The vowel house: a cognitive approach to vowels for literacy and speech

Abstract

Awareness of consonants and vowels is a fundamental literacy skill. In English, there is a highly complex relationship between written and spoken vowels. Children with language impairment may display significant difficulties in acquiring adequate phonological processing skills for vowels, with serious consequences for their acquisition of literacy. A framework based on phonetic features of vowels but incorporating links to written vowel patterns is presented. This has proved useful for improving children's phonological awareness of vowels, for literacy teaching, and also for targeting persisting spoken vowel production difficulties. The framework has been specifically devised for the vowels of Scottish English, but it may be adapted for other varieties of English.

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