❧ Delivered a 50-minute presentation that highlighted the integration of all four-language modalities to improve skills in literacy, particularly for beginning English language learners, and ultimately, pronunciation. ❧ Exemplified classroom activities and provided materials as takeaways.

1. Vowels in Reading,
Listening, Speaking, and
Writing
Improving all four modalities
By: Heidi Laidemitt

2. Informed by…
 Pattern recognition, student autonomy, humor,
literacy foundation
 Our development as children
 Particular group of students at current job
 Belief in connected modalities, especially for
academically bound students (EAP)
 Vocabulary knowledge: what is KNOWING a
word?

3. Introduction
 The importance of vowels: as roots, assonance,
word play, rhyme, song, poetry.
 I like to think of them as the core -> Name
introduction. (In fact, you can extend this in reading
activities)
 Questions for you: What do you think are the
greatest difficulties in teaching vowels? Do you
think some vowels cause more communication
breakdown? Or, irritation in native speakers?

4. Where to Begin with
Beginners
 short versus long vowel: reading and listening
comprehension
 After substantial practice, expect production in
speaking and writing
 Finally, expand rules to multisyllabic words
 Note: I do not use IPA in the classroom. At least, not
at beginning levels. However, I do use symbols
from “Words Their Way: Word Sorts for Within
Word Pattern Spellers.” (Invernizzi, Johnston, Bear,
Templeton; 2009)

5. Honoring Literacy
Development
“Before Assessment”
“After Assessment”
 Create a day 1 spelling quiz
with target short vowel and
long vowel words.
 Create a final spelling quiz
with the same words.
 Use those “errors” to
inform you and the class.
Share the mistakes with the
actual form.
 Have students analyze their
own development.
 Example: Like (lik, lice,
liik)
**It’s a good idea to do routine
“quizzes.” My students like
using individual white erase
boards!

6. Activities for Beginners
1.
Pattern Recognition and Explicit Instruction (Activating intuitive
heuristics - Kumaravadivelu, 2003)
2.
Self-discovery assignment – www.rhymezone.com
3.
In class “assessment” - Vowel distinction, quizzes (before, after)
4.
Authentic materials: rhymes, songs, short stories
5.
Fun activities: rhyme trains, tongue twisters, vowels with
communicative meaning, texting and internet language
(disemvoweling)
6.
Self-discovery practice: online games,
 Note: it is important to teach “exceptions” (or “oddball” words),
especially if they are common, throughout the process. For example:
me, he, be, we, maybe, give, live, bread)

7. Activating intuitive
heuristics
 Explicit instruction? Or pattern recognition?
 Please see handout with chart and follow-up
homework that blends both
 Rhymezone Homework: we come back and share
results and start to form our own spelling rules/
observations -> Focus on spelling

8. Rhyme Creation
See what words students can create with patterns. It’s
probably to isolate some sounds at a time, especially
based on their homework
_ild
_are
_ce
_ai_
_ay
_y
_i_e
_in
_igh
_ore
_tch
_ui_
_ew
_o_e
_ake
_old
_oo_
_oy
_ee_
_ue
_u_e
_et
_ost
_al_
_ge
_ea_
_ow
_a_e
_it

9. Highlight Spelling
Differences
For example, these spelling patterns create “short-o”
AU
AW
O
__to
s__
d__g
h__l
y__n
n__t
f__lt
cr__l
r__cket
__gust
l__n
__dd

10. Vowel Distinction:
Multiple Modalities
Pedagogical ideas
 Minimal Pair Bingo
 A round with the teacher (listening + reading)
 partner practice (speaking + listening + reading)
“bingo”
 Information Gap
 teacher “comprehension” on the whiteboard or
computer (speaking + reading)
 Follow-up spelling quizzes

11. American Names
are filled with long and short vowels!
http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2011/9/babynames-now-with-a-long-vowel-in-every-syllable
Jean, Jane, Jen, Jan, Jay, John, Joan, June
Dean, Dane, Dan, Dawn,
You can use these names in a story with follow-up “Who
________?” questions.
.

12. Using Authentic Materials
Poetry
One-two, buckle my shoe;
Three-four, shut the door;
Five-six, pick up sticks.
Seven-eight, lay them
straight;
Nine-ten, a big fat hen;
Eleven-twelve, dig and delve
Songs

“As Tears Go By” – Rolling Stones

It is the evening of the day
I sit and watch the children play
Smiling faces I can see
But not for me
I sit and watch
As tears go by
My riches can't buy everything
I want to hear the children sing
All I hear is the sound
Of rain falling on the ground
www.esl-lounge.com has songs
organized by grammar focus
(simple present typically seem to
be easier songs)

13. Other Fun Activities
Production: Rhyme
Trains
Tongue Twisters
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy
was he?
Homophones
http://www.primaryresources.
co.uk/english/englishA8.htm
Betty bought a bit of butter
But the bit of butter Betty
bought was bitter
So Betty bought a better bit of
Butter
**I give my students recordings
of me reading, too!

14. Vowels with
communicative meaning
(Celce-Murica; Brinton; Goodwin; 2011, pg. 151)
Ahhh! (satisfaction)
Aw. (sympathy)
Ow! (pain)
Oh? (interest)
Oh. (comprehension)
Uh-Oh (trouble)
Ew! (disgust)
Oops! (mistake)
Aha! (discovery)
Huh? (confusion)
Boo! (frightening someone)
Uh-uh. (no)
Uh-huh. (yes)

15. Disemvoweling – an
internet phenomenon
 Have students go “backwards” to guess determine
what the actual word is. Examples
luv
OMG
sum1
rly
thnx
k
no1
cming
c u l8r
R u coming
ez
talk sn
gr8
nside
njoy
sndz gd
Th qck brwn fx jmps vr th lzy dg. (wikipedia)

16. Self-Exploration

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/

http://www.esl-lab.com/ (choose Easy or Medium)

http://thisibelieve.org/themes/

http://www.manythings.org/listen/

http://esl-bits.net/

http://shiporsheep.com/

http://www.manythings.org/pp/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrIfQTOl97k

http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronunciation/

17. Questions?
 Happy to send you a copy of my slides, resources
 heidilaide@gmail.com
 Or additional ideas that I can type here…