Phonics with a regional accent?

[TriciaMR]

We are on week 6 of MFW-K. Just for kicks, I showed my son how to read M-A-T yesterday. When I said, "you can read!" he was so excited, he jumped over the table at me.

Now, in today's lesson, we started using the blend ladder and the cut-and-paste page with Sam and Ann. It may just be my southern pronunciation, but I don't hear /a/ like apple in Sam and Ann. It is more of an /e/ sound. Is this going to be a problem?
Beverly

Being a native Texan, transplanted around the world due to Dad being in the USAF, I appreciate this problem.

(Can you say, "Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd... and, "Pulease quiet down! I'm fixin' t' go worsh the car!" in the same sentence?)

I work real hard at enunciating correctly while I am teaching phonics and when we do spelling. I think it is important, as you need to be able to hear the distinctions between short /e/ and short /a/ to be able to spell Sam and not Sem.

-Trish

[Cyndi (AZ)]

It's OK if you drag it out and sound funny to yourself when you're teaching phonics. I'd recommend singing the short vowel song pretty often. And relax. :-)

Try growing up in Worshington with a mamma who did the worsh on Saturdays. (I do not say it that way.) My sister is still always "fixin' to go" somewhere, but I think I lost that one, too. Unfortunately, I still lose a lot of consonants, though . . . . catch my meanin'?

[my3boys]

I think no matter where you are from you will run into this in some form. In Canada we tend to say things more phonetically correct than what's in the english books - often when a word is listed as a 'rule breaker', the way I pronounce it doesn't break the phonetic rules. When we do get to a 'rule breaker' word that we pronounce as printed, we will try to say it with a british accent and often find that in that context it doesn't break any phonetic rules.

[SandKsmama]

I'm from NC, and I *definitely* don't say "cat" and "sam" the same way LOL. But having taught it to 2 kids so far, it hasn't been a problem - they seem to get it. They will sound it out saying the "a" sound the "right" way, and then when they read it, they read it in "Southern" LOL. It's kind of funny - but I was glad the Southern accent didn't mess up their phonics!

[3chickadeesandme]

I'm from NC, and I *definitely* don't say "cat" and "sam" the same way LOL. But having taught it to 2 kids so far, it hasn't been a problem - they seem to get it. They will sound it out saying the "a" sound the "right" way, and then when they read it, they read it in "Southern" LOL. It's kind of funny - but I was glad the Southern accent didn't mess up their phonics!

We live in Arkansas, and have this problem too. My girls sound it out then speak in "southern" That was a good way to put it. We don't have a problem though, it is just the way it is.

[cbollin]

My third child is in K, and I never had this problem when teaching the others to read. Every time we sing the short vowel song he stops and tells me that the a in man is different than the a in cat and apple. Then he tries to pronounce man with a textbook short a sound. The next day when we sing the a-a-apple song all goes well until fox. He gets stuck on the fact that fox doesn't start with x. Or sometimes he sings it as follows: w-w-water f-f-fox, y-y-yellow...

Now I'm really not too concerned or frustrated or anything, but just wondering what in the world is going to happen when we move on to 1st, with all the bizarre irregularities of the English language. Anyone have any experience or advice?

Apparently "man" has some regional differences in how it can be said with more of a "schwa" sound. My husband pronounces those "an" words the same way your child is hearing them with that regional influence on the "an". But there is something that happens when the "n" follows "a" that some people switch the sound from short a. I don't know why. My dh does
Options: tell him to "say it for spelling purposes", or you have permission to change the song and make a picture of a "hat", or "mat" or "bat". In any case, tell him he has good hearing to distinguish those slight regional differences in that word, but that according to the dictionary the preferred pronunciation (the one listed first) is short a in man.

In terms of other things in 1st grade, you'll just have to tell him that there are a lot of rules, and that you'll cover them, just not all at once. You might consider playing on starfall.com to help with it.

-crystal

[cbollin]

I'm really struggling with the short vowel sound for /a/.
When singing the song - "I hear /a/ in cat and man........" cat and man have different /a/ sounds.
I don't want to confuse DS but I'm confused myself.

Any tips, advice etc?
We are starting the blending ladder and I really want to teach it correctly.

Depending on regions, some accents with the /a/ when followed with letter N change slightly. My dh says it differently and it drives me batty. we have a child with the name Anna. He says it differently thAN I do.

:thud:

I don't know if this will work?
what if you change the short vowel song and get a picture of a map or draw a pic of a map

I hear /a/ in cat and map

and then when you run into man, van, or other pics on worksheets and it confuses a bit.... just mention that the N sound in the word is trying to trick our ears a bit on the /a/. But we'll get it

I'm still thinking it will turn out ok ((hugs))

If needed, you can play on something like starfall.com with the short A words and all of that.

-crystal

[RachelT]

I think that is a great idea! I didn't think of that when doing K, but I just try to enunciate /a/ very clearly and very much the same in "cat" and "man", which is a little different than how I would speak the work "man" or other words with an "an"!

Rachel