Phonemic Awareness: Long and Short Vowels

By Thomas Diebold

“Research demonstrates a strong link between children’s early abilities in phonemic awareness and their later reading skills. Children with dyslexia are apt to have phonological processing deficits that are causal to their word-reading deficits” (Uhry, 2011). Phonemic awareness involves sensitivity to the individual phonemes, or sounds of spoken syllables and words. Phonemic awareness refers to the sounds of the language, only.

English has 44 phonemes. English has 26 letters, which are the printed symbols (graphemes) to represent sounds in syllables and words. In total, English has approximately 98 letter-sound correspondences. Phonics refers to the instruction of both graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sounds). This article will address challenges related to sounds only (phonemic awareness), not letter-sound correspondences (phonics).

Subtle differences in phonemes can be difficult to distinguish in spoken words because the sounds in a syllable or word are co-articulated or “blended together”. It can be very challenging for some students to aurally distinguish the differences in phoneme combinations between similar sounding words, such chip-ship, pit-pet or moat-mode (initial, medial & final sounds).

Vowel sounds can be particularly difficult. For example, the words bat, bet and bit all have just three sounds each, and can be represented with diacritical “short vowel” markings as /b/-/ă/-/t/, /b/-/ĕ/-/t/ and /b/-/ĭ/-/t/. The words bait, beet, and bite also have only three sounds, but are represented with the diacritical “long vowel” markings as /b/-/ā/-/t/, /b/-/ē/-/t/ and /b/-/ī/-/t/.

For most individuals who struggle with phonemic awareness, words with long-vowel phonemes are typically easier to segment (break apart and isolate sounds) than words with short-vowel phonemes (as in the examples in the above paragraph). Conversely, long-vowel phonemes are usually easier to blend individual sounds into words or syllables than short-vowel phonemes.

Additionally, most children will likely have been exposed to the “long-vowels” in isolation by attempting to memorize the alphabet. The alphabet song is a mnemonic device (aid to memory) for reciting the letter “names”, not necessarily the “sounds”. However, the vowel names in the alphabet just happen to be the long-vowel “sounds”.

Lastly, the Stevenson method addresses the issue of “articulatory gestures - the place in the mouth that is used to produce sound” (Uhry, p. 119-120). “Vowels that are articulated in the same part of the mouth are more easily confused (e.g., the short vowel sounds /a/ and /e/ sound more alike than do short /a/ and /i/). When planning a teaching sequence, teach the short /a/ first, followed by short /i/, rather than short /e/. Moats (2010) explained that /a/ and/e/ are articulated in similar parts of the mouth, whereas /i/ is formed at a greater distance and easier to differentiate from /e/.” The positions for production of long vowels have a wider discrimination than the positions of short vowels, making them easier to produce and discriminate, as can be seen by examining the vowel circle chart found in the appendices of the Lindamood LiPS Program manual on page 449 (Lindamood, 1998). Teaching the long vowel sounds first is a distinguishing feature of the Stevenson Language Skills program.

For these reasons, the Stevenson Language Skills program introduces the long-vowel sounds first, allowing for easier phonemic isolation, segmentation and blending for students as they begin to read. The use of special mnemonic clues are also introduced to help with letter identification, letter formation and word attack strategies for the student who struggles. These strategies and mnemonic clues, along with strategies to address other phonological processing challenges, including rapid serial naming, verbal short-term memory and articulation speed will be addressed in other short articles here on the Need To Read – Stevenson Language Skills web site.

References

Lindamood, P., & Lindamood, P. The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech, 3rd Edition. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

Uhry, J. (2011) Teaching Phonemic Awareness. In J. Birsh (Ed.) Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills, 3rd Edition (pp.113-143) Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brooks Publishing.