然则，在维基介绍phonics词条中已经就有这样一句话：some phonics programs once taught that "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." This convention has been almost universally discarded, owing to the many non-examples. The au spelling of the /ɔː/ sound and the oo spelling of the /uː/ and /ʊ/ sounds do not follow this pattern.
（见：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonics Vowel digraphs段）
"when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking”，听起来确实非常押韵可爱，孩子一下子就记住了，然后给孩子一些特定的词语，rain, boat, toe，读一些特意编排的都符合这条规则的小文章，哇，好神奇啊！然而离开特意编排的阅读材料，在真正的文章里，你就会发现，例外实在太多了啊。
据美国专家材料，这条规则的符合率只有 27% 。它仅仅在 oa, oe, ee, ay, ai 这五个Vowel digraphs中完全正确。 eu, ew, oy, oi, aw, au 这些完全不读第一个字母音。ey, ei, ou, ow, oo, ie, ui, ea, ear这些，只是其中有一个发音是第一个字母音，但是它们还有别的发音，比如ey还读/ei/ they, oo 还读/u:/ boot, /u/ book , ea还读/e/ head、/ei/ break; ow 还读/au/ how, 如果孩子牢记"when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking”，遇到这些元音字母组合，他怎么能不迷糊，然后告诉孩子，哦这个是例外，你得单独记，那个是例外，你也得单独记，既然有那么多例外，于是人们认为英语太复杂了，phonics规则不可靠，学phonics没有用。这不是phonics本身的过错，而是教学呈现方式的错误，编写不可靠规则的结果。
美国Orton-Spalding的拼写读法认为：The effective way to deal with vowel pairs is to teach each vowel team as a separate phonogram that the student recognizes instantly by sound. Our goal should be to establish the most instant response between the symbol and the sound, not to waste time with unfruitful mental gymnastics.
学习vowel pairs（元音字母组合）最有效的方法是将每一个元音组作为独立的音图来教，孩子看着形立刻读出它们所代表的音，比如我们教ea，直接用音图卡片ea, 一次性教孩子读/i:/ /e/ /ei/三个音；ou,我们一次性教四个音/au/ /əu/ /u:/ /ʌ/; oi，我们一次性教/ɔi/，还顺便带着拼写规则教 that we may not use at the end of English words.为什么呢？因为English words do not end with i,j,u or v. （英语单词不以i,j,u或者v结尾）。那么之与相对的另一个音图oy，我们这样教：/ɔi/ that we may use at the end of English words. （英语单词不以i结尾，以y 代替）。我们的目标是建立发音和书写之间快速直接的联系，其实这样做更简单、直接，还高效（一次将所有读音学全了，还学会在单词拼写中的规则），教孩子two vowels go walking规则，完全是画蛇添足。
标题应该改成这样：
When two vowels go walking, more than one can do the talking. 作者: 谷雨 时间: 2015-5-10 19:10
这条的问题的确见过，没有注意到这么详实的数据。谢谢！作者: lotusleaf 时间: 2015-5-13 08:45
瑜伽把英语拼音研究得透透的作者: amyly777 时间: 2015-11-4 10:16
谢谢分享，学习了。。作者: 瑜珈 时间: 2016-4-25 19:35 本帖最后由 瑜珈 于 2016-4-25 19:47 编辑
美国专家这样说： Some systems take years to introduce the key components to the language. Unnecessarily delaying this vital instruction will force children to invent their own inadequate and unreliable systems. Fragmenting key information into bits and pieces which are introduced separately over time makes retrieval hard. Instead of teaching only short vowel sounds or long vowel sounds, it is easier for a student to file together in one place of her mind all the common sounds a phonogram can make. A student who learns only the short vowel sound of O will experience frustration trying to read words like OPEN or DO. A person who knows from the beginning that the letter O has three possible sounds will not be discouraged that the first sound did not work. She has two other choices on the tip of her tongue to try.