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Lesson Plan
Simple Past Tense
Akenyele Jones















The Learning Context



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This lesson is for beginner to low-intermediate proficiency EFL students who are studying in a
preparatory year program at Northern Borders University (NBU) in Arar, Saudi Arabia. All the
language learners first language is Arabic. The purpose for this course is to improve the
students overall accuracy in speaking, listening, reading and writing. Many of the students have
different intentions for learning English. While the classes are mandatory for the school, some
students want pursue an education in western countries; others want to be able to speak to others
from foreign countries for business purposes. NBU is a male only campus due to government
regulations.
The majority of the students are Saudi Arabian with a small number of Yemenis,
Palestinians, and Syrians. Their ages range from 18 to 22. Most of the students have had six
years of English studies during public school. However, they were mainly taught through
grammar translation. Many can identify English grammar rules in Arabic but are weak in
language usage. The methods of the classes taught the students to memorize grammatical rules,
passages of written English, and vocabulary in order to pass grade level proficiency tests.
Pronunciation was not a factor prior to their university course work. With an integrated skills
course, the students will be able to benefit from prior language learning they have concerning
grammar and they will also have an opportunity to practice pronunciation in context. The
expectation for this course are to give students a chance to turn metalinguistic knowledge of
English into communicative competence.
Most classrooms contain a whiteboard, podium, projector and 40 desks in four rows. All
desks are set in rows of four but they are movable. The classrooms are also well lit and ventilated
even though some classes do not have windows. The average class size ranges from 25 to 30
students. Regarding technology, according to Fox (2013) Saudi Arabia ranks third in



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smartphone consumption. This lesson will also allow students to use their smartphones for
educational purposes.
































LESSON PLAN

Lesson Plan Title: Lets talk about the past




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Assumptions:
Students will know when to use simple past tense verbs to describe activities in the past with
correct pronunciation.

Materials Needed/Preparation Steps:
1. Whiteboard, erasable markers, and an eraser
2. Pencils and paper
3. A day at school pictures with English/Arabic vocabulary
4. Internet access
5. PowerPoint presentation relevant to the lecture
6. Students smartphones/ Evernote application
Student Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to identify and apply three ways ed is pronounced with past tense
verbs using voiced and voiceless exercises.
Students will be able to read past tense verbs using ed with proper pronunciation by
practicing the sounds through reading passages aloud.
Students will be able to use past tense verbs in its proper context when speaking using
vocabulary describing past activities.
Students will be able to listen to recorded audio conversations using to past tense words
ending in ed and distinguish three ways ed is pronounced.
Students will be able to read text with proper articulation with fluency.
Hook/Warm-up: Greet students and explain the agenda for the class. We have worked on
simple past tense yesterday, now let us see if we can use it in conversation. Review the



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students knowledge of regular past-tense usage by asking questions about activities. The
questions will be written on the whiteboard (see Appendix A). The teacher will read the
questions written on the board, What did you do yesterday? The teacher will choose various
students to answer the same questions to hear if the students are using the past tense verbs in its
proper context along with accurate pronunciation. It is normal to hear inaccuracies at this point in
both fluency and proficiency.
Main Activities
Presentation:
Since pronunciation with past tense with ed is a unique problem with target L2 learners.
The teacher will present the different three ways ed can be pronounced. The teacher will
explain along with Prezi presentation, how voiceless consonant such as K/P/S/CH/SH/F at the
end of verbs will have /t/ sound instead of a clear -ed sound (see Appendix B). Along with
explaining the consonant sounds orally, the teacher will have the students repeat the phonetic
origins as sounds, not as letters. The teacher will say, The first sound is /k/. The teacher will
repeat this activity with all of the voiceless sounds listed on the presentation. Examples of words
such as stopped will be practiced since this word causes specific problems for the target students.
The teacher will write and say the word stopped with the sound of stopt instead of stop it. The
teacher will circle -ed in stopped and write a /t/ over it to make emphasis on the correct sound.
The teacher will repeat this teaching system with voiced consonants sounds G/B/Z/N/GE/V and
vowels. The teacher will say the sounds voiced sounds orally from the PowerPoint and have the
students repeat. The teacher will also show how assimilation takes place with the /d/ sound. The
teacher will give clear examples such as jogged as jogd instead of jog id (this is the way jogged
is pronounced by many students). The teacher will ask the students to repeat the words correctly



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by identifying words written on the whiteboard. At least six words will be written then read
orally by the teacher.
The teacher will only explain verbs ending with /d/ or /t/ sounds which have an added
syllable to verbs. This will also be shown on the link from ElementalEnglish.com (Appendix C).
The teacher will write and say, needed on the whiteboard. The teacher will show the voiced
and voiceless consonants sound on a presentation again and ask to the students to say the words
and sounds collectively as a class in unison. The teacher will remind the students, they must
make sure not get the letters confused with sounds.

Practice:

Since the distinctions of sound have not been acknowledged in the students prior
lessons. The teacher will have the students distinguish differences between voiced and voiceless
by identifying verb ending sounds. The students will watch and listen to a video from Espresso
English (Appendix D) in order to make distinctions between one syllable and two syllable
words clear. Distinguishing syllables are important for the students to identify their common
errors. To prepare the students for the video, the teacher will write the sounds /t/ and /d/ on the
whiteboard on each side of the board. A list of voiceless will be written on side of the board and
voiced on the other (see appendix E). The teacher will say the words first, then select students to
say the words on their own to assess speech production.
The students will then watch and listen to the Espresso English video in order to
distinguish between ed past tenses words that have one or two syllables. The students will hear
words such as, Folded (The students will write the number two). Liked (The students will
write the number one). The students will be provided with papers and pencils if needed.



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Production:
While the primary focus appears to be focused on pronunciation distinction students will
be able to use their past grammar knowledge and apply it within the production phase. Reading
will also be implemented but for the sake of economy, students will read a passage and record
themselves at home on their smartphones using Evernote as a series of homework assignments.
The procedure for using Evernote will be explained in class and they will also have YouTube
and website tutorials to refer to in the future (see Appendix F). The students will send the
recording via email weekly to the teacher titled with their name and school number. The students
will only have one article (see appendix E) to read for four weeks in order to monitor
improvements of fluency and pronunciation. Since communicative approaches are relatively new
to these students educational culture, authentic materials will be presented in stages.
After the guided production, the students will have to create five questions about their
classmate past weekend. The students will break up into pairs create these conversations. The
teacher will give an example, Here is an example, What did you do this weekend? I played
soccer at the park. The students will be given three minutes to prepare questions. The teacher
will make sure the other classmate will not know the questions before he answers it.
Wrap-up/Review: (5 minutes)
To ensure the students are clear about the differences of how ed is pronounced. The teacher
will have the students identify words that are not consistent with others. The teacher will present
an activity on titled, which word does not belong from the previous presentation (see Appendix
B). Two of the words will have the same ed ending sound one of the words will not. At this
point, the students will be able to provide reasons why one of the words does not belong with the
others.



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Assessment Plan:
The assessment will mainly be based on the students ability to provide speech production in
context with overall accuracy from what they have learned from this lesson. The assessment will
also be based on the fluency practice rubric (see sample rubric #1) given to the students. The
rubrics will be compiled at the end to monitor their level of improvement though the statistics
compiled by Google form.










References

Azar, B.S. (1992). Fundamentals of English grammar. White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman
Brown, H.D. (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy.
White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman

Fox, Z. (2013). The 15 countries with the highest smartphone penetration. Retrieved from
http://mashable.com/2013/08/27/global-smartphone-penetration/




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DeCangha, C. (2012). Skating! Retrieved from http://www.readingesl.ca/grammar/past.htm































Appendix A:

What did you do yesterday?

What did you do last night?

What did you do last weekend?






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Appendix B




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http://prezi.com/89rwonq_uttm/ed-inflectional-ending/





















Appendix C



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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j32SurxnE4s#t=26

























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Appendix D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j4pLoZlI2s








Appendix E

Skating!

This winter I learned to skate! A friend of mine had an extra pair of skates. He persuaded me
to go skating with him one Saturday afternoon in February. I borrowed the skates and we went
skating!
It was cold outside! We wore hats, scarves and mittens to keep warm. He showed me how to
put on the skates. He helped me walk onto the ice. He showed me how to start moving. He
also showed me how to stop! I moved very slowly at first and many people skated past me.



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When I fell nobody laughed at me. Instead, they helped me get back up. I kept trying! Soon I
felt much better. I liked skating!

Appendix F























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Sample Rubric #1