Get ready to work those speech muscles! Just like exercise shapes your body, specific exercises can help you shape your pronunciation. Let’s break it down…
Your Amazing Speech Machine
Think of your mouth, tongue, and breath as a team. Here are the key players:
- The Mouth: The space where sounds resonate.
- The Tongue: This super flexible muscle helps form many, many sounds.
- The Lips: Rounding, spreading, they change the shape of sounds.
- The Airflow: Your breath powers speech – strong/soft airflow changes sounds.
Introducing the IPA
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) looks a bit scary at first, but it’s a pronunciation superpower! Each symbol represents ONE sound. Don’t worry about memorizing it all. Here are few important ones to start with:
- /æ/ : The short ‘a’ sound, like in “cat”
- /ɪ/ : Short ‘i’ like in “fish”
- /θ/: The ‘th’ sound in “think”
- /ð/: The ‘th’ sound in “this”
Mirror, Mirror
Grab a mirror! Let’s see what happens when you make different sounds:
- Big vs. Small: Try a wide “Ahhhh” versus a narrow “Eeeeee” – see how your mouth changes?
- Tongue Time: Stick out your tongue – can you touch its tip to the top of your mouth? The bottom? This flexibility is key for different sounds.
- Blow: Experiment with short bursts of air and long, smooth air flow. Notice how this affects the feeling of sounds.
Bonus Exercise: Find some tongue twisters focusing on tricky sounds (I’ll give you some examples in the next post!). Say them slowly, exaggerating the mouth movements.
Next Up
We’ll tackle some common problem sounds and exercises to master them!
Minh Nhut (Brian)