The Schwa. The Weak Vowel. The Central Vowel

This is the most important vowel you can teach your students. The "upside down e" in their dictionaries. This is the central vowel.
The vowels in the "grammar words" or "function words" of sentences, the prepositions, conjunctions, the articles and so on, become weak; that is, the vowels change to "central vowels", the unstressed vowel. As a result it is often difficult to hear these words. The vowel sounds are NOT prominent and are difficult to catch. They are weak and pronounced only very lightly. Basically, words that are stressed are pronounced normally and words that are unstressed are weak and difficult to hear. The "to" in the sentence below sounds like "tu" because the vowels are weak.

Second language learners often have difficulty with English weak vowels. Although some languages do have a system of weakening vowels, many languages do not. Students need to be taught about weak vowels.

Many listening classes don't teach students about the central vowel. And students need to understand this to understand English!!

Top-Up Listening teaches students about weak vowels. And so should you.

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