Sound Cards · Say the ending: final consonants

Objective & content

8 cards, one per word, each carrying the word and its IPA. The back of a card carries the word it is confused with, and that word's IPA: the pair is on the card, not in the teacher's head. The words are the ones the Sound Check unit "Say the ending: final consonants" contrasts, with the same IPA, so the deck and the unit teach exactly the same set. Print and cut, or flip the deck on screen.

Pedagogical guide

Pronunciation work fails when it stays in the ear: pupils hear a difference in the lesson and lose it by the next one. A card puts the contrast in their hands. Finish the final consonant sound: don't stop before the end of the word (sea -> seat, ban -> band).. The deck is not levelled by its words but by the feature it drills, which is why it is filed at A1+: the sound comes back at every level, and the example words stay inside that band.

Suggested procedure

1. (1 min) Play the Sound Check unit, or say the two sounds yourself, twice each.
2. (4 min) Pupils sort the deck into two columns, one per sound, saying each word aloud. They flip a card to check: the partner word is on the back.
3. (3 min) Pair hunt: deal the deck around the class; each pupil finds the pupil holding the partner of their card.
4. (2 min) Two pupils read a card each; the class says which sound they heard.

Adaptations

• [S] Work with half the deck, and say each word yourself before the pupil repeats it.
• [A] Cover the IPA: the pupil says the word from the spelling, then checks the hint line.
• Whole class: project the deck and use it as a five-minute warm-up, one card per pupil.

Materials & prerequisites

Print one deck per group of three or four and cut the cards out (laminate to reuse). The screen version plays offline, no login. The Sound Check unit itself is the audio: the cards carry no sound.

Curriculum alignment

France: the phonological work of the cycle 3 and cycle 4 programmes (discriminating and producing the sounds of English). The unit tags are final-consonants, silent-e. Germany and Italy: the same contrast appears in every Klasse 5-6 and classe 1-2 pronunciation syllabus.

Assessment & extensions

The check is oral: a pupil who can say both sides of a card, and hear which one you say, has the contrast. Extend with the Sound Check unit's own discrimination game, or with the other decks of the line for a whole-class sound sort.