Pronunciation and Reading Practice  

You can print out these practice sheets and use them yourself, or if you are a teacher, you can use them with your class. The important thing is for students to learn how to connect the sounds with the letters in the words.

vowel sounds

short a

long a

short e

long e

short i

long i

short o

long o

short u

long u

air

ar

aw

eer

or

ow

oy

ur

consonant sounds

Initial sounds are made at the beginning of the word.
b
ch
d
f
g
h
j
k
l
m
n
p
r
s
sh
t
th 1
th 2
v
w
y
z
Middle sounds are made in the middle of the word.
b
ch
d
f
g
h
j
k
l
m
n
p
r
s
sh
t
th 1
th 2
v
w
y
z
final sounds are made at the end of the word.
b
ch
d
f
g
j
k
l
m
n
p
r
s
sh
t
th 1
th 2
v
w
y
z
final sounds + word endings: plural (s) and past tense (ed)
b
ch
d
f
g
j
k
l
m
n
p
r
s
sh
t
th 1
th 2
v
w
y
z

Teachers: All of the words in these exercises are real words. (At least 99% of them are real!). I have found that these exercises are also useful when introducing new vocabulary words. For example, a student might ask you what "carve" means among the "ar" words.

Keep this in mind: I’m not an expert in the area of teaching pronunciation. It’s never been the focus of my teaching because I think people develop these skills naturally; however, there are some sounds represented by particular letters that cause problems for students–especially if the alphabet in their first language is different from the Latin alphabet.

If you have suggestions for improving upon these exercises, I welcome your ideas.

Feel free to make photocopies!