A vowel digraph is a two-letter spelling that represents a vowel sound. A common example is the spelling ‘ai’ in the word ‘rain’. The spelling ‘ai’ represents the sound /ae/.
Why is this important?
There are many vowel digraphs in the English writing system. These spellings use previously taught letters: for example, in the word ‘rain’, the letters ‘a’ and ‘i’ will have been taught as representing the sounds /a/ and /i/. To avoid confusion, it is imperative to introduce vowel digraphs in a systematic way, making sure that children have the conceptual understanding that underpins how the English writing system works.
Quality phonics programmes will introduce vowel digraphs following this progression:
- Students are taught the sounds of the alphabet where each letter represents a sound in a word, e.g. the word ‘m a t’ has three sounds and each letter represents a sound.
- The concept that two identical letters can spell a consonant sound is introduced with double consonants, e.g. ‘ll’ in the word ‘d o ll’.
- The concept that two different letters can spell one consonant sound – e.g. ‘ck’ in ‘luck’
- The concept that two different letters can spell one vowel sound – e.g. ‘ai’ in ‘rain’
- At this stage, many more vowel digraphs can be taught, e.g. ee, ay, oa, etc.
