This soft and hard vowels EFL lesson employs the yin/yang symbol

Title – Soft Vowels
By – John Tatum
Primary Subject – Language Arts
Grade Level – 3rd-6th

Introduction:

This lesson compares vowels to the yin/yang symbol. The soft vowels a, e, i, o, and u would be the yin vowels, and the vowels that say their name are the yang or hard vowels.

Procedure:

• Repeat the soft sound of the vowels seven times to train your student’s ears.
• Next give them a short quiz by writing three letter words with the middle letter left out like so:
  1. b_d
  2. p_n
  3. l_t
  4. r_n
  5. s_n
  6. t_p
  7. b_t
  8. l_p
  9. p_t
  10. b_t
• After the students have written these on their papers, you are ready to begin the quiz. Emphasize that this is a Listening Quiz.
• Say the words two times, go slow. For example:
  1. …bed, bed…
  2. …pan, pan…, etc.
• After taking this quiz about 5-7 times, all students should get at least 8 out of 10 correct. When you have achieved mastery in your class, you can move on to more difficult sounds and words.

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