Important definitions

phonology--the study of the sounds used by speakers of a particular language

phonetics--the study of sounds across languages

phoneme--a sound that makes a difference in meaning in a language

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Vowels

Vowel sounds are made with the mouth open.  The sound being produced is not stopped at all (by closing the lips or moving the tongue or teeth).  This is what makes vowels so difficult for ELLs.  Even though there are only 5 letters that represent vowels (7 if you count w and y).  There are 15 vowel sounds in English.  These sounds are shown in the following chart, which is organized by where in the mouth the sound is made.  Try saying the words in this chart from top to bottom or left to right.  Can you see how subtle the difference is from one vowel sound to the next?  So tricky!

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Chart adapted from Freeman, D. E. & Freeman Y. S. (2004). Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics, Grammar. Portsmouth: Heinemann.