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TEACHING SPEECH-SOUNDS ( taken from the book "Teach the Short Words First", a self-published book by Martin Carbone, ownwer/manager of this site )

The table below shows our version of the 44 speech-sound symbols of American English (left columns) and the guide-words from which they were extracted (right columns). There are 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds. Note that there are many speech-sounds lists. None are "official". We hope our list is the easiest to use and the most logical. It is particularly good because all the symbols can be reproduced on any simple keyboard.

• These guide-words were picked because we think they are generally pronounced the same way by most speakers.
• The bold letters within the guide-words correspond to the speech-sounds on the same line.
• We just included /ng/ as a speech-sound, previously thinking that an /n/ and a /g/ would suffice. But, from the standpoint of how you actually shape your vocal apparatus, that was not quite correct because the /ng/ in ink and sing and other words like them do not have a sound in them which is made with the tongue up against the front part of the roof of your mouth. All pure /n/ sounds use the tongue that way, Try it with “no” and “on”. The /ng/ sound is made by pulling the tongue back at the rear of the throat. Try it with the words “sing” and “ink”.

When this chart is understood and the student can say each of the 44 speech-sounds, the student should be (1) able to analyze any word they know how to speak and find the speech-sounds within that word and (2) be able to create the written form of any word they know how to speak, by using flashcards to put the speech-sounds in the right order.

Teach this chart first -- instructions for doing so are below.

Step #1 -- The teacher puts the 59 guide words in alphabetical order. THIS CAN BE DONE IN UPPER OR LOWER CASE

Step #2 -- Give the each student a sheet of paper with all of the guide words printed on the paper.
Step #3 -- Lead the children in saying each word in order by either looking sequentially at words on the sheet of words, or the words written on a presentation board. Gradually wean them from your initial prompting.
Step #5 -- Once a student can say every word independently, repeat the exercise, except have the students look at the speech-sounds which make up the words and repeat the speech-sounds and then the word -- such as: aa/s/ -- ACE, b/o/b -- BOB. Refer back to item #4 on page 14 about pronouncing the consonants.
Note: every time a word is said while the student is looking at the speech sounds, four things will be imprinted on the student’s brain:
(1) The idea that the spoken word is made of those speech-sounds.
(2) The idea that the written words represents spoken words.
(3) The idea that the written word is made up of letters.
(4) The fact that the student has read 59 words.
Once the student can do the above, he or she will have proven (a) the ability to read every speech-sound and a good selection of 3-letter words and (b) the ability to quickly move to reading any word.
This is no small achievement -- and we have only completed the second lesson. At this point, the student does not have to know the complete alphabet and does not have to know how to write.
Continuing: This first lesson can serve as a model for subsequent lessons which you can make up in the future. Just substitute any group of words, a list, phrase or sentence for the 59 guide words.

If you do 6 words /day, you will have the students reading all the words in two weeks.