II.  Continue Pronouncing Exercises, Teaching New Phonograms.

Continue word study by the analytic-synthetic process.  These phonic drills will deal largely with the new words that occur in the daily reading lessons.

III.  Syllabication.

In mastering the pronunciation of new words, pupils should acquire the habit of analyzing them into syllables.

The ear must be trained to hear syllables, they should be separately pronounced, and clearly imaged.  This makes for effective spelling later.  Most of the difficulties in spelling are removed when the habit of breaking up a complex word into its elements is acquired.

re mem ber ther mom e ter sep a rate in de pen dence dan de lion mul ti pli ca tion beau ti ful re frig er a tor

IV.  Teach the Long Vowel Sounds.

We have found that the short vowels predominate in the English language.  The long vowel sounds come next in frequency.  When the child has mastered the letters and combinations representing these two sounds, he is able to recognize a large majority of the phonetic words in our language.

Phonetic words follow definite rules of pronunciation.  These rules are not to be formally taught in the first and second years, but pointed out by examples, so that the visual and auditory image may be associated.

To illustrate:  When there are two or more vowels in a word of one syllable, the first vowel is long, and the last silent, as:  came, leaf, coat, rain.

“When there is one vowel in the word and it is the last, it is long,” as:  me, he, fly.

All vowels are short unless modified by position.

Have the children notice the effect of final “e” upon some of their short vowel words.  These lists will furnish good pronunciation drills.

mat   mate     bit   bite     tap   tape
pan   pane     rod   rode     fad   fade
fat   fate     hat   hate     mad   made
can   cane     pin   pine     rat   rate
not   note     rob   robe     pet   Pete
man   mane     din   dine     dim   dime
cap   cape     fin   fine     spin  spine
hid   hide     mop   mope     kit   kite
hop   hope     plum  plume    rip   ripe
tub   tube                    cub   cube
cut   cute
tun   tune

Call attention to the vowel digraphs in the same way:  ea, ai, oa, ay.

deaf seat bean neat leaves meat heat peach lean please eagle clean eat seam teach mean stream glean read squeal wean

While there are exceptions, as in the words “head” and “bread,” the digraph “ea” has the sound of long “e” in nearly three-fourths of the words in which it occurs and should be so taught.  The visual image “ea” should call up the auditory image of long “e.”  When the child meets the exceptions the context must be relied on to aid him.