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Teaching Vowel Sounds: Short Vowels
Order of Instruction:
- Most students tend to get the long vowel sounds fairly quickly. However, this is not usually the case when it comes to the short vowels, especially short [a], [e], and [i]. This is primarily due to the fact that there is not such a wide difference between the pronunciation of these sounds. They can only be pronounced for a short period of time because very little air flows pass the larynx when we say them; hence the name short vowels. On the other hand we can pronounce a long vowel for an extended period of time [depending on how big a breath you can take]. Long vowels are longer and louder and easier to distinguish.
Helpful Tips:
- ....Choose words with quiet consonants to model short vowel sounds. Voiced/loud consonants can mask the short vowel sound.
- ....Only pronounce the first consonant and vowel sound when comparing two words. Thus, sit becomes si and sat becomes sa.
Short Vowels:
- Write [a] and [e] on the board [one above the other]...
ex:
[a]
[e]
*I draw an upside down v above each vowel sound to show it's a short vowel.
- Beginning with the short [a], ask students to give you some one-syllable words that have a short [a] sound in them. Write some of them next to the [a] on your list. You may need to get the ball rolling by writing the word cat.
ex:
[a] - cat, cap, sat,...
[e]
*students usually suggest variations on the same word, but that's ok to start with.
- At this point add a few words of your own like , and , great, and ask if these also have a short [a] sound. Just as with the long vowels, the goal here is to let them know that the spelling of the word is not important, and that they should depend on what they hear.
- Next, repeat the step above for each of the five short vowel sounds.
ex:
[a] - cat, cap, sat,...
[e] - met, pet, set,...
[i] - hit, kit, sit,...
[o] - stop, cop, hot,...
[u] - shut, cut, cut...
[oo] - look, took, book... put...
*Note: You can teach higher level students the shwaw sound [represented by an upside down e] and found in words like caught. However, for all practical purposes most students can do just fine by putting such words into the short o category.
You can use silly sentences which model particular vowel sounds to reinforce these sounds if needed. Students can repeat after you, or they can say practice them with a partner as you walk around and monitor.
ex: Matt sat on a black cat and now it's flat.
ex: Beth set her pet on the step.
ex: Rick hit six bricks with a stick.
ex: Tom's mom got a hot rock.
ex: Gus plucked a duck on a bus.
ex: Look! A crook took a cook book.
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