As soon as you start to teach the pronunciations of the short and long vowel sounds and the consonants you immediately notice exceptions. Of course there are the two pronunciations of g and c. Those are obvious. Less obvious, until you begin to teach it, is the number of sounds that can be represented by a single vowel. Take for example the number of pronunciations represented by a; father, a hat, late. The voiced and unvoiced pronunciation of s isn't something that I immediately think of when I think of s but it's something that might cause problems for someone learning to read for the first time. The s in the word pleasure is mor z-ish that it is s-like. It's the same sound that is represented by the dg in the word judge.
So, as I teach these sounds I'm going to bring the exceptions to the attention of the students. Writing a sentence like This is a pencil. Gives you a chance to point out three of the exceptions right away.
Fortuneatly, at least I think it's a good thing, a lot of the kids can read simple sentences like This is a pen and Do you like rice. That makes it a little easier to point out the exceptions. Below is a list of the pronunciation exceptions that I think ought to be taught.
the a of the indefinite article
the a of ball, father
the c of pencil, city
the f of of
the g of page, garage
the o of do
the o of one
the o of love
the s of is
the u of put
the x of xylophone
the y of happy
Here's a chart of the American English phonemic system for those who are interested.
Presentations
1年１組 first presentation 4/20
１年２組 first presentation 4/20
１年３組 first presentation 4/21
１年４組 first presentation 4/22 with exceptions (o as in do, c as in pencil, s as in is)
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1年１組 second presentation 4/23 with exceptions (a as the indefinite article, o as in do, c as in pencil, s as in is)
１年２組
１年３組 second presentation 4/21 with exceptions (o as is do, c as in pencil)
１年４組
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1 年１組 third presentation 4/30 with exceptions (o as in do, c as in pencil, g as in page, s as in is, f as in of, a as in father)
1年３組 third presentation 5/6 with exceptions (a as in ball, c as in pencil. g as in page, o as in do, s as in is)
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1 nen 1 kumi fourth presentation 5/14 combining short vowel sounds with consonants
