One of the most difficult sounds for us (teachers) to teach our students is the th sounds. As far as it does not exist in our phonology system it is really hard for them to produce properly, which takes time and constant practice. One technique I use with my students and which serves them quite well is to compare the th sounds with the lisp. In fact, the online Cambridge dictionary brings the entry lisp as being a verb meaning "to pronounce 's' and 'z' sounds like 'th'."
My Fair Lady (1964), adapted from the Broadway musical, is one of the best movies of the Oscar Academy and had won 8 statuetts, including Best Picture and Directing (by George Cukor). It is about an expert in phonetics, Professor Higgins (Rex Harrison), who accepts the challenge of transforming a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Dolittle (Audrey Hepburn), into a sofisticated Victorian lady. For this to happen, he has to change her accent, besides and above all the other features she has. Therefore, the movie gets really funny when we get to see the efforts of Professor Higgins to teach what seems to be impossible when it comes to Eliza (who has no moods whatsoever). Let us see one scene which shows two of her problems: substitution of "ei" for "ai" and lack of the aspirated "h":
That is why I like and recomend this movie so much. In addition to being really hilarious, it provides us with something we (teachers) may find in our classes: of course not a cockney person (who knows!), but certainly students who deal with dire difficulties about the pronunciation of the English languge.
I was searching for something on the Internet (I don't remember exactly where) and I found this very good glossary full of terms related to English "phono". Written by Peter Roach, it consists of a little encyclopedia about our beloved subject, in which the entries are very easy to find either because they are alphabetically disposed or (best of all) because it brings the alphabet itself (except the letters "Y" and "Z") for one to click on the letter which corresponds to the first one of the entry he is looking for.
This guy is amazing. When I first saw this video I was like "WOW", how can he do that!?. What I like most about it is the variety contained in the British English variation. I mean, even though we get to "learn" a variation, there are some others within it. It just shows us that we should not be prejudiced about this or that English because, in the end, all of them are just parts of something bigger.
