PRACTISING THE /t/ /d/ /id/ ENDINGS, by Beatriz Fernández

 

The following activity is designed to help secondary students identify the past tense pronunciation of regular verbs and improve their pronunciation of /t/, /d/ or /id/ endings. 

The teacher will display a series of words on the board and will highlight different endings with different colours. 

Then the teacher will approach their pronunciation using different resources: the teacher will explain some theory basics and read some words out loud, a couple of recordings of the words will be listened to and then videos will be watched in which students will be able to hear different accents. 

After this modelling part, students will be divided into groups and will be handed a couple of worksheets and highlighters. Inside their groups they have to figure out which is the correct pronunciation of the past ending. 

This cooperative activity might enhance students’ pronunciation skills and helps to create a comfortable and supportive learning environment since not only less skilled students can benefit from their peers but also those high achievers can reflect on their learning from a different point of view.

  How does this activity contribute to the principles of UDL?

The way in which this activity can contribute to the principle of representation is to show students the different ways to pronounced the past simple form of regular verbs depending on certain rules related to the number of syllables and the type of consonants. The different resources provided will help learners in their perception of these sounds and facilitate their comprehension.

Furthermore, after the modelling part students will have to work in groups and this might contribute to their motivation since they all have a common purpose or goal: classify the words depending on their ending. Thus, this will help with their engagement or with the affective network.

Finally, they will activate their strategic-action and expression by working with their peers. Sharing ideas and creating discussions among the group will enhance this network and students will benefit from each other’s’ pronunciation to get the right answers.