Dernière mise à jour : 18 avr. 2019
Teaching the proper pronunciation of sounds is one of the most important parts of teaching a language, yet sadly it is also one of the most neglected parts. How can one truly master a language and speak with confidence without being able to produce the correct sounds?
Many teachers tend to avoid this topic outright for fear that it may be boring or take up too much time. Well, whether you’re a teacher or a parent looking to help your child improve their pronunciation, here are 3 faces to practice English sounds with.
Three faces to perfect your English sounds are:
It can be written in many different ways, such as ee, ie, and ea. This is the sound that is also the English name for the letter ‘E’ (name of the letter ‘I’ in French). To make this sound, all your child has to do is smile and show all their teeth. Unless they are currently waiting for their teeth to arrive…
Just ask them to make a big closed mouth smile and allow the sound to be long.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
The next silly face can help anyone make the ‘ch’ sound. This sound requires a brief explosion from the mouth much like a sneeze. To make this sound, you want to round your lips while showing your teeth. Make sure your teeth are touching like a bunny. Put your tongue at the top of your mouth like you would for a ‘t’ sound. Next, let the air come quickly from your mouth by dropping your jaw. You want lots of air to come out. Pretending to be a train helps a lot with this sound. Choo! Choo!
Finally, we have the infamous ‘th’ sound. English is one of the rare few that uses this sound. *Correction: the ‘th’ actually represents 2 sounds. You can help your children master these 2 sounds with the following steps and this 1 silly face.
To say the ‘th’ sound like in the word “thanks”: all you have to do is first ask your child to make a ‘s’ sound like a snake (comme un serpent). SSSSSSSSSSS. Great! Now ask them to stick out their tongue and make the same sound.
To make the other ‘th’ sound, start with the ‘z’ sound. ZZZZZZZZZZ If you aren’t sure whether you are making it correctly, feel your throat; if your throat is vibrating, you are doing it right. Have your child stick out their tongue again while making the ‘z’ sound. Great work!
