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Question:

In My Catholic Speller, Level A Lesson 13: "Ways to Make Long O," you have store, more, born, torn, and horn. I do not see where these are the long O sound. How can I teach something I do not understand? (This was for my 7 year old.) My 14 year old struggles a lot with spelling although she is improving. I was going to start her on Level B. I thought if I had her look up the words in the dictionary and write how the word was pronounced it would help tie the words together for her and give her practice writing each word. On the Week 1 lesson there is job and frog. Do you use a different dictionary? Is there something else I should do to eliminate this confusion?

Answer:

AMDG+

Dear Parent;

First, you are to be commended for your efforts to ensure a good education for your children. Having your students find words in the dictionary and write their definitions and pronunciations, and even craft sentences around the assigned words, are good ways to reinforce the lesson, if you feel they need extra practice.

As far as the question about differences in pronunciation, you have hit on a problem that linguists have dealt with as long as language has existed. (This problem is even mentioned in the Old Testament, in Judges 12:6. The word referenced [shibboleth] even today refers to regional differences in pronunciation.)

Because English is a living language, it undergoes continual change. A good example of this would be the word gay, which only a few decades ago was synonymous with happy. Just as usage changes, pronunciation can also change over time and vary from region to region.

One can also find these differences among dictionaries, and even within a single dictionary. For example, you have probably noted that your dictionary often provides alternate pronunciations for words, allowing for regional differences.

Because I'm not certain which dictionary you are using, I'll use a few online dictionaries as examples so that you can reference them if you'd like. The first example is from the Cambridge Dictionary of American English. It assigns exactly the same long o sound to both born and store. The American Heritage Dictionary assigns exactly the same short vowel sound of o to both frog and job.

If you would like to continue having your students use the dictionary for pronunciation, may I suggest using an online dictionary, such as the American Heritage Dictionary? In addition to phonetic keys, online dictionaries also have an audible pronunciation of the word, so that the student can hear it spoken. That way, if there are confusing regional differences, at least your student will be able to hear the differences.

May Our Lord bless and guide your dedication to homeschooling your children,

Nancy Nicholson