Welcome! This digital book is intended for children of primary school age who are beginning to learn English. In it you will find an introductory course in English phonetics dedicated to a specific topic: sounds [i] and [i:], explanations on this topic and a selection of exercises for practicing.

Phonetics 

   Before you start speaking a foreign language, you need to do a phonetic warm-up.

   Phonetic warm-up is necessary for us in order to:

   – prepare the organs of speech for the pronunciation of sounds unusual to us.

   – improve the pronunciation of individual sounds, combinations of sounds.

   – memorize new words.

So, let’s do some exercises! 

   1 exercise: «Kiss – smile – kiss».

Kiss – we make a kiss with our lips. Smile – we stretch our lips in a smile. We repeat this several times.

   2 exercise: «Cup».

Open the mouth, pull out the tongue, pull it to the nose, bend the edge of the tongue in the shape of a cup.

   3 exercise: tongue twisters.

She sees cheese on the ceiling –[ʃɪsiːztʃiːzɒnðəsiːlɪŋ]

   I scream, you scream, we all scream for icecream! – [aɪskriːmjuskriːmwɪɔːlskriːmfəraɪskriːm]

Great!

Now you need to read some new information about English sounds.

In English, vowel sounds are divided into short and long [i]- [i:]. Longitude in transcription is indicated by a colon after the vowel.

The sound [i].

   A short vowel sound pronounced when the tongue comes into contact with the lowerdentition. The speaker’s lips are slightly stretched.

English phoneme [i] is similar to Russian [и] in unstressed syllables:

Письмо

Читать

Достижение

Some more examples in English:

Fish–[fɪʃ], Pill –[pɪl], Pig–[pɪg], Pin– [pɪn], Win– [wɪn].

Now you may watch a video in which there are explanations of how to pronounce the sound [i] correctly.

The sound [i:].

   A long sound, pronounced with a light touch of the tip of the tongue to the lower dentition.

English [i:] resembles the Russian stressed [и] at the beginning of words.

   Ива

   Искра

   Имя

Consonant [i:] should not be softened or turned into a Russian sound[ы].

Some more examples in English:

Seed – [siːd], Bee – [biː], Sea – [siː], Leaf – [liːf], Feed – [fiːd].

In written speech, the phoneme is transmitted using the letter e and the combinations ea, ee, ei, ie. The exception is key [ki:], which contains a combination of the letters e and y.

Now you may watch a video in which there are explanations of how to pronounce the sound [i:] correctly.

Exercises

   Exersice 1: Read the words and try to pronounce sounds [i] and [i:] correctly.

Still, eat, dinner, repeat, teen, cheek, crick, creek, skin, sip, seem.

   Exersice 2: Listen and say these words aloud. Is the sound you hear [i] or [i:]?

Hit – heat – bit – beat – sit – seat – bin – bean – sin – seen – gin – jean.

   Exercise 3: Read the sentences paying attention to the sounds [i] and [i:].

The bee hit the ball.

I have nine pins.

The king has big pink lips.

I made a cake with a smile.

The tree is big and green.

The cat has five feet.

The monkey on the vine has a key.

   Exercise 4: Find the only word in which there is no sound [i:], only [ɪ] (stressed).Then listen to the teacher repeating the words after him.

Cheese, beef, tea, eat, meal, three, cheap, please, me, Peter, people, Edam, evening, Eastfield, biscuit, cheesecake, Janine, repeat.

Exercise 5: divide the words into groups.

   Exersice 6: The game “Catch the sound”.

Look at the cards, name what is depicted on them. Pay attention to the pronunciation of the words.

   Exercise 7 (control): Listen to the words. Insert the missing letters.

F_lm

Pl_se

S_t

Thr_

Ch_p

F_t

T_p

P_nk

T_e

_t

This is the end of the introductory phonetics lesson on the pronunciation of the sounds [i] and [i:]. See you in the next issues of our digital books!

Используемые источники:

Wordwall.net – интерактивные задания

YouTube.com – видеоролики с произношением звуков с канала “BBC Learning English”

Lingualeo.com – теоретический материал на тему “звуки [i] и [i:]” и упражнения на их отработку.