Best Approaches to Teaching Consonant Sounds: Lecture 1

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.

Defining the Concept of 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. You can learn further from consonant sound lecture 2.

Explain consonants /m/, /p/, and /b/

 To pronounce the sounds above, make your lower lip touch the upper lip. The sounds/m/ and /b/ are voiced while the sound /p/ is voiceless.

Drill the sounds.

Practise the words below until you get the pronunciation right.

Identify the consonant sounds /m/, /p/ and /b/ by letters.

(a)  The consonant /m/ can be realised under the following letters:

i Normal letter ‘m’ as sound /m/ in milk, calm, money, etc.

ii. Double letters ‘mm’ as sound /m/ in summary, hammer, mammal

iii. Letters ‘mb’ as sound /m/ in Jamb, comb, plumber, etc.

iv. Letter ‘lm’ as sound /m/ in calm, psalm,  palm, etc.

(b) The consonant /p/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Normal letter ‘p’ as sound /p/ in pussy, copy, pull, etc.

ii. Double letters ‘pp’ as sound /p/ in apple, supply, appease, et

(c) The consonant /b/ can be realised under the following letters:

Normal letter ‘b’ as sound /b/  in the book, bat, bottle, etc.

Evaluate.

Choose the word that has the correct phonetic symbols below.

1. /m/   (a) nest             (b) fetch            (c) seem            (d) ship
2. /b/    (a) neck             (b) med             (c) bad              (d) psalm
3. /p/    (a) psalm           (b) palm            (c) come            (d) dem
4. /m/   (a) limb             (b) answer         (c) resign           (d) yes
5. /b/    (a) listen            (b) tomb           (c) rubber          (d) comb
6. /p/    (a) psychology    (b) play            (c) sign              (d) hour

 Explain consonants /f/ and /v/.

 To pronounce the sounds /f/ and /v/, the lower lip must touch the upper front teeth. The sound /f/ is voiceless while the sound /v/ is voiced.

Drill the sounds.

Practise the words below until you get the pronunciation right.

Identify the consonant sounds /f/ and /v/ by letters.

(a) The sound /f/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Normal letter /f/ as sound /f/ in fan, face, fancy, fact, etc.

ii. Letters ‘ff’ as sound /f/ in effort, baffle, stiff, effect, raffle, etc.

iii. Letters ‘gh’ as sound /f/ in tough, laugh, rough, cough, etc.

iv. Letters ‘ph’ as sound /f/ in phobia, physics, pharmacy, photograph, etc.

(b) The sound /v/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Normal letter ‘v’ as sound /v/ in van, voice, void, shelves, reverse, envy, everything, love, etc.

Evaluate.

 Choose the word that has the correct phonetic symbol below.

1. /f/     A. voice           B. tough     C. van          D. ashes
2. /v/    A. physics        B. love       C. face          D. cough
3. /f/    A. free              B. voice      C. even        D. everything
4. /v/   A. verse            B. regime   C. measure   D. phobia
5. /f/   A. photo           B. vase        C. shelves    D. envy
6. /v/  A. vest              B. shelf         C. face        D. film

Explain the consonants /n/, /d/, /t/, /s/, /z/, /l/ and /r/.

To pronounce the sounds above, the blade of your tongue must touch the teeth ridge or the alveolar ridge. The sounds /n/, /d/, /z/, /l/ and /r/ are voiced but the sounds /t/ and /s/ are voiceless.

Drill the sounds.

Practise the words below until you get the pronunciation right. right.

Identify the consonant sounds by letters.

(a) The sound /n/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letter ‘n’ as sound /n/ in nation, not, ban, neck, pen, sun, etc

ii. Letters ‘nn’ as sound /n/ in manner, banner, annoy, cannal, etc.

iii. Letters ‘kn’ as sound /n/ in knife, knit, kneel, knickers, know, etc.

(b) The sound /d/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letter ‘d’ as sound /d/ in dog, deem, dam, dark, double, etc.

ii. Double Letter ‘dd’ as a sound /d/ in sudden, addition, wedding, etc.

(c) The sound /t/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letter ‘t’ as sound /t/ in tom, twice, tick, wanted, stopped, picked, pleased, etc.

ii. Double Letters ‘tt’ as sound /t/ in butter, batter, matter, bottle, kettle, etc.

(d) The sound /s/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letter ‘s’ as sound /s/ in seal, salt, sun, sick, sport, stop, etc.

ii. Letter ‘c’ as sound /s/ in cell, ceiling, cement, nice, fence, concentrate, civil, cycle, centre

(e) The sound /z/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letter ‘z’ as sound /z/ in zeal, zebra, lazy, wizard, etc.

ii. Letter ‘s’ as sound /z/ in reverse, wives, goes, etc.

(e) The sound /l/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letter ‘l’ as sound /l/ in lap, lad, heal, help, etc.

ii. Double Letter ‘ll’ as sound /l/ in call, pull, pillar, etc.

(f) The sound /r/ can be realised under the following letters:

i. Letter ‘r’ as sound /r/ in ram, rabbit, ridge, rocket, reed, battery, etc.

ii. Double Letters ‘rr’ as sound /r/ in berry, terry, curry, etc.

 Evaluate.

 Choose the word that has correct phonetic symbol below.

1. /n/  A. nose             B. mouse          C. sick              D. judge
2. /t/  A. listen             B. list                C. thing            D. them
3. /s/  A. zip                B. cheat             C. wives            D. ceiling
4. /z/  A. seal               B. nose             C. boys             D. cat
5. /l/  A. nick               B. yolk              C. buy               D. lap
6. /d/  A. del               B. them             C. their             D. this
7. /r/  A. mag              B. lip                 C. write             D. kit

 Explain consonants /θ/ and /ð/.

 To pronounce the sounds /θ/ and /ð/, let the top of your tongue touch the upper front teeth. The sound /q/ is voiceless but the sound /ð/ is voiced.

Drill the sounds.

Practise the words below until you get the pronunciation right.

Identify the consonant sounds /θ/ and /ð/ by letters.

(a) The sound /q/ can be realised under the following letters:

Letters ‘th’ as sound /q/ in theology, thine, thank, think, thug, third, throw, athlete, etc.

(b) The sound /ð/ can be realised under the following letters:

Letters ‘th’, ‘tho’, ‘tha’, ‘the’ as sound /ð/ in though, that, they, this, their, thee, either, father, neither/and, than, etc.

Evaluate.

 Choose the word that has correct phonetic symbol below.

1. /θ/   A. tank             B. bank            C. throat           D. them
2. /ð/   A. team            B. this               C. biz                D. think
3. / θ/  A. path             B. medal           C. than             D. mother
4. /ð/  A. weather         B. three            C. bath             D. wealth
5. /θ/  A. these             B. them            C. three             D. then
6. /ð/  A. death             B. thumb          C. bath             D. smooth

Author: Deola Adelakun