Racing to English

Pronunciation - `f' or `th'

TEACHERS NOTES

AIMS

To help learners distinguish between particular sounds and to pronounce them clearly.

CONTENTS

A set of minimal pair cards which focuses on the pronunciation of `f' and `th'. These sounds can be quite difficult for some pupils/students to distinguish, including younger native speakers of English.

Note: minimal pairs are pairs of words that differ only in one sound - for example feel/peel.

ACTIVITY 1 - Collect a set (for use with a small group of pupils/students)

This activity focuses on listening to the sounds and distinguishing between them.

Preparation - Print out enough of the set of cards so that each learner can have a complete set.

1. The idea of this activity is for the learners to collect the complete set of cards.

2. Shuffle all the cards; take a card, read it to the first learner (do NOT let them see it). Ask `Do you want XXX?'

3. Continue with other learners.

4. In the first round all the learners will say `yes please' and be given the card.

5. In subsequent rounds, if a learner has NOT got that word s/he must say `Yes please', if they already have it they must say `No thank you'.

6. If a learner has already got that word and then says `Yes please' take away the word card s/he has already collected!!!

7. The first learner to collect the complete set of cards is the winner.

ACTIVITY 2 - Point to the word (for one or two learners)

This activity focuses first on hearing distinctions then on producing them.

1. Choose one pair of cards; place them apart where they can be clearly seen.

2. Say `Point to XXX'; learner(s) point to the correct card.

3. Be careful to say the words in random order, for example:
   Point to `that'. Point to `that'. Point to `fat'. Point to `that'. Point to `fat'.
   Point to `fat'. Point to `fat'. Point to `that'. Point to `that'.

4. When the learner(s) are competent at pointing to the correct sound, ask them to take it in turn to say the words and you point. This is sometimes very salutary for pupils/students who think they are making the correct distinctions but actually are still confusing them.

OTHER ASPECTS OF SPEECH

If you are teaching younger children in a situation where they have access to a native speaker model (e.g. within a UK classroom) you are unlikely to need to consider pronunciation as young children still have the ability to develop a native speaker accent. For older children and adults pronunciation can sometimes be a critical consideration.

In order to make sure that our pupils'/students' speech is comprehensible, as well as pronunciation we need to think of stress and tone.

STRESS

I once heard a bilingual assistant talking about veg-ee-tay-bulls (vegetables). It's important in English only to stress the important syllables in a word (so we say VEG't'bles) - unlike many languages which stress all syllables equally.

I frequently hear teachers say `It is “ay” book'/`It is “ay” pencil', etc. when teaching English. In ordinary conversation we say `It's u book'/`It's u pencil'. Again it is important to teach this sort of stress.

TONE

In English, statement sentences tend to start with a high tone and gradually fall. This is also true of questions starting with when/why/how/etc. but yes/no questions tend to rise at the end. This is different from many languages especially tonal languages (e.g. Mandarin) where the tones are fixed to a word rather than a sentence, so a word said with a rising tone means something different to the same word said with a falling tone.

F V. TH

fan	than
fat	that
fee	thee
foe	though

Racing to English

© Gordon Ward 2010. Photocopiable only for use in the purchasing institution. Pronunciation, spelling etc: `f' or `th'

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