Why Do We Mess Up the TH Sound?
The TH sound is the one where many of us Singaporeans trip up. As Singaporeans, we tend to say “mons” instead of “months” and “mouf” instead of “mouth”. I’m not sure why this is the case, but I do suspect that it is because the majority of us speak Mandarin or Malay (or both for those of you who are really linguistically-talented). Mandarin and Malay syllables tend to have the CV (consonant-vowel) structure (e.g. Ta, Ni etc). As such, there is less emphasis on the accuracy of the final consonant when we speak.
However, we even make mistakes for TH in other word positions too. For example, we tend to say “Der” for “The” or “Mudder” for “mother”. Hence there could be more to it than just a simple case of negligence of the final consonant.
I believe the other issue is that the instruction of the TH sound is not stressed in school. Since TH is not a sound present in Mandarin, Malay nor Tamil, it presents an additional hurdle since teachers may not know how to produce the TH sound either.
Lastly, since most people can understand what we are saying when we say “Mudder” or “Der”, there is thus little impetus for most people to correct this sound.
Just in case you’d like a flavour of our version of TH, fast forward to the 0:53 mark of the clip below. You will notice that “anything” is pronounced “anyting”.
When is the TH sound mastered?
In typically-developing children, the TH sound is usually mastered between the ages of 4-5 years. However, as I have mentioned above, many of us Singaporeans are still struggling to attain this sound. So if your child struggles with the TH sound after he or she turns 6, and you would like your child to have proper-sounding English, you may want to consider some form of intervention.
What happens when we make the TH sound?
So how exactly do we correct this sound? To understand how we can correct, it, we need to know how it is produced.
The TH sound is actually pretty close to the F sound. The F sound is produced by resting our teeth on our lips, and then blowing air through it. However, the TH sound is produced by putting the teeth on our tongue, and then blowing the air through our teeth.
For the voiced TH sound (e.g. Mother, The), the position is essentially the same, except that you turn on your voice in its production.
How to teach the TH sound?
Visual Cues
Since the TH sound can be demonstrated visually, I usually start off with visual cues. While standing together in front of the mirror, I would model the correct position with my teeth on my tongue. Once the child has achieved the correct placement, I’d proceed to ask him to blow air between his teeth and tongue to produce the unvoiced TH sound.
Verbal Cues
Sometimes the child can achieve the correct position, but has difficulty with the second part of blowing air. In that case, I might ask the child to produce an F sound first. Then I’ll ask her to continue blowing while she moves his tongue underneath her teeth into the TH position. This usually works beautifully to help the child to achieve the correct sound.
Tactile Cues
In the event that the child is still having problems, I might get him to put his hand in front of his mouth while he says the F sound. This is so that he can feel the air gushing out of mouth. Then I’ll encourage him to try to produce the same puff of air as he attempts the TH sound.
Once the child has successfully produced the sound in isolation several times, I will quickly transition him to TH words so that he learns to use it in words. At this point, I will also send home homework so his parents can continue working on the targets at home.
Conclusion
Even though many of us Singaporeans have difficulties with our TH sound, it is actually not too difficult to learn it.
Are there any strategies that you have found to be helpful in learning this sound? Share them below.
Check out tips to work on other speech sounds as well
How to teach the R Sound
How to teach the L Sound
How to teach the S Sound
