One of the reasons English is a challenging language to learn to read is that one letter can represent more than one sound. While most letter-sound correspondences remain fairly constant, the sound a vowel letter represents is dependent upon its position in a word or syllable and the letters that surround it.
English letters are divided into two types, consonants and vowels. There are five vowel letters: A, E, I, O, and U. These letters can represent both long and short vowel sounds, depending on their placement in a word. Short vowels are vowel sounds that are pronounced quickly and with a relaxed tongue and jaw. They are not held out or stretched like long vowels.
Short vowel sounds are most often represented by one vowel letter followed by one or more consonant letters. Here are the short vowel sounds and some examples of words that contain them:
Short "a" sound: "a" as in "cat," "hat," "mat," "bat," "ran," "pan," "lap," "man."
Short "e" sound: "e" as in "bed," "pen," "met," "pet," "hen," "beg," "let," "fed."
Short "i" sound: "i" as in "sit," "hit," "lip," "bit," "tin," "win," "fix," "kit."
Short "o" sound: "o" as in "hot," "pot," "not," "cot," "top," "pop," "dog," "box."
Short "u" sound: "u" as in "hut," "cut," "sun," "bug," "mug," "gum," "fun," "bus."
(The words listed above follow the consonant-vowel-consonant pattern, so are often referred to in the abbreviated form of CVC words.)
Vowel sounds are important to recognize and understand, because they can change the meaning of a word. For example, "bit" and "bite" have different meanings even though they only differ by a single letter. The short "i" sound in "bit" makes it a word meaning a small amount, while the long "i" sound in "bite" makes it a verb meaning to take a quick, sharp bite.
Traditionally when children begin to read in English, the first words they learn are simple three-letter words with short vowel sounds. By focusing on words with short vowels exclusively, the vowel sound becomes predictable. Once the students have mastered words with short vowel sounds, instruction generally moves on to words with other vowel sounds.
During my time as a reading intervention teacher, the most glaring gaps for struggling readers of all ages were that they did not know their short vowel sounds nor how to identify which vowel sound to use in words. If a child mispronounced a word while reading, it was usually because of a long and short vowel substitution.
(This visual aid was created with pictures and words to help children easily isolate the initial short vowel sounds. It is available free of charge in my website shop.)
While listening to my first graders read, I would often give them the hint "short" or "long" if they were still struggling to read a word after multiple tries; that clue was usually enough to help them to find success. However, for that strategy to work, a deliberate effort must be made to formally teach the students these phonics concepts.
There are other times when a vowel may represent a short sound in a word based on the syllable it is in, but those are concepts for more advanced phonics instruction with students learning to read multisyllabic words. I will discuss it in a future blog post about the schwa sound.
In summary, short vowels are the sounds vowels represent when they are alone and followed by one or more consonants. They are usually the first vowel sounds taught to children when they learn to read. It's critical for students to master the concepts related to long and short vowel sounds, as substituting one for the other can alter the meaning of a word.
Here is the link to the Free Short Vowel Sounds Visual Aid if you would like to download a copy.
Check out my blog post 23 Short Vowel Videos that Kids Love for a collection of videos to enhance your lessons about the short vowel sounds.
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