What to Know When Teaching Phonics and Spelling: Vowel Sounds and Syllables
Plant the seeds and growth happens.
ALL words have at least one vowel and one syllable. You most likely already know that there are 5 main vowels (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y) and that words are made up of word parts called syllables.
But did you know there are 21 vowel sounds and 6 syllable types?
Teaching phonics and spelling is best done using a multi-sensory Orton-Gillingham approach. This means teaching the connections between phonemes and graphemes, AND vowel sounds and syllables.
There’s a lot more to know about this type of approach. But first, I'd like to share some “pure” and simple background information about the vowel sounds and syllables that make up words.
If you missed it, check out Part One of the series, What to Know When Teaching Phonics and Spelling: Phonemes and Graphemes, and access your FREE chart of the 44 Phonemes.
What’s So “Pure” About It?
You may have noticed my last name is Pure. In addition to creatively weaving my name into this blog post, I wanted to emphasize that the definitions of pure as "without any extraneous and unnecessary elements" and "about increasing knowledge of a subject" make sense to use when describing the background information I'm going to share here.
The following is important knowledge to have when teaching phonics and spelling!
Let's Start Here: Short And Long Vowel Sounds
“Reading is a passport to countless adventures.” -Mary Pope Osborne
Short Vowel Sound → marked by a breve (˘)
/ă/ as in "ax"
/ĕ/ as in "echo"
/ĭ/ as in "itch"
/ŏ/ as in "octopus"
/ŭ/ as in "up"
Long Vowel Sound → marked by a macron (¯)
/ā/ as in "acorn"
/ē/ as in "eagle"
/ī/ as in "ice cream"
/ō/ as in "ocean"
/ū/ as in "unicorn"
Those Other Vowel Sounds
R-Controlled Vowel Sounds
/ar/ as in "star"
/ûr/ as in "fern”
/or/ as in "fork"
/ār/ as in “chair"
/ēr/ as in "ear"
Irregular Vowel Sounds
/ü/ as in "moon"
/oo/ as in “book”
/ow/ as in "cloud"
/oi/ as in "coin"
/ô/ as in "saw"
/ǝ/ as in "a-like"
Accents, articulations, and colloquialisms will always account for some variations in pronunciations of sounds, but these 21 vowel sounds are the most common in American English.
Since vowel sounds are the most prominent sounds in a syllable, let’s take a closer look at what makes a syllable a syllable.
What Makes A Syllable A Syllable?
Syllable = a unit of pronunciation that has 1 vowel sound and 1 'beat'.
ALL words are made from at least 1 syllable and at least 1 phoneme and 1 grapheme.
A multi-syllable word can have 2, 3, 4, or more beats or syllables. Hearing the units of sound to divide words into syllables and knowing the types of syllables can help students with phonics and spelling.
Examples:
drum (1 syllable / 1 beat)
drum-mer (2 syllables / 2 beats)
co-nun-drum (3 syllables / 3 beats)
And There’s A LOT More to Know About Syllables!
This post introduced the 21 vowel sounds and what a syllable is and to keep it simple (as promised!), it will end here. But, there is a lot more to know about vowel sounds and syllables!
Knowledge of syllable types and vowel sounds and patterns within those syllable types will help your students learn phonics and spelling skills effectively and with confidence!
Check out Part Three of the series — What To Know When Teaching Phonics and Spelling: The 6 Syllable Types.
Bring that knowledge to your students in a pure, simple, clear, and concise way with no-prep materials you can use to teach spelling to your students!