Teaching Diphthongs and Ambiguous Vowels

Teaching students about word study concepts that are complicated and well, ambiguous, is difficult. Let this blog post be your trusty guide for teaching diphthongs and ambiguous vowels. I’ll share definitions and examples of diphthongs and ambiguous vowels that you can use with your students, information on when you should expect students to be ready for diphthongs and ambiguous vowels, and "ready to implement" activities for practicing the spelling of diphthongs and ambiguous vowels. Ready to dive in?

What is a diphthong? How is diphthong pronounced? 😂

A diphthong, pronounced dif-thong, is the sound created when two vowels blend together in a single syllable. The vowel sound is neither a short or long vowel sound, rather it starts out sounding like the first vowel but then glides into the other. For example, in the word toy, the vowel starts off sounding like a long o but then glides into a long e sound at the end of the word. Much like r-controlled vowels, the two individual vowel sounds cannot be separated within the word.

What are some examples of diphthongs?

  • Long OI - boil, spoil, point, moist

What is an ambiguous vowel?

Ambiguous vowels are vowel combinations that can make a variety of different sounds or multiple different vowel combinations that all make the same sound. I like to think of ambiguous vowels as hard to pin down and attach rules or generalizations to, making them challenging for students to spell

What are some examples of ambiguous vowels?

  • AW, AU, ô - crawl, lawn, cause, sauce, cross, frost

  • WA, AL, OUGH - watch, swap, calm, walk, thought, fought

  • OU, OW - show, glow, cloud, mouth, gown, frown

* Note: I've linked each of these diphthong and ambiguous vowel patterns to resources that can be used to teach these skills. You can find the bundle for teaching Diphthongs and Ambiguous Vowel Patterns here.

In what grade-level are Diphthongs and Ambiguous Vowels Long Vowel Sounds taught?

While I use the Words Their Way continuum of spellers to assess my students and identify the developmental level that I will target with their instruction, it's also helpful to know what is typical for teaching diphthongs and ambiguous vowels. Students working on diphthongs and ambiguous vowels are typically in the Late WIthin Word Pattern Stage. These students already have a firm foundation of long vowel patterns and are ready to tackle vowel patterns and sounds that are a bit less concrete.

Within Word Pattern students are typically in 2nd-3rd grade, but you may find that some 1st graders fall into this stage and that some 4th-5th graders are still developing skills in the Within Word Pattern Stage. As a 5th grade teacher, I always had one or two small groups that were in the Within Word Pattern stage.

What are some common difficulties students have when writing and spelling diphthongs and ambiguous vowels?

Just defining a diphthong and ambiguous vowel is hard enough, am I right!? 

It’s not surprising that students struggle to read and accurately spell words that contain diphthongs and ambiguous vowels. Students who have relied heavily on spelling words phonetically may have the most difficulty with these concepts. Although the generalizations (or "spelling rules") related to diphthongs are complex (for example, "the location of a particular pattern or the particular consonant that follows a pattern often determines the spelling of the word" 😫) and a mouthful, it is critical for students to understand and be able to apply these generalizations as well as memorize the spelling patterns of words.

What types of activities benefit students working on Diphthongs and Ambiguous Vowels?

Because words with diphthongs and ambiguous vowels do not follow a straightforward path and are neither long or short, they are tricky for students to accurately pronounce and spell. Therefore students need LOTS of exposure and opportunities to practice matching these tricky sounds to their appropriate spelling patterns. Giving students lots of opportunities to see the commonly spelled words together helps build their neural pathways and mastery of spelling these words correctly.

I love to liven up tired sorting activities with a good game! In You’ve Got Mail, students take turns drawing words and delivering them to the appropriate mailbox (or spelling pattern), racing with their opponent to deliver the most envelopes in order to win the game.

Aside from having students match words to their vowel or spelling patterns, it’s also important to provide students with opportunities to practice spelling diphthongs and ambiguous vowels correctly. I like to do this with a game where students finish spelling a word by filling in the missing vowel teams.

In Four In A Row, students have a 4 by 4 board that contains words that are missing their vowel teams. This allows students to focus in on the sounds in the words and vowel patterns they have been studying. With the omission of the vowel team, students must mindfully recall vowel patterns and sounds and apply what they have learned to complete the word and ultimately finish the game by getting 4 in a row!

You can find all of the games and activities I suggest using in the Diphthongs and Ambiguous Vowels BUNDLE.

YOU’VE GOT THIS, TEACHER FRIEND!

Due to the ambiguous nature of these word study concepts (pun intended 😜), students will benefit from ample time and varied opportunities to practice spelling words with diphthongs and ambiguous vowels correctly. At this point in their word study development, students have learned a wide array of short and long vowel patterns. As you help your students successfully master diphthongs and ambiguous vowels, be sure to plan opportunities to sprinkle in previously taught word study concepts!

Looking for more Within Word Pattern Resources?

You can get all of the Within Word Pattern Stage games and activities in a time-saving , money saving bundle!

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