Experimental phonetics

such as lune 'moon' or tu 'you (familiar)', and which is pronounced rather like the vowel of English see but with closely rounded lips. There are three aspects to this mastery:

(1) learning to pronounce the vowel oneself (2) learning to recognise the vowel when it is pronounced by native speakers of French and to distinguish it from the other French vowels and (3) learning to associate this particular articulatory-auditory package with the letter u, which is never pronounced in this way in English.

In more abstract terms, learning a new speech sound involve learning to get the speech organs to adopt a new position or to move in a new way, and to associate this new activity with a new and distinct auditory percept. In the process, students may be led to a new awareness of their own vocal organs, especially if they have not studied a foreign language before.

(How many monolingual English speakers stop to think about the position of their tongue and lips when pronouncing the vowel of see?) The association with the letter u is also important because it helps to give students access to