For many learners there are speech difficulties while learning a language other than their home language or they suffer with speech delays or speech defects. Most learners have problems with fricatives such as /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /θ/, /∫/, /ð/, /З/,/h/ . English is a language that has the highest number of fricatives.
A fricative or spirant, in phonetics, is a consonant sound produced by bringing the mouth and speech organs into position to block air flow for generating audible friction.
Thus, fricative consonants require constriction in the vocal tract for labiodental/f, v/; interdental/θ, ð/; alveolar/s, z/; and palatal/∫, З/. There is a need for ‘fricatives Articulation Therapy’ which require a lot of practice in producing fricative sounds with phonics awareness by making the learner to ‘feel’ placing of the lips and tongue while producing the the sound and its drill.
Language teachers and speech therapists are needed to create fricative consonant articulation drill exercises with consonants, words and phrases with repetitive consonant sounds.
Here is the clusters of practice vocabulary to practice fricative consonant sounds
sit-salt-seat...seal-site-seen..save-sad-sorry
zoo-zebra-zero...zoom-zap-zinc...zip-zone-zombie
face-farm-feet...fur-fingers-forest...feather-fossil-fox
vest-van-vine...vote-vase-vacuum...valley-village-violet
shape-shirt-shoe...shampoo-share-shower...sugar-shorts-sharp
thorn-think-thousand...thirsty-thermometer-thirty...thing-thank-therapy
that-than-the..their-them-these..they-this-therefore
measure-leisure-treasure-pleasure
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