Best Approaches to Teaching Consonant Sounds: Lecture 2

In English sound, when the active and passive articulators touch each other and there is a little and a complete blockage of the vocal tract, those sounds that are produced in these activities are consonant sounds. You can learn further from consonant sounds, in lecture 1.

Define consonants.

Consonants can be defined as the sounds produced with a little or complete constriction/obstruction/blockage of the flow of the air coming from the lung through the mouth passage. Consonants may be voiced or voiceless and they are twenty-four (24) sounds.

 Explain consonants /ʃ/ʒ/ /ʧ/ and /ʤ/.

 To pronounce the sounds above, the blade of your tongue must touch the post-alveolar region of the mouth. The sounds /ʒ/ and /ʤ/ are voiced while /ʃ/ and /ʧ/ are voiceless.

Drill the sounds.

 Practise the words below until you get the pronunciation right.

Identify the sounds /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ by letters.

1. The sound /ʃ/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letters ‘sh’ as sound /ʃ/ in shoe, ship, ashes, she, shell, shed, shop, etc.

ii. Letters ‘ss’, ‘c’ as sound /ʃ/ in pressure, ocean, mission, etc.

iii. Letter ‘t’ as sound /ʃ/ in nation, mention, acquisition, information, education, motion, etc.

2. The sound /ʒ/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letters ‘ure’ as sound /ʒ/ in pleasure, measure, leisure, treasure, closure, exposure, etc.

ii. Letter ‘s’ as sound /ʒ/ in confusion, vision, division, allusion, etc.

iii. Letter ‘g’ as sound /ʒ/ in regime, mirage, message, etc.

3. The sound /ʧ/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letters ‘ch’ as sound /ʧ/ in church, cheat, chalk, rich, butcher, switch, teacher, chess, chair, lunch, cheap, etc.

ii. Letter ‘t’ as sound /ʧ/ in literature, future, feature, pasture, texture, torture, mixture, etc.

4. The sound /ʤ/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letter ‘j’ as sound /ʤ/ in Jew, John, jug, juice, jeans, judge, jeopardy, jingle, jolly, etc.

ii. Letters ‘dg’ or ‘g’ as sound /ʤ/ in judge, knowledge, dodge, prestige, beige, gem, gender, gel, generator, gentleman, ginger, etc.

Evaluate.

 Choose the word that has correct phonetic symbol below.

1. /ʃ/   A. saw               B. salt               C. shirt                D. nature
2. /ʒ/  A. regime          B. nature           C. shop              D. nation
3. /ʧ/  A. pressure        B. treasure        C. cheat             D. bin
4. /ʤ/  A. violent          B. measure       C. ship              D. dodge
5. /ʃ/   A. dedication     B. confusion     C. pasture         D. beige
6. /ʒ/  A. shed               B. closure         C. church          D. Jew
7. /ʧ/  A. rich                B. gel                C. vision           D. she
8. /ʤ/  A. soon             B. gear             C. rich              D. gender

 Explain consonants /ŋ/, /k/ and /g/.

 To pronounce the sounds /ŋ/, /k/ and /g/, the back of your tongue must contact the soft palate. The sounds /ŋ/ and /g/ are voiced while the sound /k/ is voiceless.

Drill the sounds.

Practise the words below until you get the pronunciation right.

Identify the sounds /g/, /ŋ/ and /k/ by letters.

1. The sounds /g/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letter ‘g’ as sound /g/ in guess, beg, go,goat, guy, peg, thug, etc.

ii. Letters ‘gg’ as sound /g/ in rigged, begged, rugged, etc.

2. The sound /ŋ/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letters ‘ng’ as sound /ŋ/ in sing, bang, thing, hungry, song, etc.

ii. Letters ‘nk’, ‘en’, ‘qu’ as sound /ŋ/ in bank, engrossed, banquet, etc.

3. The sound /k/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letter ‘k’ as sound /k/ in kettle, keg, basket, ark, etc.

ii. Letters ‘c’, ‘ch’, ‘q’ as sound /k/ in car, come, candle, chemistry, quit, etc

 Evaluate.

 Choose the word that has correct phonetic symbol below.

1. /g/   (a) gross   (b) blue    (c) cross      (d) song
2. /ŋ/   (a) king    (b) kettle   (c) come      (d) candle
3. /k/   (a) cake    (b) cell      (c) cement   (d) salt
4. /g/   (a) forget  (b) ball     (c) talk         (d) play
5. /ŋ/   (a) tank    (b) tin       (c) bin          (d) land
6. /k/   (a) candle (b) sound  (c) talk        (d) bank

Explain consonant /j/.

 To pronounce consonant /j/, let the front of your tongue touch the hard palate firmly. It is a voiced sound.

Drill the sounds.

 Practise the words below until you get the pronunciation right.

Identify sound /j/ by letters.

 The sound /j/ can be realised under the following letters:

1. Letter ‘y’ as sound /j/ in yet, yeast, youth, yes, you, yet, etc.
2. Letters ‘u’, ‘eu’ as sound /j/ union, European, unicameral, pupil, etc.

Evaluate.

 Underline the words with sound /j/ in the passage below.

It is you, not the pupil who makes the yeast for some union in the unicameral. Yes, you are correct because some of us yet to understand it.

Explain consonant /h/.

 To pronounce consonant /h/, let the front of your tongue be raised up close to the roof of the mouth; it does not block the flow of air from the lungs. The sound is a voiceless sound.

Drill the sounds.

 Practise the words below until you get the pronunciation right.

 Identify the sound /h/ by letters.

The sound /h/ can be realised under the following letter:

Letter ‘h’ as sound /h/ in hoe, happy, hot, hollow, etc.

Remember that some words with letter ‘h’ are not pronounced as sound /h/. Those words are honesty, honour, honorable, heir, hour, heiress, etc.

 Evaluate.

Underline the words with sound /h/ in the passage below.

 My honourable holds my happy note to my heir. It is not to go to my house and hall head of hoarse to enhance how hammer is good for hour.

Explain consonant /w/

 To pronounce consonant /w/, you will involve both your lips and the back f the tongue with the velum. It is a voiced sound.

Drill the sounds.

Practise the words below until you get the pronunciation right.

Identify the sound /w/ by letters.

 The sound /w/ can be realised under the following letters:

Letter ‘w’ as sound /w/ in away, wag, word, work, swagger, award, etc.

 Evaluate.

Underline the words with sounds /w/ in the passage below.

The word of God is like sword that cannot be thrown out of window. The win is at work to water away some of them. The award of speech work swags from swagger to swing.

Author: Deola Adelakun