M05 — Teach pronunciation for communication
Pronunciation for communication
Module outcome: support intelligibility and intended meaning. Not accent removal. One feature chosen because it blocks understanding, taught to a level where communication survives.
Prerequisite: a learner profile from M01. Planned module budget: about 16 of the 200 activity hours. Built today: nothing complete. All four units are specifications.
M05-U01 · Connect spelling and sound
Specification. The unit page does not exist yet.
Planned content: notice a relevant spelling-sound pattern without implying English has one transparent letter-sound mapping. Evidence to keep: an annotated word set and a contrast-and-sort sheet.
M05-U02 · Use stress for meaning
Specification. The unit page does not exist yet.
Planned content: compare focus within a sentence; connect spoken prominence with a listener’s interpretation. Evidence to keep: a recorded or live demonstration, and a sentence with alternative emphases.
M05-U03 · Listen, transcribe, check
Specification. The unit page does not exist yet.
Planned content: use a short supplied script; compare a learner transcription with the source and diagnose the missed boundary. Evidence to keep: a corrected transcription with reasons, and a script with a replay plan.
M05-U04 · Target intelligibility
Specification. The unit page does not exist yet.
Planned content: choose one pronunciation feature affecting understanding; permit accent variation that preserves meaning. Evidence to keep: a communication check built on a partner information task.
Game · Minimal pair bingo
Whole class, one card each, 10 minutes, print-friendly. Each bingo card holds nine words built on two contrasts that actually cost francophone speakers understanding: long versus short /iː/ and /ɪ/ (leave, live, seat, sit, cheap, chip) and final consonants that French drops (bag, back, said, sad, work, worked). The caller says one word at a time inside a carrier sentence: “The guests leave at nine.” Players cross the word off only if it is on their card. Crossing off a word the caller did not say ends the card.
Trainee note: French has no short /ɪ/, so leave and live collapse into one sound, and final consonants vanish. The game trains the ear before the mouth, which is the module’s order of work. Accents stay; boundaries get safer.
Format adapted from listening-bingo formats in Pronunciation Games (Mark Hancock).
Play it now: minimal pair bingo
Listen to the caller’s sentence and cross off the word you heard — only if it is on your card. Crossing off a word the caller did not say ends the card. Nine squares; cross all six called words to win. No timer: listening work is untimed by design.
The print-friendly whole-class version is above.
Answer key for this card
Interactive version built for this course; format adapted from listening-bingo formats in Pronunciation Games (Mark Hancock).
How to work through this module
No built units yet. Use the specifications as your pronunciation checklist: pick one feature at a time, justify it with a communication failure you actually observed, and check improvement with a partner task, not a repetition drill. The bingo works today with any A1 to B1 group.
Sources and review status
Source anchors C1, D2 and D6 in the evidence register. No source certifies this module. Educator review pending. Corrections go to the contact page.
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