About this activity
Eight long academic and vocational words: responsibility, transportation, opportunity, certificate, scholarship, supervisor, circumstances, registration. Every one contains both an /r/ and an /s/, and every one is a word a secondary student has to say in a meeting, an application or an interview — which is where a residual error is most audible and most costly.
How to use it in a session
Choose by relevance rather than working through. A student applying for a job needs supervisor and scholarship; one going into a transition meeting needs responsibility and circumstances. Split each into syllables, rebuild, then use it in the sentence the student would actually say it in. Twelve minutes covers three or four words to that standard.
What to listen for
Listen for which target degrades first. In responsibility the /r/ is initial and the /s/ is buried in the middle of a five-syllable word, and the buried one almost always goes first. Watch whether accuracy holds when the word is embedded in a sentence rather than said alone — for a residual error at this age, that gap is the whole problem.
Carrying it home
These words appear on forms and in meetings rather than in conversation. Rehearsing the two or three the student will actually have to say this month is worth more than practising all eight.
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Sixth through twelfth, for residual /r/ and /s/ errors.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all eight words play free in the browser.
- Why these words specifically?
- Because they are long, they contain both targets, and a secondary student has to say them in high-stakes settings. A residual error is most audible in a long word and most costly in an interview.