Spelling Variations of Basic Vowel Sounds
The Page Vowel Sounds - Multisyllable now has two more lists. These cover spelling alternatives for two of the basic vowel sounds, the /e/ sound and the /o/ sound.
The /e/ sound has two alternatives, the digraph ea in head and the digraph ai in words like said and captain. The first alternative needs to be taught as an /e/ sound, but I prefer to tell my clients to think of the digraph ai as an /ae/ sound throughout because it will help them spell words like captain and fountain. The word said then becomes a special case to be memorized, but it’s so commonly used that this is relatively easy to accomplish.
In the case of the /o/ sound, the spelling alternative is the letter a as in the words want and father. However, in the OnTrack Reading curriculum, hundreds of words which are pronounced with the schwa sound (an /u/ sound) are more or less forced into an /o/ pronunciation spelled with the letter a.
Clients are then encouraged to pronounce words like ago, away and around with leading /o/ sounds, rather than /u/ for spelling purposes. This is also done with words like miracle and paragraph where the middle chunk is a schwa sound. Children are better off saying a clear /o/ sound for those chunks and then need to remember that the letter a is used for spelling it. After a time, many consistent patterns emerge, as can be seen on examining the word list.
Also, the letter a, when followed by one or two l’s (as in also and taller) often takes on the /o/ sound, though it might also follow the patterns of most letter combinations and take on the First Vowel Sound, /a/, as in alcohol and alley. Clients are encouraged to chunk according to the exceptions, getting al-co-hol and al-so, as well as all-ey and tall-er, and then try the First Vowel Sound, /a/, before trying the /o/ sound.
The list of multisyllable words organized by vowel sound is over half complete now, with the /ue/, /oo/, /oul/, /u/ complex next to be entered. The end is in sight, and then we’ll take a different tack for a while.
Again, here’s the location of the new lists: Vowel Sounds - Multisyllable.