Short "e" versus long "a" sound
 

Hi!

Does anyone have any brilliant ways to explain the difference between the short "e" sound and the long "a" sound? I have a student who can't hear the difference, and I've never tried to teach the difference before. Is there a way to help the student hear the difference? For example, she pronounces "pen" and "pain" the same way, and she has trouble hearing the difference when I pronounce them.

Re: Short "e" versus long "a" sound
 

English has more vowel sounds than some other languages do. It could be that your student's language does not have some of the sounds of English. That could be the reason why your student is struggling - the sounds are new and foreign.
When I taught pronunciation, I taught the sounds of short vowels and long vowels and consonants. I taught the students to break apart words. Example: pen has 3 letters and 3 sounds. I taught them to make each sound and then put the word together.

Re: Short "e" versus long "a" sound
 

When teaching Phonics I bombard my students with a variety of examples of vowel-consonant combinations. If you constantly have your student read and repeat word such as "Pet, pate, set, sate" etc then s/he slowly should begin to be able to recognize the difference between long a and short e. I got a lot of great material from some videos at The Phonics Page: Free online phonics lessons using the book of Romans

lewis