English spelling and pronunciation can cause a lot of difficulties for English language learners! That’s because English spelling often doesn’t match the pronunciation. English has gone through many sound changes over time, and we’ve kept some of the older spellings that don’t reflect the current sounds. Did you know that while many languages only have 5 vowel sounds (a, e, i, o, u), English has 26 vowel sounds? No wonder it’s tough to learn how to spell and pronounce English words correctly!

Two tricky sounds are those spelled with “ph” and “wh”. “Ph” is pronounced as an /f/ sound, and “wh” is pronounced as a /w/ sound, and neither include the /h/ sound! This week’s Spotlight lesson was on
“ph” & “wh” Words, so I decided to record the words from this lesson on the blog this week. (more…)

The English spelling system is one of the most difficult of all the world’s languages. Our spelling of a word often doesn’t match the sound of the word. Two such sounds are “ph” words and “wh” words, such as “phone” and “whale”. Luckily, we’ve got a lesson devoted entirely to the spelling and sound of “ph” and “wh” words! Your students will be writing and pronouncing these words correctly in no time.

This 16-page phonics lesson can be broken up and done over several days so that your learners get as much practice as they need. It starts off with writing/spelling and speaking exercises and moves on to other grammar points such as Prepositions and Wh Questions about time and place. The colorful images and variety of activities mean your students won’t get bored! (more…)

Tricky Plural Nouns

Our teaching theme on Sprout English this week is all about the pronunciation of plural nouns. As Tanya pointed out in her recent post, plural endings are tricky. My own son, who is a seven-year-old native English speaker, has difficulty with plural endings. He often ends up tongue-tied when trying to pluralize words that end in “th” (/θ/), such as “months”, or “st” as in “nest”. His tendency is to change the /θ/ to /f/, which is easier to say, or to give the word an /Iz/ ending (nestIZ) rather than the trickier /s/ ending. Helping him work on his pronunciation when the problem comes up (without making a big deal out of it) is my current approach as a parent.

As a teacher, it can be difficult to find time to work one-on-one with kids who are having pronunciation problems. Finding games that the whole class can play is a great way to help individuals without making them feel uncomfortable. One game that can be adapted in a variety of ways is the traditional memory game “In My Suitcase”. In this game, students sit in a circle and take turns adding items (orally) to an invisible suitcase.

I am going on a holiday. In my suitcase I will bring…an alligator.

The second person repeats the first item and adds a second item with the next letter in the alphabet:  (more…)

Let’s face it—English pronunciation is difficult! Where some languages have only 5 vowel sounds, English has 26. Some languages have a limited set of consonant sounds, but English has tricky combinations like /th/. (Note: When we write sounds, we enclose them in slashes / /). And don’t even get me started on diphthongs (vowel-consonant combos like /ow/). There is a lot for students of English to learn!

On top of all the vowel and consonant sounds, students need to learn the pronunciation of endings that change according to the last sound of the word. For example, the past tense ending -ed can be pronounced as /t/, /d/, or /ɪd/ depending on the last letter of the verb. The case I’ll deal with today involves plural endings. I’ll use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in this post. Listen to the audio examples at the end of this article for pronunciation practice. But if you’re still confused by the IPA symbols, leave me a comment below and I’ll give you some more examples.

Whether you’re a teacher, a parent, or a student, I hope this blog post will help you with the pronunciation of plural endings!

1. Pronounce the plural ending as /s/ following voiceless consonants. (more…)

Many students view pronunciation as the biggest obstacle to overcome when learning another language. I often remind my students that the goal is not to get rid of their accent completely, but rather to speak clearly and comprehensibly. Accents are beautiful! But it frustrating when others can’t understand what you’re trying to communicate. Phonics lessons can help language learners improve their pronunciation so that they will be understood by everyone.

One tricky area of pronunciation is plural endings. Our three-page Plurals lesson helps students learn when to pronounce the endings /s/, /z/, and /ez/. This lesson shows which endings follow which consonants, and includes fun drawings that engage students while they practice. It is also great for practicing numbers and counting! (more…)

Most kids around the world are coming back to school from Christmas holidays this week or next week. Ease them back into study mode with Sprout English‘s simple and fun lesson of the week: Castle in the Project Depot!

This lesson teaches children how to follow instructions as they have fun drawing. Sprout English has 15 lessons like this one in the Project Depot.There are two ways to present this lesson: Listen and Draw or Read and Draw. (more…)

minimal pair: a pair of words that differ in sound by one phoneme (EX: cat/bat, sit/sip, hit/hat)

Are your students reviewing Three-Letter Words with Sprout English’s featured phonics pack? Have you introduced the concept of minimal pairs? Here is a fun holiday-themed craft that you can do to practice three-letter minimal pairs in December. Adjust the difficulty based on your students.

You will need
* lots of red, green, and white strips of paper about 5″ long by 1″ wide  (or use wrapping paper)
* felt markers (black or something that shows up well on colored paper)
* staplers or tape (a few shared around the classroom)

Minimal Pairs Activity
1. Review the concept of three-letter minimal pairs. Show lots of examples on the board, and get students to give you examples. Use Sprout English’s phonics pages for ideas. (more…)