Teacher Awareness Series II : Article Three Consonant Sounds

by Jean Schedler, Ph.D. Educational Consultant

Welcome to the third of six articles in Teacher Awareness Series II. Teacher Awareness Series II examines some of the early literacy or underlying skills of beginning reading.

Series II builds upon the concepts discussed in Series I, which can be accessed on the Eduvac website. In the two previous articles of Series II, knowledge of letter names, and Rhyming were discussed.

The next underlying building block for reading success is the ability to hear (or discriminate), clearly pronounce, and articulate the individual sounds associated with each consonant. A quick reminder – the focus is on the sound – not on the print representation for the sound.

Prior to beginning this task with your students, it is imperative that you (the teacher), is accurate in your individual sound production. This may not be as easy as one would think. The most common tendency is to add an extra sound or /ah/ to the end of a consonant sound.

For example – one may be tempted to say /bah/ –instead of a clear, clipped /b/ sound as the auditory representation for the consonant letter “b”. The addition of this extra /ah/ sound is commonly referred to as “vowelising” a consonant sound.

Hint: do not drop your jaw when producing most sounds; do not drop your tongue when producing the /l/ sound. This will help prevent “vowelising” sounds and help produce clear, clipped single consonant sounds.

One may want to practice with a partner producing clear, clipped consonant sounds in isolation, prior to working with tutorial students. An “echo” format is a suggested beginning drill with your students. Eye contact between teacher and student(s) is needed to ensure accuracy. Student(s) need to watch how the teacher produces the sound: teacher needs to watch how the student repeats the sound.

Begin at the beginning of the alphabet, say each consonant sound in isolation and have the student repeat the sound. Reminder: there is no print shown during this activity. We want the student(s) to focus on listening to the sound and repeating the sound accurately.

Practice in short vowel sound production in isolation is the next task. Remember to check your own accuracy in producing the five short vowel sounds, prior to working with your students.

Short vowel sounds are significantly more difficult to accurately produce due to the very subtle differences in the mouth and throat muscles used during the production of vowel sounds. Seek the assistance of a Speech Pathologist if needed – I did!

So far in Series II, we have focused on letter names, rhyming (sound chunks), and individual sounds. Continue to explore and practice these basic underlying skills with the students in your class.

To learn more about Dr Schedler’s 2010 Workshops and Trainings in Reading Intervention materials (Sonday System) contact Read Auckland at info@readauckland.co.nz or call 09- 529 1381.