If I hear the saying “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking” again, I am going to scream! Actually, I am already there. (Commence screaming and hair pulling now.) Teachers, this saying is so bad for our students because this concept works for less than 30% of vowel teams. It is so confusing, and it can really hinder a child’s decoding abilities.
In our melting pot of an English language, we have 20 (some say 23) vowel teams (dipthongs, vowel digraphs etc.). Out of those 20 to 23 vowel teams, there are only 5 that consistently follow this common saying. There are 5 that sometimes follow the rule but sometimes don’t, and then all the rest (10 to 11) that go completely against the rule. There is a list below that explains this.
Teachers, we must teach our students accurately and this saying is just plain inaccurate. Please stop.
