English Sounds Worth Stressing Early in a Child's Education

(Targeted upon Korean ESL learners)

Unvoiced th /θ/
Think of three thick thumbs.
It's no sin to be thin.
compare: think - sink, thank - sank, thing -sing, thought - sought, thick - sick, theme -
seem
math - mass, mouth - mouse, faith - face, myth - miss, path - pass, forth - force, worth -
worse

Voiced th /ð/
Then that boy went there.
The thing about them is that they are never thinking.
Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.

F /f/ Unvoiced
A funny fat fish is floating by.
I want some coffee before I make a copy.
Let's go to the Philippines for our honeymoon.
compare F and P: fine - pine, fat - pat, fun - pun, full - pull, face - pace, foot - put, feet -
Pete,
compare V and B: very - berry, vane - bane, van - ban, valley - Bali

V /v/ Voiced
It is a very heavy van.
Wave to the volleyball team.

Z /z/ Voiced (This is not the 'j' sound as so many Koreans have learned in
school)
A zany zebra zigzagged by.

Si /si:/
We can sit and sing on the seashore.
She sells sea shells by the seashore.
Please sit down. (Careful not to swear!) Compare: with the Korean alphabet
R /r/
A red robin hurried by.
(Tongue placement is very important)

TS /ts/
What's up?
It's late. Let's go.
pots, dots, pets, cats, mats, hats
DZ /dz
The bands on her hands were gold.
Also any combination of consonant with s (e.g. backs, dogs, things, etc. . .).

L-R /l-r/
All right. Let the ball roll.

K-L and K-R

What do they look like?
They are in the back row.
It's all right.
You're still wrong.
Let's call Rosa.
Let's stay up all night.
What's your nickname, again?
Don't sit in the back row. You can't see well in the back row.
Listen to the recording and mark the problem words with a pen or
pencil:

Male Voice (Korean 1)

1. final consonant devoicing (bold)

2. vowel insertion (larger font)
3. th sound (underlined)
Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six
spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a
snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy
frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we
will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.

Female Voice (Korean3)

Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of
fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob.
We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these
things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.

Male Voice (Korean 11)

Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of
fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob.
We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these
things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.

Classmate reading 1
Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of
fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob.
We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these
things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.

Classmate reading 2
Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of
fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob.
We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these
things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.

Classmate reading 3
Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of
fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob.
We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these
things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station.
From the Speech accent archive:
http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php
 Some Additional Helpful Exercises for Teachers and Students

"minimal pairs" (website has flashplayer sound files)

i: i
sheep ship
heat hit
eel ill
receive sieve
practise: These six silly sisters are sweet to
meet.

i e
tin ten
Jill gel
hill hell
ill "L"
did dead
practise: Did Ed wed Liz or did Liz wed

Mixed words to use for a quick game:

lunge lunch
zoo Jew
think sink
sit shit
clothes close
verb burb
bop bob
worse worth
pull bull
rot lot
roared lord
lice rice
as as

Resources:
http://www.shiporsheep.com/
Links for English audio resources (speaking and listening):
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/EnglishP/SpkLis/
 Phonics Resources

Minimal Pairs with 'instant sound' (uses a flash player that you may need to download)
sheep - ship
caught - cot
And many more! at http://www.shiporsheep.com/

Online pronunciation guide with American, British, Australian, Canadian and Scottish English
with 'instant sound'. Also has many other 'mouse over' resources:
http://www.fonetiks.org/

Fonetiks: the sounds of spoken language

English, Spanish and German with interactive diagrams of the mouth and the sounds of
native speakers:
http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Eacadtech/phonetics/

Some instant sound links with quizzes, games, and songs you can buy online:
Phonics: http://genkienglish.net/phonics.htm
Picture books: http://www.genkienglish.net/picturebookfoodanimals.htm

http://www.jollylearning.co.uk/
Audio files and resources to adopt a phonics program
Actions and words that go together to create an entire context of sounds and actions for
your students.

http://www.songsforteaching.com/phonics.htm
Sample Songs for teaching phonics (You must pay to get the whole song)

http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Songs/alpha/a.html
Very simple songs for teaching the 'main' sound of each letter in the alphabet.

http://www.genkienglish.net/phonicsabcsong.htm