step055.htm/20DEC2001

Step 55. oa

Usually, "When two vowels go walking,

The first does the talking".

There are exceptions to this (break, field), but it works for OA. This is very simple. It is usually enough just to go through the list of words, or make an "Is it?" booklet. There is no need to make a set of games for this letter‑group. Have the pupil repeat three times, "O‑A says Oh!".

When r follows a vowel or vowels, their sound changes. You had the simple 5 vowels + r in ar,er,ir,or,ur. OA+R sounds like OR. But by sounding oh-r and saying, "...and we say OR..", most learners grasp it. See later, air, ear, our. If you sound OA‑R, you almost have two syllables, which we do not want. Phonetics specialists can argue the finer points, but just use your common sense.

oa: soap r _ _ d fl _ _ t thr _ _ t b _ _ t

m _ _ n gr _ _ n J _ _ n f _ _ l l _ _ f

g _ _ l s _ _ k _ _ k c _ _ t c _ _ l

c _ _ st r _ _ st t _ _ st

oar: oar boar b _ _ d h _ _ _ frost h _ _ _ d s _ _ _