What additional strategy can help English learners learn the /th/ consonant phoneme?

• A. Provide recordings of words with the /th/ sound for students to listen to at home.
• B. Only practice in class with worksheets.
• C. Ignore pronunciation until later grades.
• D. Read material without focusing on sounds.

Answer: (A)

Listening practice with accurate models is key for learning the /th/ sound. Providing recordings of words that include /th/ lets learners hear the correct pronunciation repeatedly and compare it to their own attempts. This sound is a dental fricative, produced with the tongue between the teeth, and it has two variants: the voiceless /θ/ (as in think) and the voiced /ð/ (as in this). Hearing clear examples helps students notice the subtle differences in how the sound is produced and how it feels in the mouth.

When students can access recordings at home, they can practice outside of class time, go at their own pace, and receive a consistent pronunciation model. This kind of at-home listening and repeating supports both listening skills and motor practice, which are essential for acquiring new phonemes, especially ones that don’t appear in every language.

Other strategies that focus only on in-class worksheets, delay pronunciation practice, or ignore sounds altogether miss the opportunity for daily, reinforced listening and articulation practice. Read-aloud activity without sound focus likewise doesn’t build the auditory discrimination and muscle memory needed for /th/.