The Internet TESL Journal

Teaching the "Th" Sound to Young EFL Learners

Camran Shirvani
camran.shirvani{at}gmail.com
Islamic Azad University, Qaemshahr (Qaemshahr, Iran)

EFL learners often mispronounce the "th" sound. What follows is an effective technique (a tongue exercise) for in-class practice. This is especially effective in case of young EFL learners since it is entertaining and produces near-immediate results.

Introduction

Mispronouncing the "th" sound by making a simple "s" or "t" sound is very common among English language learners, and the case has been discussed for several decades. Carr (1967) in her article "Teaching the "th" sounds of English" in the first number of the first volume of TESOL journal begins as follow:

Since then, besides keeping "a few bits of information about the structure of English in mind", several teachers introduced various techniques to prevent students saying "sink" instead of "think" because of the transfer the "s" from their mother tongue (Soullier, 2005).

What follows is a technique which I found to be successful, especially for young learners.

The Technique

The technique I discovered to be effective has the following merits:

• It involves all students in the classroom;
• The whole job is accomplished in a few minutes, so teachers don't have to spend the entire class on practicing the sound;
• It is entertaining, so young learners don't feel bored.

This technique has three main phases. First, the teacher illustrates to students that how they can pronounce the "th" sound correctly, that is, how to stick their tongue out. Almost all of the students find it a bit odd. However, the teacher should remind them that they are speaking in another language. The teacher can introduce the students to some mispronounced words from their mother tongue to show them how they would seem to be non-natives if they mispronounced words.

Second, the teacher makes sure that all of the learners can stick their tongues out. Checking students, the teacher should keep his/her tongue stuck out. He should ask learners to stick their tongues out for a few seconds and repeat the action several times.

Third, the teacher devises a drill based on some familiar words with "th" sounds. He/she can choose a number of words from the learners' textbooks and ask them to repeat the words in groups or individually. This raises their consciousness towards the "th" sound.

Follow-up Activity

Following the third stage exercises, practicing words with the "th" sound, it is important that learners practice these words in sentences and in contrast to the "s" or "t" sound. Once they have succeeded in pronouncing the words, the teacher provides the learners with some sentences that include redundant "s" sounds and asks the learners to replace the "s" sound with "th". This is exactly the reverse of what students do in a normal situation mispronouncing the "th" sound. The following are examples of such sentences:

• Sally sings a song on Sundays.
• Sam saw a horse and a mouse.

Concluding Points

• The above-mentioned reverse direction can increase learners' awareness and makes them notice  their mispronunciation of the "th" sound.
• The teacher can stick his/her tongue out as a corrective cue in the proceeding sessions.
• What adds to the effectiveness of this technique is the repetition of the follow-up activity in the proceeding sessions.
• This technique can be entertaining for learners if the teacher include the follow-up activity. This helps him/her to improve classroom climate.

References

• Carr, E. B. (1967) "Teaching the th sounds of English." TESOL 1 (1)
• Soullier, R. (2005) "Teaching the Th Sound to ESL/EFL Learners." The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XI, No. 11 November (Retrieved from: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Soulliere-TH.html)

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The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XIV, No. 2, February 2008
http://iteslj.org/

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