Although you may have established long-term and short-term goals with your learner, you still need to narrow the focus further in order to build effective lesson plans.

B: What are the steps involved in lesson planning?

1 Step 1: Ask Who?

Use the information you have about your learner to develop learning objectives. Learning objectives tell what the learner will know or be able to do after the lesson that she could not do before. Objectives should be focused.

Vague: She will have better pronunciation.
Specific: She will know the proper tongue, lip, jaw placement (etc.) to use for /f/ and /v/.

Vague: She will be able to compare some things.
Specific: She will be able to use the comparative form "er... than" (larger than) and "more... than" (more beautiful than) to compare two things.

Vague: She will be able to participate in everyday activities.
Specific: She will be able to purchase items in a clothing store.

Step 2: Ask What?

For every objective ask What? What do I need to do to meet this objective? What skills and vocabulary will the learner need to meet this objective?

Teaching Hyun-Chu how to pronounce /f/ and /v/

She will need to know:

  • where to place her tongue (touch the top teeth to the bottom lip).
  • how to hold her lips and jaw.
  • the route the air should travel (blow air between the lips and teeth).
  • the difference between the two sounds.

1 Suzanne Abrams et al., Teaching Adults: An ESL Resource Book . (Syracuse, New York: New Readers Press, 1996.) Used by permission.