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After listening to the video, I found the voiced and unvoiced "th" sounds to be some of the most difficult to produce intentionally. They are sounds that I use naturally when speaking, but when I had to isolate them and think about how they are formed, I realized how complex they really are. I also think that universally the short /a/ and short /e/ vowel sounds can be challenging because they can sound very similar and may be difficult for learners to distinguish. Another sound that stood out to me was /ng/. It felt awkward to produce in isolation, even though it feels completely natural when it appears in a word like "sing."

To make this type of practice practical for multilingual learners, I would embed it into authentic language experiences rather than teaching sounds in isolation for long periods of time. Activities such as songs, chants, read-alouds, and word games can provide repeated exposure to target sounds while keeping students engaged. I think short, consistent opportunities to listen for and practice specific sounds throughout the day would be more meaningful and effective than isolated drills, especially for younger learners.

One thing I learned from the article was that phonological awareness skills can transfer from one language to another. I was surprised to learn that for older multilingual learners who are already literate in their native language, instruction can focus primarily on the sounds that differ between English and their first language. I had not considered that these foundational literacy skills would transfer across languages, but it makes sense when thinking about individual phonemes and how language learners build on what they already know.

A strategy that resonated with me was creating a picture alphabet book with pictures organized by beginning sounds. This is a strategy I could see myself using in the classroom because it is engaging, hands-on, and supports multiple language skills at once. Students can practice identifying and producing beginning sounds while also learning new vocabulary. I like that it connects phonemic awareness to meaningful language learning rather than treating sounds as isolated skills.

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After listening to all 44 sounds of English, I initially believed that the diphthong sounds made by /oi/ and /oy/ would be the most challenging to say and would be the most difficult for multilingual learners to master. I based this off the fact that through training in the Foundation's program and Wilson Reading System I’ve learned that diphthongs and vowels say either the “short” vowel sounds or the “long” vowel sounds. Creating the distinction between short and long vowel sounds I feel is a straightforward instructional strategy to support students' mastery of any vowel, vowel teams, and their specific sounds. After further reflecting, however, it’s become apparent that this is not always true. Knowing that English includes additional sounds that many other languages do not, I now recognize that the sounds /th/ and /r/ would be the most challenging for multilinguals to master since they do not appear as frequently within other languages other than English. Gilakjani and Ahmadi (2011) further support that “English phonemes /th/ and /r/ are often difficult for multilingual learners to master because they may not exist in learners' first-language sound systems”, and learners frequently struggle to “perceive and categorize them as distinct English sounds”.Reflecting on my own teaching setting in a resource room, these challenges of mastering certain sounds also become apparent with my student population as /th/ could be mistaken for the /f/ sound and /r/ mistaken for /l/. Additionally, there are multiple spelling options for r-controlled vowels including /ur/, /er/, and /ir/ which increases the difficulty when students are attempting to spell words with this sound.

A phonemic awareness activity that I resonated with was the “picture alphabet book” (A World of Language Learners, 2020). Although this was presented as a strategy to support older English-language learners I also see this being an effective activity that could be modified to best support the phonological development of any aged student. Personally, I thought about how I could incorporate this activity with my third and fourth grade students as they are introduced to new and challenging sounds through the Fundation’s program that is utilized in my district. Instructing students to locate these sounds through images and words presented in magazines and photographs is an engaging way to assess students' mastery and development with such specific sounds; and a tool for students to refer back to when reading, writing, and spelling!

A World of Language Learners. (2020, April 20). Phonemic awareness with ELLs. https://www.aworldoflanguagelearners.com/phonemic-awareness

Gilakjani, A. P., & Ahmadi, M. R. (2011). Why is pronunciation so difficult to learn? English Language Teaching, 4(3), 74–83. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v4n3p74

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In the YouTube video, forty-four sounds for twenty-six letters is a lot to master for someone who is learning the English language. This may be additionally challenging for a language learner whose home language is not orthographically the same as English. Although I am a native English speaker, I found a few sounds difficult to create (e.g., /nk/, /ng/, /hw/) because the combination of sounds did not feel automatic when isolated. Those sounds feel more fluid and easy within words. On the other hand, there may be more sounds that pose obstacles for non-native English speakers such as /j/, r-controlled vowels, short /i/, voiced and the unvoiced /th/ and /zh/ sounds. From my ESL teaching experience, I observed multilingual learners mix up the short /i/ with short /e/ and /j/ with /g/. Some of these sounds may not appear in other languages. Therefore, non-native English speakers may not have strengthened those facial muscles or be aware of how to physically form those sounds. Similarly, when I try to learn Brazilian Portuguese, I have a difficult time because many of their sounds include nasal sounds; a type of sound I am not accustomed to creating. When I speak Spanish, I noticed my mouth feels tired because I am creating more palatal and dental consonant sounds than I would in English. Recognizing these language-specific obstacles has motivated me to develop more targeted, engaging activities for my students.

After reading the article “Phonemic Awareness with ELLs” (A World of Language Learners, 2020), I noticed I facilitate some of these phonemic awareness activities with my middle school ESL 1 multilingual learners because I use a phonics intervention program. A key advantage of incorporating phonemic awareness is that the practice becomes routine and automatic for some students as they apply the strategies (e.g., blending, segmenting) to new words. While the article recommends age-appropriate visuals and attention to phonological differences across languages for older multilingual learners, I find it challenging to locate engaging activities that maintain middle schoolers' interest. Deletion, addition, and substitution of phonological sounds are effective in building phonemic awareness. Aside from using worksheets to independently practice phonemic awareness, middle school students find collaborative and cooperative activities (Wood, 2017, p. 123) more engaging because they developmentally gravitate towards group behavior and identity in middle school. A way to gamify these components for middle school multilingual learners is having students verbally build a word list using the above strategies to connect words. For example, the teacher can begin with the word “cart.” Then, the next student can use deletion by saying “art.” Next, a student can use addition to say, “heart.” Afterwards, another student can use substitution to say, “fart.” This phonemic awareness word list continues until the class cannot think of ways to add, delete, or substitute sounds. Students can be removed from the game if they do not follow the phonemic awareness components. A way to make this challenging is to provide time limits for each student’s response. This game format demonstrates that phonemic awareness instruction can be both academically rigorous and genuinely enjoyable for middle schoolers.

References

A World of Language Learners. (2020, April 20). Phonemic Awareness with ELLs. A World of

Language Learners. https://www.aworldoflanguagelearners.com/phonemic-awareness/

How to Pronounce ALL ENGLISH Sounds: American English Lesson. (n.d.). Www.youtube.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpN9CPwZ-oE

Wood, C. (2017). Yardsticks: Child and Adolescent Development Ages 4-14. CTR FOR

RESPONSIVE SCHOOL.

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While watching the video and practicing the 44 sounds in English, I did not necessarily find any of the sounds hard to make. But, I did find some of the sounds surprising, since Vanessa explained some of them a little differently than I had previously interpreted them in my head. For example, the /t/ sound in the words that end with the letters “ed”. My whole life I have thought of this sound as “ed” and not “t”. When I said the word outloud, I could tell that I was making a “t” sound. But, now I feel like I have been guilty of mispronouncing this sound for my students while trying to help them understand that sound.

ML students would have a harder time making these sounds, depending on their first language and the sounds that overlap with their first language and English. I think that this video is great to help students see all of the different sounds that English makes because the sounds do not always correspond with the letters. I also like her examples to help MLs see the sounds in various words. I am going to have my students practice with this video next week!

One activity from the article that resonates with me is having older students use pictures to sort into the phonetic sounds they make. I like this activity because I teach high school ESL students. Although their English proficiency may be low, they are capable of talking about more advanced topics. So, the pictures would help them practice the vocabulary that we are learning, while also learning phonetics at the same time. In addition, practicing the sounds would hopefully give them more confidence to use their new words while speaking.

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A student's level of phonemic awareness when they enter kindergarten is a strong predictor of how easy it will be for them to learn how to read. All students in preschool and many in the primary grades are learning phonemic awareness skills. Teaching phonemic awareness skills to young ELLs is similar to their native English peers. Older ELLs may also benefit from short and targeted instruction and practice with the sounds of English.

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to identify and manipulate phonemes in spoken words. It is also the understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words ( Reading Rockets.) Phonemic awareness activities are done without letters so that the focus is on sounds.

Components of Phonemic Awareness

Isolation

What is the beginning, middle, ending sound in cat?

Identification

Which word had the same beginning sound as cat? Dog, bug, cut (cut)

Categorization

Which word does not start with the same beginning sound, it does not belong? blue, black, red (red)

Blending

Put the sounds together to make a word. /c/ /a/ /t/ is cat. If a student struggle with blending each sound give them the initial sound (onset) and the rest of the sounds (rime) /c/ /at/.

A simple activity is to play a guessing game with students. Segment a word /t/ /r/ /e/. Students say the word and then look around and try and find it. This helps ELLs build their vocabulary as they are practicing sounds.

Segmenting

Say the sounds you hear in the word cat /c/ /a/ /t/. One way to help students with this task is to give blocks for them to move with each sound or tap their finger for each sound.

Deletion

Have students remove a sound to create a new word. Say blog. Now say blog without the /b/ log.

Addition

Have students add a sound to create a new word. Say at. Now say at and add /s/ to the beginning sat.

Substitution

Say mat. Change the /m/ to /r/. What is the new word? (rat)

Exposure to the Sounds of English

You can help ELLs strengthen their knowledge of the sounds of the English language through read alouds, songs, poems, and other word games. Choral reading is also helpful as it gives students practice pronouncing English words without the stress of people hearing if they mispronounce a word.

Focus on Sounds that are Different

Especially for older Ells, it is helpful to focus on the sounds that are different between English and their native language. Phonological awareness skills transfer from one language to another. If a student is literate in their native language then they only require instruction in sounds that are different.
English and Spanish similarities and differences
Use Pictures

ELLs need to understand the vocabulary words that are being used for a phonemic awareness lesson. Using pictures is a simple way to help students both learn new sounds and vocabulary.

Older Students

For older ELLs photographs are one way to keep instruction age-appropriate. Students can work on completing a picture alphabet book. Use magazines, teacher provided pictures and student drawings that connect to the content that students are learning. Students can sort the pictures based on the beginning sounds.

Resources

Phonemic Awareness Bundle - This set includes print and digital phonemic awareness games with pictures and rhyming puzzles.

A Fresh Look at Phonics
https://www.readnaturally.com/research/5-components-of-reading/phonological-awareness

The Big Five: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Part 2

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Phonemic Awareness with ELLs - A World of Language Learners

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Learn ideas for teaching phonemic awareness skills to English Langauge Learners. For ELLs it is important to give instruction...