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TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION:

A BRAZILIAN WAY OF MAKING TH SOUNDS

Ncea Helena Nogueira

SINOPSE: Sounds in the English language that are not in Portuguese language. Oneof the sounds that cause the most difficulty for Portuguese speakers is the sound of theletter combination "Th".

There are actually two different "th" sounds in English, but they are very similar.

It is also true that Portuguese is not the only language in which TH sounds do not occur:

Cosmopolitan difficulty

Languages: Chinese, French, Iranian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Malayan, and Thai.

Researching th sounds to prepare a lesson, I found some interesting

information on the Internet. The homepages deal with the way to give instructions in

order to enable the production of sounds in English that might not occur in the students

mother tongue. The teacher can help students to achieve a particular sound by giving

directions that can be followed, responded to, understood and carried out, and

controlled. Usually the directions are far too complex to be carried out. A list of posture

and movements including lip position, contact between the tongue and the teeth and

between the tongue and the roof of the mouth is presented, followed by useful

vocabulary concerning vocal organs.

Some theories found:The Mirror theory

Both "th" sounds are made putting your tongue between your teeth so that the tip ofyour tongue is touching the tips of your top teeth. Now you can make a "th" sound by

blowing are through your teeth. You can check to see if you are doing it correctly byusing a mirror. You should be able to see your tongue when you say words such as"this", "the", and "that". If cannot see your tongue, you may be putting your tongue

behind your top teeth instead of touching the tips of your top teeth.

The bite theory

Professora de Lngua Inglesa I da Faculdade de Letras do CES/JF.

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Both of the English "Th" sounds are made by placing the end of your tongue betweenyour teeth, as if to bite your tongue, but just touch both your upper teeth and your lowerteeth gently against your tongue. Don't bite your tongue off! Bite your tongue very, verygently. Leave your lips open part way and blow air out through your teeth.

After reading the explanations I decided to teach students the production of th

sounds // and //, developing a playful way of giving instructions as these sounds do

not exist in the Portuguese language and cause students anxiety. Students tend to

substitute the nearest equivalent they know such as /d/ or /z/ for the th // as in thator

/f/ or /s/ for the th // as in think. I asked a group of intermediate level students to say

the word Cebolinha (the name of a popular Brazilian comic character) with the first

sound produced by placing the tongue against the front teeth and squeezing the air

through the space that remained. Then I asked them to say the word Zico (the name of

a famous Brazilian football player) in the same way noticing that now the vocal cords

vibrated when the first sound of the word was produced. The studentss response was

very positive to the new pronunciation of these funny names, and many of them

laughed at the sounds. They practised that sound formation several times with English

words spelt with th.

Minimal Pairs

// //boat both than Dansink think day theymoss moth doze thosetree three closing clothing

As there is no rule to define when th in a word should be pronounced as //or // the students were taught to recognise phonemic script in the dictionary to enable

them to become self-sufficient in finding out how to pronounce the correct sound. An

analogy with the Portuguese meanings of the two names was made to avoid confusion

between the two symbols. Cebolinha (also meaning spring onion) or // should be cut

in half as onions are for cooking and Zico or // showed a little belly as the football

player, who gave up football some years ago, did.

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Later, when asked what they thought of Cebolinha/Zico technique, the

students were unanimous in stating that they finally were able to identify and produce the

sounds distinctively and work out minimal pairs such as three/tree or they/day Some

admitted that before learning the technique they had always pronounced th sounds as /d/,

/f/, /v/, /t/ or both th sounds only as //.

Lets practise some tongue twisters with TH sounds!Say these tongue twisters out loud to practice the thsounds:

Thieves are thankless thugs who deserve our wrath.(Ladres so bandidos ingratos que merecem a nossa ira.)

Nothing is worth thousands of deaths.

(Nada vale milhares de mortes.)

Thirty-three thousand feathers on a thrushs throat.(Trinta e trs mil penas na garganta do merlo [pssaro].)

Those of the southern and northern areas are still writhing and seething.(Aqueles das reas do sul e do norte ainda esto morrendo de raiva.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

EBERT, Olga; HAWK, William Hawk (ed.). Overview of Contrastive Phonetics. In:___. ESL Start-up Kit. University of Tennessee. Disponvel em: Acesso em: 9 out. 2003.

FLEMING JR., Robert. English for Filipinos: pronounciation. Seattle. Disponvel em: Acesso em: 9 out. 2003.

KENWORTHY, Joanne. Teaching English Pronunciation. London and New York:Longman, 1987. pp. 69-70.

OKANAGAN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. English pronunciation/listening. Kelowna.Disponvel em: < http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronunciation/ > Acesso em: 9 out. 2003.

______. Tongue twisters. Kelowna. Disponvel em:< http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronunciation/twisters1.html > Acesso em: 9 out. 2003.

PONSONBY, Mimi. How now, brown cow?: a course in the pronunciation of English.London: Prentice Hall, 1987.

ROGERSON, Pamela; GILBERT, Judy B. Speaking clearly. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1990.

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