AAS pronunciation question

[Carrie12345]

I've never had any trouble teaching any of my 3 big kids to read, and my oldest is a phenomenal speller. All despite our fairly thick North Jersey accent. ;)

 

Now I'm walking through the first few AAS level 1 steps with the girls, and I'm struggling with the third pronunciation for A; /ah/. The example word is water. While my natural "water" is more like "w-awe-der" (I can't figure out how else to write it), I can force a bit of a change, but that change sounds exactly like the "o" sound given for the word "odd", which is a totally different pronunciation symbol!

If I start telling them the word is waaahhhter (or similar such things), they're going to think I've lost my mind!

 

I'm not worried about ruining my kids' reading or spelling because of this, lol, but I am wondering if that will present any issues in future AAS lessons. Anyone know?

[Wheres Toto]

We're getting ready to start AAS in a couple weeks. I never thought about these kinds of issues since I don't have any accent. ;) Despite my lack of accent, I do pronounce water the same way you do and would pronounce /ah/ like the o in odd.

[sbgrace]

Maybe I'm confused/not hearing differences but third sound of a and first/short sound of o sound alike to me when I say them and when I listen to them here as well. http://homepage.mac.com/ashleya/villa/spaldingmp3.html

We're not using AAS though.

Edited July 21, 2010 by sbgrace

[monalisa]

I just popped in my AAS CD and listened to A and O, and the 3rd sound of A and the first sound of O sound EXACTLY the same. So I think you're correct to pronounce water with the same sound as odd. I live smack in the midwest, and that's how I pronounce it and hear it pronounced.

[siloam]

I've never had any trouble teaching any of my 3 big kids to read, and my oldest is a phenomenal speller. All despite our fairly thick North Jersey accent. ;)

 

Now I'm walking through the first few AAS level 1 steps with the girls, and I'm struggling with the third pronunciation for A; /ah/. The example word is water. While my natural "water" is more like "w-awe-der" (I can't figure out how else to write it), I can force a bit of a change, but that change sounds exactly like the "o" sound given for the word "odd", which is a totally different pronunciation symbol!

If I start telling them the word is waaahhhter (or similar such things), they're going to think I've lost my mind!

 

I'm not worried about ruining my kids' reading or spelling because of this, lol, but I am wondering if that will present any issues in future AAS lessons. Anyone know?

 

All and father can can also be used to describe the 3rd sound of a, does that work better? It is the least common use of A, so I wouldn't overly worry about it.

 

Also, if you can find it, read the section on pronounce for spelling. There are lots of words that don't quite say what they should. U is one of the worst, and so sometimes, to fix in your mind, you emphasize the proper way to say it even if that isn't the way you would normally say it in regular conversation. Says is probably the most common one we do it here with, sAz (long a) vs. the way we say it here: sez (short e). U examples include tune, flute, tube, compute. These are clearly u silent e examples that should say U (long) like cute. They just sound funny like water does if you force the absolute correct pronunciation. It is also a lot of work, which is why we don't, we take the easy road and say them the way that is fastest.

 

Heather

 

[Carrie12345]

Yay! I feel better now! :D

 

I really like the suggestion of using the word father instead. Sometimes I'm easily "trapped" when it comes to packaged lesson plans @@.

 

When I first discovered I had an accent (at 16, lol), I started to wonder how other kids were taught phonics and spelling. It was a little fascination of mine that I had forgotten about until now!

[min]

I have amended AAS to reflect the five sounds that "a" has here (Australia). The five sounds we use are:

 

a

[min]

Here "water" does not have any of the three "sounds of A" as mentioned in AAS, and I have modified AAS to reflect that. Here (in Australia) we have five sounds which "a". Our sounds are:

 

short a bat

long a baby (b - ay - b - ee)

ah bath, father (b - ah - th)

aw water, all, fall (w - aw - t - er)

o was (w - o - s ; pronounced same way as pot etc)

 

Was is taught as a rule breaker in AAS, but with our (more English) pronounciation there is a rule for it ("o" sound after a "w" sound, even after a "qu", is almost always spelled with an "a" - exception/rule breaker is wobble) and so we teach that rule.

 

I am ignoring "air" as in Mary, as there aren't many of them and if and when they come up I'll treat them as rulebreakers. These five seem to be the standards ones taught here in the schools.

 

My kids haven't had any issues with the extra sounds, and I did modify some of the teaching accordingly, and to add in things like the rule mentioned above.

 

I've put together list of changes I made and they're on AAS's support group, together with some additions made by other people.

 

Miranda