Your tongue and teeth are important

[CalvinLimuel]

Hey, it is. And if you're a teacher. I'm a student and I sometimes cannot have a good mark in hearing test, because of my teacher's bad pronunciation. Especially for one word dictate. Because in a sentence dictate you can easily understand the sentence's context so you know the word(s) your teacher really means. But in one word dictate, there is no context you can understand. I really sick of this. I know this maybe no use to you as you may understand the person you talk to even he mispronounced. But, just don't let this bad behavior continue.
OK then, just hop on onto these examples.

/th/ and /d/
/th/ as in there
/d/ as in dare
/z/ as in zare (no this isn't a word, just a random word for example only)

Now, you may want to test someone and let them pronounce them. Can you see... err hear the difference?

To practice / th/, you can do this.
You can say or de /da'/ and/or za /za'/ over and over, but after 5 times, put the end of your tongue between your teeth, but don't bite it. Then say the /th a'/

/θ/ and /t/
/θ/ as in thank
/t/ as in tank
/s/ as in sank

Now test it again.

To practice /θ/, just say hank /hænk/ over and over, then after 5 times of repeating, change your tongue position; put the end of your tongue behind your upper teeth or between your teeth. Then now, try to say three /θænk/ and repeat it over and over.
Or if you're Japanese or Non-English speaking European, start from /sænk/ then /θænk/.

Then...

/v/ and /f/
/v/ as in vase
/f/ as in face

Test it again!

to practive /v/, you can say baa /ba/ 5 times, then bit your lower lip, try to say vaa /va/.

This is just the concept, the real one aren't like these

 

[yamiza]

Nice topic... GRP landed..^^ (I should practice this with my students)

 

[CalvinLimuel]

Thanks for the GRP
I first post this in my_english Mailing list in YahooGroups.
Made it because I really have problem with it
I can't made pictures, but I hope I can find a picture.
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I have a little joke about pronunciation.
An English teacher from US have trouble with this too. He teaches in Japan. Well he can speak Japanese fluently. He nearly always have troubles with his students' pronunciation. Compare this: "I thank you" and this: "I sank you" and read it in Nihonjin way

 

[Bard272]

wow
such a nice post /heh

 

[v0LtaGe]

I dun realize that there is a good information here until I read the whole paragraph of it,haha /heh