7.

3 Phonology

Phonology refers to the study of how sounds are organized and used naturally. This
involves phonemes, syllables, rhythm, assimilation and overall sounds.

EFL teachers use phonology to enhance students’ pronunciation, intonation, use of connectors, word
stress, and sentence stress. The basic tool to start with is the phonemic chart.

7.3 Phonology

Phonemic Charts

Phonemic charts are sometimes overlooked by EFL teachers, but are extremely useful to explain
sounds in the English language. These charts model the pronunciation of single consonants,
consonant blends, consonant digraphs, vowels, vowel glides, and diphthongs in words.

Interactive phonemic charts can be found on several websites, which can be used inside
and outside the classroom to help facilitate the comprehension of phonetic sounds.
Consonants & Vowels

Teaching single consonant sounds, consonant-vowel-consonant words, consonant blends, and

consonant digraphs (two or more consonant letter representing a single sound) can be done using
charts and proper demonstration.

Single Consonant Sounds:

Students learn how consonant sounds change depending on the letter before and after. For example,
the ‘c’ in ‘consonant’ makes the same sound as:

 the ‘c’ in ‘cat’

 the ‘c’ in ‘castle’

 the ‘c’ in ‘tractor’

 the ‘c’ in ‘back’

However, when a ‘c’ is followed by an ‘i’ or ‘e’, the ‘c’ then makes an ‘s’ sound, such as in:

 ‘cinder’

 ‘circle’

 ‘incident’

 ‘exercise’

 ‘trace’

 ‘receive’

 ‘recent’

 ‘crescent’
Consonants & Vowels - Continued

Consonant Blends: two consonants blend together to make a new sound. The most common
consonant blends include:

 bl- blue

 br- bread

 cl- clock

 cr- cream

 dr- draw

 fr- friend

 tr- trap

 fl- flower

 gl- glow

 gr- great

 pl- play

 pr- press

 sl- slim

 sm- smart

 sp- sport

 st- start
Consonants & Vowels - Continued

Some of these blends can also occur at the end of words as in the word ‘last’ or ‘gasp’. Blends can
also contain three consonants, such as:

 str- straight

 spl- splash

 spr- spring

When teaching blends, it is effective to introduce them in groups. For example, a teacher may
introduce the l-blends first:

 bl – block, blast, blow

 cl – clap, clam, cloud

 fl – flower, flood, fling

 gl – glow, gloomy, glad

 pl – play, pluck, plow

 sl – slow, slime, sleep

Consonants & Vowels - Continued

Then group the r-blends:

 br – brave, brown, broke

 pr – practice, prance, proud

 dr – drive, dread, drink

 tr – trace, trick, treat

 gr – great, grow, grasp

  cr – crazy, crush, creep

 fr – fruit, friend, fresh

Then the s-blends:

 sp – spaghetti, spoil, spring

 sk – skeleton, sketch, skate

 sn – snake, snicker, snow

 sm – smile, smell, smoke

 st – store, stale, stick

 sw – swallow, swing, swear

 sc – score, scare, scratch

 sq – square, squint, squirrel

Introducing blended sounds in groups is most effective.

Consonants & Vowels - Continued

Consonant digraphs: These are two consonants together that make a single sound, such as the
‘ph-’ in ‘phonics’. The most common digraphs include:

 ch- cheese

 th- thought

 wh- whistle

 sh- shower

When introducing the concept of blends and digraphs, visuals such as cue cards often help.
Consonants & Vowels - Continued

Vowel Sounds

Some vowels sound similar to the non English speaking ear, and time should be spent practicing
sound differentiation at the beginner levels. Picture cues can be hung up in the classroom so students
have a reminder of vowel sounds when required.

There are three types of vowel sounds:

 monophthongs (single vowel sounds)

 consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words

 diphthongs, otherwise known as vowel glides

Consonants & Vowels - Continued

Monophthongs (simple vowels) – vowel sounds with no movement of the tongue (no glide) when
speaking them.

 /i:/ - bean, seat

 /i/ - bin, sin

 /e/ - hen, send

 /æ/ - hand, sand

 /a:/ - bar, start

 /o:/ - born, scorn

 /o/ - bond, somber

 /u:/ - boom, shoe

 /yu:/ - beauty, few

 /u/ - book, shook

 /ər/ - burn, stern

 /ə/ - bun, sun

Consonants & Vowels - Continued

Consonant-vowel-consonant Words (CVC) – have a consonant at the beginning, a consonant at

the end, and a short vowel in the middle.

 /i/ - bin, sin, tin, fin, did, bit, sit, lit

 /ə/ - sun, bun, fun, done, ton, cut, but

 /e/ - ten, set, get, let, jet, gem, pen, tell

  /æ/ - fan, fat, man, mat, pad, bad, jam

 /o/ - tot, rot, pot, fog, sock, cod, jog, top

Consonants & Vowels - Continued

Diphthongs – are words that have a pronunciation that starts with one vowel and glides to another,
such as |ei|, |au|, or |e|. Take a look at the following diphthong chart:

 /ɪə/ - ear, hear, cheer, deer, beer

 /eə/ - air chair, rare, bare, their

 /ʊə/ - tour, poor, sure, cure

 /eɪ/ - day, say, pray, pay

 /aɪ/ - I, eye, pie, sight, fight

 /ɔi/ - oil, coin, voice, boy, boil

 /eʊ/ - go, slow, so, bow, sow

 /aʊ/ - owl, out, count, found, bow

Consonants & Vowels - Continued

A good exercise to practice identifying the difference between single vowel sounds and diphthongs is
to give students a handout of contrasting monophthongs and diphthongs. Teachers read out one of
the words. The students circle the word that they hear.
For example

1. bet  bait

2. lord  load

3. far  fair

4. man  main

5. ride  red

6. get  gate

7. let  late

8. cough  cow

9. trick  trek

10. got  goat

11. bird  beard

12. through  throw

Consonants & Vowels - Continued

The following exercise is also effective for practicing single vowel sounds and diphthongs:

1. Break students into pairs and provide EACH student with two reading passages

2. One passage has vowels/diphthongs highlighted that their partner needs to fill
in:

Partner A

“The fair was very far from Joey’s house. So he had to get ready quickly so he could make it on time.
He trimmed his beard and fed his pet bird. He left through the back door to throw out the garbage.
Then he took the ride on his red bicycle. When he arrived, he could feel the weight of his wet t-
shirt from sweating so much. Luckily, he made it on time.”

Partner B

“As soon as you get through the gate, turn left. You will see the goat that I got bitten by last year.
On your right, you will see the horse with its mane in a braid, and a girl feeding it some bread.
The man you are looking for will be in the main office building. If he’s not there, his secretary
will let you know if he will be late. When he is ready, he will shout your name and ask you
to shut the door behind you.”

Consonants & Vowels - Continued

1. The other passage has blanks where they will need to fill in the
vowels/diphthongs they hear:

Partner A

“As soon as you _____ through the ______, turn left. You will see the ______ that I _____ bitten by
last year. On your right, you will see the horse with its mane in a _______, and a girl feeding it some
________. The ______ you are looking for will be in the _______ office building. If he’s not there,
his secretary will _____ you know if he will be ______. When he is ready, he will ______ your name
and ask you to ______ the door behind you.”

Partner B

“The _____ was very ____ from Joey’s house. So he had to get ready quickly so he could make it on
time. He trimmed his ______ and fed his pet ______. He left _________ the back door to _______
out the garbage. Then he took the ______ on his _____ bicycle. When he arrived, he could feel the
________ of his _____ t-shirt from sweating so much. Luckily, he made it on time.”

1. Instruct the students to read the passages to each other, one by one, allowing
their partners to fill in the blanks based on what they hear.

 Each student repeats the passage a few times depending on student level and
ability.