Teaching Standard Australian English Speech Sounds to Students in the Northern Territory: A Resource for Teachers

This manual is designed to give teachers ideas for working with Standard Australian English speech sounds in the classroom. Speech refers to the physical production of sounds to communicate verbally. Speech is the complex coordination of air flow, tongue placement and muscle movements that we interpret as units of meanings.
Language is the understanding and use of words in a structured way to communicate meaning. Language is governed by rules. Speech is the most common way to use language, but it is not the only way. We can use language by typing, texting, using sign language, or writing things down. Teachers and parents often talk about ‘speech’ when they are actually talking about ‘language’ (e.g. using a wide range of words, following instructions, understanding concepts, using grammatical markers etc.).