Three syllables & schwa

In a word of three syllables only one syllable is stressed, and the vowels in the others often collapse into a single lazy 'uh' sound called the schwa. In 'banana' only the middle a is really an a; the first and last are schwa. The same happens in 'animal', 'family', 'camera' and 'chocolate'. Schwa is the most common vowel sound in English and the reason these words cannot be spelled by ear alone.

How it is taught

Children first find the stressed syllable by saying the word several ways and hearing which one sounds right — ba-NA-na, not BA-na-na. Once the stressed syllable is identified, the unstressed ones are flagged as the risky parts, because their vowel gives no clue to its own spelling. A common spelling strategy is to say the word deliberately as it is written — sounding the middle of 'chocolate' and 'family' that everyday speech swallows — while writing it, then say it normally again.

Where children get stuck

• Whole syllables disappear in writing, because they disappear in speech: 'famly' for 'family', 'choclate' for 'chocolate', 'camra' for 'camera'.
• The schwa vowel is replaced by whichever letter the child guesses: 'banena' for 'banana', 'hospitle' for 'hospital', 'elephent' for 'elephant'.
• Endings that all sound like 'ul' or 'er' — the -al of 'hospital', the -er of 'remember' and 'together' — are pure memory work.
• Children can usually read these words long before they can spell them, so reading fluency here is not evidence that spelling is secure.

Word list

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