When you see a written word, do you always know which vowel sounds to pronounce? You can guess, of course. But you can do better than guess; you can predict vowel sounds with good accuracy if you know the how to read the cues in spelling. The following practice exercises were prepared to help you learn to use standard orthography to judge the vowel sounds in English words even if you have never seen them before.
These materials are optional; you are not responsible to know this information in order to pass the course. You are not required to use these materials at all. Even though the content is very valuable to learners who wish to become more accurate in their pronunciation, we will not present this content in our course because we do not have enough time in our schedule for it. If you are interested in learning to use spelling clues to predict vowel sounds, you are welcome to do these lessons on your own. Complete answers are provided for all written practice exercises. Your instructor will be glad to answer any questions you have outside of class.
The first 6 lessons are intended to be used in the order listed; you will not understand later lessons or be able to use them well without doing the previous lessons. Lessons 7-9 relate to particular stress rules introduced in the course. Lessons 10-12 can be use in any order you wish.
For each lesson, print out the accompanying pdf pages. They carefully explain each pattern and offer you practice.
Lesson 1 - The Names and Sounds of Vowel Symbols
Synopsis: This lesson is part of the materials used on Day 2 of this course to help you get acquainted with the range of vowel sounds in English and the symbols we use to represent these sounds.
Lesson 2 - The Name-Shape Translator
Synopsis: How can we use the standard English vowel letters to guide us to glided and unglided vowels? This lesson provides the answer.
Lesson 3 - Finding the Key Syllable
Synopsis: Every word in English has a Key Syllable. Finding the Key Syllable is important for two reasons. First, it can help you pronounce the vowel sounds in the words. Second, it can help you locate the stress of the word. When you can predict the stress and the vowels of a word, you have a way to become more accurate in your speech. This lesson helps you find the Key Syllable in any word in English.
Lesson 4 - VC+E and VV in Key Syllables
Synopsis: Two common vowel patterns are presented in this lesson. If you know the stress of the vowel in the pattern, you can judge whether the patterns predict glided vowels or reduced vowels. This lesson shows you how.
Synopsis: A very simple spelling, a single vowel letter alone in a Key Syllable is a reliable guide to glided vowels, some of which are stressed and some of which are unstressed. The simple patterns built on this spelling are presented here.
Lesson 6 - VC# and VCC in Key Syllables
Synopsis: In this lesson, you will meet two spellings that predict unglided vowels when stressed and reduced vowels when unstressed.
Lesson 7 - VC+K and iC+K for KSR Words
Synopsis: Starting with this lesson, we present vowel patterns that are associated with different stress rules. This lesson focuses on words stressed by the Key Stress Rule. It presents two patterns that are unique to words of this sort, but also illustrates how patterns from previous lessons help to predict the vowels in these words.
Lesson 8 - VC<- and uC<- for Left Syllables
Synopsis: For three of the four stress rules, the Left Syllable may carry the major stress. When this happens, how do we pronounce vowels in that syllable? This lesson presents two patterns that are unique to this syllable and also shows how patterns from previous lessons are valuable aids to prediction.
Synopsis: Left Stress Rule (LSR) words carry major stress on their Left Syllable. So Lesson 8 is valuable for this set of words. There is something unique about these words, too. That is the pronunciation of their endings, which are sometimes stressed and sometimes unstressed. This lesson will help you sort out these two cases.
Lesson 10 - Predicting /3r/ and /ər/
Synopsis: Two of the rarest vowel sounds in all languages are found in English, namely, the vowels in the first and second syllables of learner. The first is a stressed vowel and the second is an unstressed vowel. They are remarkably easy to predict if you know the stress of a word. This lesson shows you how.
Lesson 11 - Specific VV Patterns I
Synopsis: English is fond of using two vowel letters together to represent a single vowel sound. This lesson takes up five of these spellings, au, aw, eu, ew, and oo. It shows you how to use the regularity in these patterns to make accurate predictions for stressed vowel sounds.
Lesson 12 - Specific VV Pattern II
Synopsis: This lesson continues the topic of vowel-vowel sequences that represent single vowel sounds. Here ou and ow patterns are presented. Each spelling represents several different vowel sounds. To help you sort out which vowel sound is intended in a word, this lesson will show you some useful patterns for stressed vowels.