the ”a” at the beginning of the words ”about, along, aside, again, away, etc” is actually the short ”u” sound (upside-down /v/ in phonetic transcription) the same as the sound in ”up, cup”. Therefore, for accuracy, I just wanted to correct some of your examples. Just this week, I had a public school LST whose school has embraced systematic synthetic phonics express concern about PD that was provided recently to the teachers at the school by an expert teacher regarding phonics which contained inaccurate examples of the use of the schwa, eg that the ”our” in ”colour” is a schwa sound. Advice from an experienced speech/language pathologist is advisable when utilizing a speech to print approach to written English language learning. However, it is very important that the concept is taught with the correct examples. It is difficult to teach as it requires very advanced phonemic awareness skills requiring the ability to discern different vowels sounds within the context of di- or mutlisyllabic words.So I commend you in your efforts at educating teachers. It is also an important aspect of learning to spell English words due to the effect of stressed/unstressed syllables in English. As a speech language pathologist, we are taught phonetic transcription at university as it is an essential aspect of assessing and treating children with speech sound disorders. However, it is a difficult concept for those learning to understand. I agree that it is essential to teach teachers and students about the schwa sound.

How to type a schwa on word for mac