On The Reading-oriented Application Of Phonics To Primary English Teaching For Higher-Grade Pupils

It is widely believed by linguists that any language learning is inseparable from reading, i.e. all cannot do without reading--this important aspect of any form of language learning. For children in China who have learned English as a second language, the main problem and difficulty of English reading is to establish the correspondences between the written words and their pronunciation. American famous educator Adams (1990) proposed that when the letters and their corresponding phonemes can be quickly achieved, the reading accuracy and efficiency can be improved. No doubt that the phonics instruction can guide the pupils in reading to decode (word reading) and encode (word spelling) words according to their letter sound correspondence. The decoding and encoding ability can help learners to master the sounds and forms of the words in the shortest period of time, and through the establishment of the written word and the spoken word, the pupils can obtain the meaning of the word. The proficient use of sound, form and meaning can enhance the understanding and recognition of the sense group and the overall recognition of the re-emergence of phrases and sense groups, so as to improve the reading speed.The empirical research, carried out in a primary school in Anji County adopted three methods:pretest, posttest and questionnaire to verify whether phonics instruction can promote the pupils’PA (phonological awareness), word reading ability, word spelling ability and reading proficiency or not. The EG (experimental group) (N=40) and CG (control group) (N=40) were both from Grade five. The duration of the experiment was 16 weeks and EG was taught by phonics method while CG was not. Phonics instruction contained consonant letter sounds, vowel letter sounds, PA, word reading instruction, word spelling instruction and reading instruction. The pretest and posttest of PA, word reading instruction and word spelling instruction and the questionnaire of reading instruction led to the following findings:First, the EG has raised their PA, i.e. syllable awareness, onset-rime awareness and phonemic awareness. Second, the EG can read and spell words more fluently and accurately, for they have phonics knowledge. Third, the EG is much more confident in reading, for their reading proficiency is much higher than the CG.Phonics is an effective vocabulary teaching strategy. Pupils should be provided with more opportunities to learn and use phonics in vocabulary teaching. Applying the phonics method children can read and spell words more accurately, and they are much more likely to read.