McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson Intro 2 · Part 1: Reading aloud well
2. Articulation: the elementary sounds optional
Goal: Your child says the vowel sounds and consonant sounds of English clearly, one at a time and in words.
You'll need
- The book, open to these pages
- A mirror is handy, so your child can watch lips and tongue
What's in the book
The section on articulation: what vocals, subvocals and aspirates are, tables of the long and short vocal (vowel) sounds, then lists of words for practicing each sound and each consonant pair.
The lesson, step by step
What articulation means
The book begins:
Articulation is the utterance of the elementary sounds of a language, and of their combinations.
SayThat means saying each sound clearly, so every word can be understood. Good readers don't swallow sounds or run words together.
Three kinds of sounds
The book sorts the sounds into vocals (vowel sounds, pure voice), subvocals (voiced consonants, like b, d, g, v, z) and aspirates (breath only, like p, t, k, f, s).
Have your child put fingers on their throat and say "zzz" then "sss." The throat buzzes on the subvocal and not on the aspirate.
The vowel table
Read the table of long and short vocals together. The book's advice:
As a rule, the long vocals should be prolonged with a full, clear utterance; but the short vocals should be uttered sharply and almost explosively.
The book shows the method: the teacher says the word, then its vowel sound alone (mate, then the long a; man, then the short a), and the pupil copies closely. Work down a few lines of the word lists that way, your child copying you.
Consonant sounds
Turn to the lists for the subvocals and aspirates. Read a line or two of each, slowly and forcefully. For example:
v. — Van, vine, vale, vivid, stove, of, Stephen.
f. — Fib, fob, buff, beef, if, off, life, phrase, laugh.
Point out that f and v are made the same way; only the voice is added for v. The book calls such pairs cognates.
Combined sounds
The book next gives clusters like br, bl, dr and dl to practice, "very distinctly." Try a line:
br. — Bred, brag, brow, brim, brush, breed, brown,
Then try the hard endings, such as fibs, robbed, fables, fabled. Make it a game, not a drill.
Keep it short
Five to ten minutes of sound practice is plenty. Stop while it is still fun, and come back to a different table another day.
Afterwards
Over the next weeks, spend two minutes before a reading lesson on one line of these tables, especially any sound your child tends to slur.
Tip
Don't worry about the book's special marks over the vowels. Listen to the sound you make and copy it; that is what the tables are for.