A Survey Study On English Phonetic Learning By Primary School Students

The thesis aims to investigate primary school students’ general situation of English phonetic learning. In order to clearly explore this problem and give teachers some pedagogical suggestions, the thesis will pay more attention to analyzing primary school students’ English phonetic learning belief and learning strategy. The research questions to be addressed in the study are:1.What is the general pattern of primary students’ phonetic learning in Baoying county?2. Are there any differences in English phonetic learning between the students of high phonetic proficiency and those of low phonetic proficiency? If yes, what are the differences?3. Does.English phonetic learning correlate with students’English proficiency? If yes, how do they correlate?The subject of the study were 342 Grade 6 students in Taishan primary school. In order to solve research questions, the subject had received two English Phonetic Accuracy Tests. According to the average results of two tests, the high achievers were in the top 25%, and the low achievers were in the bottom 25%. High achievers were considered as the students with high English phonetic proficiency, and low achievers were considered as the students with low English phonetic proficiency.In the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted. The quantitative method is a self-designed questionnaire. It mainly adopted to Peterson’s questionnaire pattern. It also refers to Wen qiufang’s questionnaire on English phonetic learning belief and Oxford’s questionnaire on phonetic learning strategy. Then, the researcher analyzed the data by SPSS 16.0. The qualitative research is students’ interview. The subject of interview are according to their results of English Phonetic Proficiency Test(PPT). The researcher chose 10 students respectively from high achievers and low achievers to know their situation on English phonetic learning.The major findings from this study are summarized as follows:Firstly, the general pattern of primary school students’ English phonetic learning is good. In terms of English phonetic learning belief, Learning attitude plays an important role in learning belief. Most students think English phonetic learning is as important as vocabulary and grammar learning. Many students think it is necessary to listen carefully in English phonetic class if they want to learn it well. In addition, the students’ Self-concept have formed clearly, and many students think they can learn international phonetic sign well. In terms of English phonetic learning strategy, the primary school students report a relatively high frequency in adopting Meta-cognitive strategy and Affectvie strategy, followed by Compensation strategy. Many students can recognize their problems and can monitor them well in learning process. When they meet learning difficulty, they will encourage themselves to overcome.Secondly, the differences between high achievers and low achievers in English phonetic learning do exist. In terms of English phonetic learning belief, there are significant differences (P=.000) in Learning attitude between high achievers and low achievers of English phonetic proficiency. In the specific items of Learning attitude, the difference in item(3) Listening carefully in class is significant(P=.000). The difference in Self-concept is also significant(P=.000). In the specific items of Self-concept, the differences in item(8)Capable of reading words correctly(P=.016) and item(9) Capable of reading sentences correctly (P=.024) are also significant. However, the differences of the micro items in Learning motivation are all lower than.05, indicating high achievers greatly differ low achievers in Learning motivation. In terms of English phonetic learning strategy, the differences in Memory strategy, Cognitive strategy, Meta-cognitive strategy, Affective strategy, Social-communication strategy between the high achievers and low achievers of English phonetic learning are significant(P=.000).Moreover,the differences in each micro item of these broad categories are all significant(P<.05). In Compensation strategy, there is no significant difference(p=.956>.05).Thirdly, students’ English phonetic learning correlates to English proficiency. In phonetic learning belief, Learning attitude, Learning motivation and Self-concept positively correlate to English proficiency. In learning strategy, except Compensation strategy that negatively correlate to English proficiency. Memory strategy, Cognitive strategy, Meta-cognitive strategy, Affective strategy and Social-communication strategy positively correlate to English proficiency.The research results may have guiding and practical significance towards primary English phonetic teaching. The research is preliminary as many topics on primary school students’ English phonetic learning are worthwhile for us to discuss.