Korean Job Discussion Forums

[katsu]

hi

i can't seem to find the answer to my question.

do the words "rule" and "burst" have the long "u" sound or short "u" sound and how would i explain it to the students?

thanks

[busanliving]

rule is a long vowel sound, dictated by the silent e, same as pule and mule
burst is an r-controlled vowel sound, like nurse, purple, burn etc
other r-controlled vowel sounds are -ir stir, flirt, dirt etc
however to show the difference fire is a long i sound because of the silent e.

[gbm75]

Agree with the previous poster.

In any word with a long vowel the vowel says its name. Examples of words with long u: tube, rule, fruit...

Short u says uh... as in cup, up, bus

If the vowels i, e, or u are followed by an r they are "r-controlled vowels" and all make the same sound.
i.e. the ur in church
the er in fern
the ir in first
I think usually "o" followed by r sounds like a long o sound (corn, fort, sword etc.) but "word" and "worse/worst" come to mind where it doesn't and is instead controlled by the r and says neither its long nor short sound.

I usually tell students to listen for the sound of the letter name in the word. If they hear it, it's a long vowel. You will have to greatly exaggerate this if your students are young.

ie "If it says it's name... it's a long vowel. What are the names of the vowels? A, E, I, O, U. So letter A says /a/. Plaaaaaaaaaaaane.... do you hear A, E, I, O or U? Listen again, plaaaaaaaaaaaaane. It's long A. How about this: c-a-t. Did you hear A,E,I,O or U? (Sound it out again.) No, so it's a short vowel." Continue with many more examples.

Hope that helps.

P.S. If your confusion was over knowing what the long and short vowels actually sound like here's a list:

Long Vowels:
/a/ as in plane
/e/ as in me
/i/ as in mine
/o/ as in no
/u/ as in glue

Short Vowels:
/a/ as in cat
/e/ as in jet
/i/ as in big
/o/ as in hot
/u/ as in fun

[Troglodyte]

As in all natural languages, the spoken language isn't controlled by the written form. The "rules" of spelling are more explanations about the spelling. I wouldn't teach students to learn spelling from pronunciation or vice-versa. Teach the two separately. Unless they are upper level students (i.e. native level or near native level) then just teach them phonetics appropriate to their level. The explanations for why we have such odd spellings in English are too complicated for a general English student. And they aren't necessary. Consider that a native English speaking child has no knowledge of the reasons for irregular spellings, yet they speak perfectly and within a few years of school learn to spell correctly (until their parents give them a cell phone).

As far as the "u" sound, there are 3 main ones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_back_rounded_vowel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-close_near-back_vowel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid_back_unrounded_vowel

[RMNC]

Just tell them that "rule" has the sound of "ㅜ"

"Burst", similarly has a sound closer to "ㅓ"

I find that explaining things in their own language helps them to understand.

[ddeubel]

Show your students the videos and articulation here. http://bit.ly/i3O8Db
Click monodipthong and central to find them and show students the sound and how they are made.

I agree - very helpful to compare with the L1 but also know that there can never be an exact equal - it is always along a gradient.

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[katsu]

thanks guys...much appreciated ) i'll be able to explain it better to my students )

[emmahearst]

wow that's detailed.

[mattdsoares]