Yes, S-sounds (if pronounced well) sound good. Rely on the power of imitation!

BACKGROUND ON SOUNDS

The sounds used in every language and even in dialects vary but the main thing for teachers is to realize that the best way to learn the sounds of any language is to have a good model speaker, listen carefully and then repeat the sounds and words that include these sounds over and over again. The students simply imitate the way the teacher says words.

If you feel it is necessary you can check the meanings of the 150 words in the lists.

There is usually no need to explain the systems of every language in detail. Still, in some cases the sounds may be completely new to the students and if imitating is not the solution, the teacher may have to explain how the sound should be produced.

For example, the English th-sound: place the tip of your tongue under your upper teeth and blow the air out, at the same time place your hand in front of your mouth and feel the air coming out: that is the th-sound. The th-sound can be voiceless or voiced. In words ‘thin’ ‘thick’ ‘through‘ /th/ is voiceless. Now place you hand on your throat and produce the same sound so that there is vibration on your throat. Like in ‘this’ ‘that’ ‘those’.

COMMENT ON VOWELS

So far we have pointed out that we need to work systematically in teaching English pronunciation. The order of doing things was introduced and suggested in the previous article.

You may be wondering why we do not talk about the pronunciation of vowels. The reason is simple: vowels are used in all languages and the differences in pronouncing vowels are easily learnt by imitating a good model.

Besides the following exercises include a great number of vowels that are practised simultaneously. All we need to do is to emphasize the difference between short and long vowels as well as those in diphtongs (combinations of two different vowels) since the difference sometimes changes the meaning of the words. The time for each s-sound is indicated after the list in case you decide to practise the sounds little by little.

Let’s practice the English s-sounds by repeating the words in the audio file below. PRESS the button and ask your students to repeat the words!

Time: 0:00- 0:36 N.B. Voiceless /s/, meaning no vibration on your throat and voiced /z/, meaning you can feel vibration on your throat. Otherwise the sounds /s, z/ are pronounced exactly the same. And the same goes with the other s-sound pairs below.

/ s /  see, say, sing, song, seem, stay, still, some, same, slow, summer, sin, sleep, small, save, son, side, sentence, Sunday, second, six, Saturday, sad, saddle, less, lost, almost, case, face, perhaps, peace, pass, last, hats, rats  (voiceless, no vibration on throat) Time on the recording 0:37-2:01

/ z / is, zoo, rose, his, hers, zero, has, easy, zebra, lazy, crazy, as, does, dogs, busy, noise, noisy, zoom, zone (voiced, feel the vibration on throat) Time 2:02-2:50

We often use this sound when we ask someone or our kids to be quiet, shh   / ʃ /  ship, she, shop, short, sure, shut, shoe, shore, shoot, shine, should, push, finish, wash, rubbish, station, ocean, fish, punish, wish, mention, machine, condition, relation                  (voiceless, no vibration on throat)  Time 2:51-3:45

/ ʒ /  garage, vision, treasure, explosion, invasion, measure, usual, pleasure, decision, occasion (voiced, feel the vibration on throat) Time 3:36-4:15

/ θ / and / ð / sounds are both always written with  th. Place the TIP of your TONGUE UNDER your UPPER TEETH and produce the sound by blowing air between your tongue and upper teeth. This sound is actually easy: just air coming out of your mouth.                              

 / θ /   thin, thing, think, thought, tooth, three, thirty, thank, earth, both, path, cloth, bath, faith, something, Thursday, thief, health, wealth, death, month (voiceless, no vibration on throat) Time 4:16-5:04

/ ð /   this, that, there, those, they, them, these, than, father, together though, brother, further (voiced, feel the vibration on throat) Time 5:05-5:38

We often use this sound when we make the sound of a noisy steam engine train.      / t ʃ  /    cheap, chair, church, change, chance, rich, picture, future, catch, much, watch, kitchen, chief, each, beach, reach, question, fortune, teach, change, touch, March          (voiceless, no vibration on throat) Time 5:39-6:29

/ dʒ /  jump, page, joke, strange, imagine, danger, journey, soldier, June, July, January, village, language, manage, cage, large,  age, just (voiced, feel the vibration on throat) Time 6:30-7:12