The Application Of Phonics Instruction To Phonological Teaching In Elemantary Schools

Pronunciation,vocabulary,morphology,syntax,discourse,function and topic are seven main elements in English learning,among which pronunciation is the basis of it.According to The Requirement of English Teaching for Elementary Schools in Shanghai,pronunciation is the essential part of the English language learning,which in turns supports vocabulary acquisition.However,for quite a long time,the teaching of pronunciation in the elementary schools in Jinshan District,one of the outskirts of Shanghai,lacks a set of effective and scientific method.As a result,pupils learn vocabulary basically by means of rote learning,and are afraid of memorizing vocabulary.Parents feel anxious about their children's spelling.Although teachers spend much time doing spelling in class,the result is not satisfactory.As a symbolic language,English itself has a phonetic function.Therefore,the part “Learn the sounds” from Grade One to Grade Four in the English textbooks is worth our research.It is necessary to design a system of pronunciation teaching in the elementary schools of Shanghai so as to help students to learn sounds and vocabulary more efficiently.For the above-mentioned reasons,the writer of this paper thinks of phonics as a good method to solve the problem.If phonics could be applied to “Learn the sounds”in the textbook of Oxford English,a good method of teaching pronunciation wound be found,which could not only relieve the teachers of their pressure from teaching pronunciation in class but also help students to improve their vocabulary learning.The experiment of this research has been carried out in Langxia Primary School in Jinshan District where the writer of this paper has been working.The participants are the students coming from Class Two,Grade Three.The research adopts contrastive analysis in teaching and the combination of qualitative and methods.The paper tries to find through the learning of phonics whether an effective method of teaching pronunciation can be found,whether there is an overall improvement in the students' spelling ability,and dictation ability,whether their phonological awareness can be aroused,and whether their attitude towards English will change.The results of the experiment show that phonics can arouse the students' awareness of pronunciation and learning interest,and that it can also help to improve their ability to spell,to read and to do the dictation.There are six chapters in this research.The first chapter is an introduction,discussing the background,purpose,significance,and structure of the research.The second chapter is literature review,which illustrates the definition,and development of phonics and its related research at home and abroad.The third chapter is the design of the research,including research question,subjects,experimental tools,process of research,data collection and analysis.The fourth chapter is how to implement this research.The fifth chapter is the results and findings of the research,which analyses the students' awareness of sound,their ability to spell,to read and to do the dictation.The last chapter is conclusion,summarizing the main findings of the research,the significance for vocabulary teaching in elementary schools and the limitations and suggestion for further study.