Lesson Plan - /r/ & /l/
Name: Anne and Lisa
Teaching time: 50min
Target student: 1st year ESL students (mixed age and linguistics backgrounds)
1. What are you teaching?
a. Language points: /r/ and /l/ (clear /l/ and dark /l/)
b. Language skills: listening (recognizing specific sounds) and speaking (pronunciation)
c. Skill focus: pronunciation and differentiation of /r/ and /l/
2. What are your Student Learning Objectives for the lesson?

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to: complete a minimal pairs activity and say tongue twisters which
contain the target sounds and will be able to differentiate and produce /r/ and /l/
3. When/ How in the lesson will you check the students’ progress toward the above Learning Objectives? What
behaviors/ activities will show you whether they have mastered the material?

At the end of the lesson, students will be able to hear the difference between /r/ and /l/ when compared in a
minimal pair exercises, as well as be able to articulate the different consonant sounds in the use of tongue twisters.
4. Preliminary considerations:
a. What do your students already know in relation to today’s lesson?
 /r/ and /l/ are NAE consonants and are difficult to pronounce for some ethnic groups
b. What aspects of the lesson do you anticipate your students might find challenging/difficult?
 Remembering the tongue/lip position in conversation
 Using /r/ and /l/ in the same word
 Tongue twisters will be difficult
 Distinguishing between dark /l/ and light /l/
c. How will you avoid and/or address these problem areas in your lesson?
 Remind the students of how the consonants are articulated verbally as well as through practice
Steps Time Procedure/steps
Interaction
Activity Purpose / Rationale
1
5
T-Ss
Ss-T
-Interact with students to
create comfortable
environment for learning
efficiently and effectively
2
10
T-Ss
S-S
3
10
-Provide visuals for basic and
proper pronunciation of NAE
consonants
-Find out level of students’
pronunciation accuracy
-Students actively participate
-Practice and repeat for better
comprehension
4
10
Greeting/Warm up
1. Greet students in English
2. Write /r/ on one side of the board and /l/ on the other
3. Ask students to give examples of their favorite English
words that have /r/ and /l/ in them (students can shout out
answers; teacher should list words under /r/, clear /l/, and
dark /l/)
4. Go over the list (Teacher reads; students repeat)
Pronunciation practice (vocal tract diagrams)
1. Teacher goes over place and manner of articulation
(tongue/lip placement)
2. Have students form sounds with aid of diagrams in pairs;
practice using words from the list on the board
Minimal Pairs (Part one)
1. Teacher gives minimal pair worksheet to students
2. Teacher reads lists; students repeat
3. Teacher goes down the list of pairs and either reads the two
minimal pairs, or reads one of the words twice
4. Students listen and decide if the words said were the same,
or different (if they are different, have the students say
which word had which sound)
-If the teacher reads “rim-rim,” the students will answer
that they are the same
-If the teacher reads “limb-rim,” students will answer that
the words are different, and that the first word is a /l/
words, and the second is an /r/ word
Minimal Pairs (Part two)
1. Teacher gives hand out with five sentences; each
sentence has a minimal pair
2. Teacher reads the sentences out loud using one of the
words from every pair and students circle the word they
T-Ss
T-Ss
-Comparison of /l/ and /r/
-Active listening for
distinguishing qualities
hear
3. Teacher goes over answers with students
5
10
6
5
Tongue Twisters
1. Teacher hands out worksheet with tongue twister
2. Teacher reads tongue twisters individually; students repeat
3. Students practice tongue twisters in pairs
4. Have students volunteer to say tongue twister in front of
class
Wrap up
1. Review key points of pronouncing /l/ and /r/ (tongue
touches alveolar ridge in /l/; tongue does not touch roof of
mouth + lips are rounded when producing /r/)
2. Ask if there are any final questions or ideas
T-Ss
S-S
Ss-T
-Actively engage in fun and
challenging activity
T-Ss
Ss-T
-Make sure students
understand and are
comfortable with /l/ and /r/
pronunciation