topic : Learning how to pronounce British and American English
General objective : To enable students to pronounce English words correctly
with the aid of computer software.

Specific outcomes : By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
1. Pronounce correctly
2. Widen vocabulary
3. Expose the students to the British and American pronunciation.

Skills involved :
1. Listening
2. Speaking

Content : 1. Whole-class discussion
2. Pair-work

Teaching Aids :
1. Desktop Computer
2. Dictionary Software
3. Microsoft Power-Point (slide-show)
4. Projector

Reflection :
1. Students become less dependent on the teacher in learning English.
2. Teachers can save time for explaining every meaning of the words that students do not understand.

Stage/Time
Content Presentation/Rationale

Set Induction
30 minutes

Introduction to dictionary software and exercises. Software demonstration.
1. The teacher explains about the exercises they will be doing which is to create simple sentences and pronounce the sentences correctly by referring to the Bilingual dictionary for meanings and using the Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary for the correct pronunciations.
2. The teacher shows the techniques on how to use the dictionary software efficiently through the projector. The lesson starts when the students understand how to use the dictionary. Teacher checks on each student to make sure they know how to use the software.
3. The teacher shows the video clips on how the native speakers pronounce both of the accents. They will have clear understanding on how the native speakers pronounce their accent.
4. The teacher calls names randomly to know about the level of English generally by asking them to construct a simple sentence about them. For example, a student stands up and tells the class about his hobby (“My hobby is collecting stamps”).

Development
Stage 1
45 minutes

Individual task.
1. The teacher provides students with some words and asks them to produce a sentence based on the words. For instance, the words ‘dog’, ‘yellow’ and ‘big’. Students construct a sentence which contains all the words given. i.e. “Mary has a big yellow dog”.
2. The teacher asks the students to use both softwares as reference for meanings and pronunciations to aid them in constructing their sentences.
3. Some video aids will be provided. They can have reference regarding on how to pronounce the accents.
4. The teacher asks the students to share their sentences to the whole class one by one.

Rationale
Students are informed of the
importance of the exact
pronunciation and to encourage them to refer to a dictionary every time they do not understand a word.

Stage 2
45 minutes

Pair-work
1. Teacher asks students to sit in pair for pair-work exercise where the students must create a short dialogue where the student copy the way of speaking British and American English as accurate as possible. The teacher gives a situation where an American and a British communicate with each other using their mother-tongue.
2. The words are given by the teacher to the students. Those specific words are such as ‘colour’, ‘neighbour’, ‘metre’. The students refer to the Cambridge dictionary to differentiate the spellings and pronunciations and at the same time, the Bilingual dictionary in order to look up for meanings that they do not understand. i.e. British guy:“excuse me sir, what is the colour of your house? American guy: “the color of my house is white”.
3. Students then will have some video examples showing how to pronounce the exact pronunciation.
4. They will be asked to imitate the pronunciation from the video clips and present their dialogues in front of the class.
5. Finally, the students have to try to speak in either one accent and the teacher will be the navigator in the dialogue. The teacher will evaluate regarding the level of accomplishment by the students.

Rationale

The students can differentiate the spellings and pronunciations for British and American English and students learn to pronounce English better.



Closing
1. Teacher evaluates the performance of the students based on correct pronunciations and sentence structures by giving the comments on their over-all works.
2. Students disperse.


Reflection on the assignment

We started the assignment with little knowledge on the methods of devising a lesson plan. With some guidance, we managed to figure out the necessary elements for the lesson plan and started creating it.

We have very little problem in finding the suitable computer software to be used in the lesson plan. Knowing how to operate the software is another thing but we managed to overcome that in a few days.

We also faced some difficulty in devising a proper exercise that fully utilizes both speaking and listening aspect of the language at the same time. However, by putting the exercises in proper arrangement solves this problem.

Comments from Dr.Rozina regarding the original version:

1.) need video gather- British and American video (it was not congruent without the videos.)
2.) it is a hard lesson plan. (no difference in pronunciation because there is no samples from video or clips.)
3.) maybe can put video excerpts from movies.
4.) need to expose the students regarding how to pronounce.
5.) evaluation is not clear (missing)- what is the test to know that they have pronounced it correctly.
6.) number of students-should be 40 normally.
7.) it does not use technology based lesson. Use more in context.
8.) improvise the lesson plan and put in the blog.