The Effectiveness Of Phonics Instruction In English Vocabulary Teaching At Primary Schools

It is widely acknowledged that English is an international language in a world of modern communications.People in China are passionate for learning English.The number of Chinese people who are learning English has reached more than 300 million and rising,with 50 million children are studying the language at secondary schools according to the Ministry of Education(2006).The Ministry of Education(2001)claimed English as a required course for grade three in primary schools ever since the fall of 2001 and suggested some well-equipped primary schools could start English class as early as grade one.However,after all the time,money and effort spent,the evidence is strong that something is still not right.English is an alphabetic language,and there are connections between the sounds and forms of the words.The vast majority of English words have spelling patterns and rules.85% of English words are phonetically regular.Previous studies within the country and abroad have proved that when phonics instruction is applied to English,it can help learn to both write and read.However,teaching English to EFL learners by beginning with phonics has not been given proper exposure in China.People are not fully aware of the benefits of teaching phonics,especially to children.The goal of this thesis is to make clear in people's minds the effectiveness of systematic phonics instruction and focus on why phonics must be the foundation for learning English.The study attempts to apply phonics instruction in a primary school to let students know the relationships between letters and their sounds,improve the student's words reading ability and words spelling ability,and promote theirs' interest in English words learning.The research aims to answer the following questions:1.Can phonics instruction improve primary school students' English words reading ability?2.Can phonics instruction improve primary school students' English words spelling ability?3.Can phonics instruction improve primary school students' interest in English words learning?The subjects in the study are 100 students from Grade five in some primary school in Kunming,who are divided into the EG and CG,with 50 students in each group.The EG receives phonics instruction and the CG learns English in traditionalmethods.The research lasts 18 weeks.The teaching contents for the EG include: 26 letters,vowels,consonants,and their pronunciation rules in words,some basic letter-combinations and rules.The experimental procedure includes pre-tests,phonics instruction,post-tests,and questionnaire.The Independent-Samples T-test is used to analyze the results of the experiment.The results of the study indicate that: 1)there is distinct difference between the CG and the EG in terms of word reading ability;2)there is distinct difference between the CG and the EG in terms of word spelling ability;3)The students' interest in learning English words in EG are much higher than the students in the CG.Therefore,we can conclude that:(1)Phonics instruction can improve primary school students' English words reading ability;(2)Phonics instruction can improve primary school students' English words spelling ability;(3)Phonics instruction can improve primary school students' interest in English words learning;...