Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Decoding Strategies for ESL Students: Is the Vowel Long or Short?

How do you know if a vowel in English is long or short? Here are five simple decoding strategies for ESL students. Although these reading strategies apply to only one-syllable words, these strategies can be applied on the syllable-level in multi-syllabic words. (See my blog post on decoding multi-syllabic words here.)

1) If there is one consonant after the vowel, the vowel will be short. (Examples: an, pet, big, hot, cup)
2) If two consonants follow the vowel, the vowel will be short. (Examples: ant, rent, mist, cost, crust)
3) If the vowel stands alone, the vowel is long. (Examples: me, hi, go)
4) If an E is at the end of the word and it is preceded by another vowel, the E at the end of the word is silent and the first vowel is long. Silent E makes the first vowel long. (Examples: name, Pete, fine, home, cute or dune)
5) If two vowels are adjacent (next to each other), the second vowel is silent, making the first vowel long. (Examples: main, dream, lied, road, fruit)

NOTE: It is important to clarify that the terms "long" vowel and "short" vowel do not indicte the length of the vowel, but rather the sound of the vowel. In linguistic contexts, the terms "long" and "short" are referred to as "tense" and "lax" vowels, respectively. Clarify this point to your ESOL students as you deem necessary.

Ideas are taken from the Reading Horizons methodology and are used with permission.

For more spelling tips, visit the Online ESL Workshop at ReadingHorizons.com.

For a free resource that shows how to produce vowel sounds, visit my post entitled "Free Online Pronunciation Tool".

5 comments:

  1. this site is cool I like it

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  2. I admit, I have not been on this webpage in a long time... however it was another joy to see It is such an important topic and ignored by so many professionals. I thank you to help making people more aware of possible issues.
    Great stuff as usual....

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  3. Thank you for your comments! I'm glad you found this information useful!

    Heidi

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  4. * If two vowels are adjacent (next to each other), the second vowel is silent, making the first vowel long. (Examples: main, dream, lied, road, fruit)

    >> How about the words, "bear" and "learn"?

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  5. These are great questions! There are some exception words to this rule, including "bear" and "learn."

    The word "bear" is a sight word. Students simply need to memorize this word.

    The word "learn" is taught as an exception to Murmur Diphthong words. Students are taught that when the vowels EA- are followed by R and another consonant, the R changes the sound to /er/, as in learn, heard, earth, earn, and early. I hope this helps!

    ReplyDelete