LETTERS ON BILINGUAL EDUCATION

· The English "i" in the word feet. · The English "o" in the word goal .

· The English "u" in the word moon.

We will start with the five vowel sounds as represented by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/. These are the pure vowel sounds that are present in English just as in many other languages.

The first pure vowel SOUND in English (represented by the letter "a" in most languages) is represented by the letter "o" In English. We repeat: you just have to get used to this. For example the English word lot is pronounced as if it were lat in other languages.

You open your mouth wide when you make this sound. This sound show up in the words father, car, top, pot and is the same sound as the Spanish words padre, carro, tapa, pata, or the German Vater, achtung, machen, etc.

• This sound is a form of the English vowel sound /o/ (the "short o") and not of the /a/. Therefore the "o" stands for this sound more often than the "a". To avoid confusion it is good to use a dictionary that has the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet, the IPA.
• Sure, it is always better to listen to a native speaker but sometimes you don't have one around. For example, when you look up a word in the dictionary you will know how to pronounce it if the dictionary has the IPA symbols.
• Get a good dictionary that uses the IPA like the "Longmans Basic Dictionary of American English" or the excellent "Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners" by cutting the appropriate following long URL address and pasting it in your browser:

For the Longmans: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0582332516/ref=ase_launionbookslibr.

• For the Collins: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0007102011/ref=ase_launionbookslibr.

For more on this topic, see: http://www.inglesparalatinos.com.