Free ESL printable: English vowel names for Spanish-speaking kids

INSTRUCTIONS: Read in Spanish what the vowels are saying to know how their name sounds in English. Free ESL printables by Rodrigo Macias.

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Free printable of vowels illustrations designed to teach in a fun way English vowels names to Spanish-speakers.

RELATED: Bilingual Alphabet Poster

Download for free as Flash Cards and Posters (at the bottom of this page)

I remember when I taught the English singular pronoun “I” to a boy and a girl in Mexico, that they only started paying attention to me (and actually remembering what they’ve learned on the next day) whenever I pretended to hurt myself at the moment of showing how “I” is pronounced, since us Spanish-speakers say -or shout- “¡Ay!” instead of “ouch”.

After this experience, whenever I try to teach any kind of English words, I try to match the sound with something that is already familiar to the kids in their native language.

This ESL printable was designed with that idea in mind, using Spanish expressions to represent the vowels’ names in English, with a bit of a humor twist to add playfulness to the lesson, since I also believe that learning (and teaching!) without play makes any lesson harder and boring for both parties ?.

  • A – ¡ei! (letter “a” is yelling at someone that wants to steal a cookie)
  • E – ¡iii! (letter “e” is playing on a swing)
  • I – ¡ai! (letter “I” is getting stung by a bee)
  • O – ou (letter “o” dropped its ice cream on the floor)
  • U – iu (letter “u” is disgusted by a poo on the floor)

*UPDATE* This was said in a comment on this Facebook post by a nice user from Ukraine: “The emotions that you have used for your images are quite understandable for Russians and Ukrainians as well”.

Activity for this printable:

Printable preview:

free-esl-printable-bilingual-vowels-rmacias-kids-learning-activity

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