[etni] fw: Re: pronunciation

From: Michele Ben <benfam@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: pronunciation

Great ideas!  During one of the first lessons at the beginning 
of  the year I always spend time taliking about the difference 
between ship and sheep.  This little chat always follows the 
hysterics when I tell the kids to get out a *sheet* of paper, 
or when I had out a worksheet. 
MIchele

Bari Nirenberg wrote:

> To demonstrate the variety of vowel sounds in English, I will
> occasionally write the following words on the board (generally in a
> good class).  Note that a few of them get giggles.
>
> sax
> sakes
> sex
> seeks
> six
> sikes
> socks
> soaks
> sucks
>
> The following list might work even better (more sounds and fewer 
> giggles):
>
> bat
> bait
> bet
> beat
> bit
> bite
> bot
> boat
> but
> boot
> beaut
> bout
> bought
>
> This is normally something I do on the spur of the moment when kids
> start mispronouncing words, but I'm sure it's possible to make a
> lesson out of this.  My students are always amazed that no two of the
> words on the list are pronounced alike and they often have trouble
> hearing the difference between certain sounds, in which case I repeat
> the words, exaggerating the vowel sounds (and then, without fail, at
> least half the class tries to imitate me).  If nothing else, it at
> least opens their eyes to the fact that there are vowel sounds in
> English that don't exist in Hebrew.
>
> My Russian speakers seem to have fewer difficulties with this than
> Hebrew speakers.  Apparently, there are many more vowel sounds in
> Russian than in Hebrew.
>
> Bari

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