论文总字数：33443字

摘 要

在英语国家，自然拼读法被认为是一种符合儿童思维特点和英语学习规律的有效的教学方法,并且广泛运用在小学英语词汇教学中。近年来，小学英语教育越来越重要，因为小学阶段的英语是整个英语学习过程中的基础，而英语学习的核心是词汇。 词汇对于学生来说一直都是一个挑战。所以，在小学阶段的英语学习中运用自然拼读法教授新单词是非常必要的。现在许多英语教师已经使用了自然拼读法进行词汇教授，但在实践过程中仍存在一些问题。本论文从国内外研究成果出发，并运用问卷调查法、访谈法和课堂观摩的研究方法找出目前自然拼读法在小学英语词汇运用中存在的问题，并提出相应的对策。

关键词：自然拼读法；词汇教学；问题；对策

Contents

1.Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Research on Phonics abroad 2

2.2 Research on Phonics in China 3

2.3 Definition of Phonics 3

3. Research Methodology 4

3.1 Research subject 4

3.2 Research question 5

3.3 Design of the study 5

3.4 Instruments 6

3.5 Research procedures 6

3.6 Data collection and analysis 7

4. Problems of Phonics in Primary English Vocabulary Teaching 11

4.1 Teachers’ inadequate understanding of Phonics 11

4.2 Students’ inadequate participation of Phonics 12

4.3 Insufficient teaching time and lack of specialized textbooks 12

5. Measures for Improving Phonics in Primary English Vocabulary Teaching 13

5.1 Improvement in teachers’ professional level 13

5.2 Improvement in students’ understanding and internalization of Phonics 14

5.3. Construction of Phonics course system 14

6. Conclusion 15

Works Cited 17

Appendix 18

1.Introduction

Primary English is the enlightening stage of English learning. Spelling and memorizing vocabulary is a very important part of English learning. Therefore, it is necessary for pupils to lay a good foundation for English. The second objective of English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education (2011 edition) clearly requires pupils to know the simple rules of spelling and spell the simple words according to the rules of spelling. However, many students did not meet the requirement. For unfamiliar words, some students use Chinese characters to help them remember, which can easily lead to misreading. In addition, many students memorize words repeatedly according to the order of letters in the words which takes a long time and does not have lasting memory effect. In order to solve this problem, educators have carried out a lot of exploration and practice, among which Phonics has attracted extensive attention of scholars.

Phonics has a history of nearly 100 years in many native English-speaking countries, and is widely used in other countries and regions where English is the second foreign language. Phonics pays attention to the spelling and reading of English vocabulary. Its core is to establish the corresponding relationship between English letters letters combination and pronunciation, so as to help students achieve the goal of reading words and listening to and writing words. With the widespread use of Phonics in primary school English vocabulary teaching in recent years, its core has been recognized by many teachers. However, in our country, as a new method of second language teaching, Phonics has not bee applied for a long time and there are still some problems in the practice of Phonics. This study investigates the actual situation of the application of Phonics in primary English vocabulary teaching and try to put forward the countermeasures to improve the use of Phonics in primary schools in English vocabulary teaching.

Chinese scholars have begun to try to introduce Phonics and do some empirical research, such as the research of vocabulary teaching, the research of phonetics teaching. Most studies at home and abroad focus on the effect of Phonics on vocabulary learning and reading teaching. There is very little discussion about the problems that arise in the actual operation of Phonics. This study focuses on the practical application of Phonics in the classroom, trying to identify problems and propose improvement measures to optimize Phonics teaching.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Research on Phonics abroad

Phonics originated in the United States in the 1890s. The appearance of Phonics was to read and recite religious books. Since the 1990s, Phonics has become popular. Many scholars have studied it. As can been concluded, western countries had a long history and had a lot of experience in Phonics using. In the middle of the 20century, a large study about various teaching methods that can help children to read was launched by Jan Cane. Through the research, a more objective evaluation has been obtained. The result confirmed the application value of Phonics in vocabulary recognition, spelling, memory and reading comprehension, which is better than the whole-word teaching method in a sense. The result aroused heated discussion at that time, and attracted a considerable number of scholars to reengage in Phonics. There were many researches on teaching vocabulary from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. In 1990, Brown and Feloond conducted a study which focused on some students with learning difficulties. They divided these students into two groups. One group was taught by Phonics mode, the other group was taught by context method. Two years later, the reading text showed that the scores of Phonics teaching were higher than those of the other group (Wiley 20). So far, the value of Phonics has been widely recognized around the world, and has gradually become recognized the best teaching method. At the same time, as a new teaching mode, Phonics has become the only globally recognized teaching method by the US federal government.

At present, many other countries also take Phonics into English vocabulary teaching, which has been proved by the practical result that the method is very helpful to correct children’s English pronunciation and enhance vocabulary memory. The series of Uncle Red’s Phonics of English is a set of enlightening textbooks for children who learn English. This series systematically introduces Phonics in a natural and interesting way.

In a word, the Phonics in English vocabulary teaching has gained huge success. However, most teaching subjects are English-speaking students. The study of Phonics using in non-English speaking countries is not sufficient.

2.2 Research on Phonics in China

In China, the study of Phonics started late. Hong Kong and Taiwan are the first two areas to use Phonics in English vocabulary teaching. Then a large-scale promotion and popularization was carried out. Nowadays, Phonics has become the main content of English learning for children in kindergartens and primary schools in Taiwan. In the mainland, the fires to put forward Phonics is professor Zhang Jianzhong. Professor Zhang aimed to improve students’ pronunciation ability. In 2003, after profound study, Professor Zhang published the book“Introduction to Directly Pinyin English”, which introduced the rules of pronunciation of letters or combination of letters.

Gao Min (Gao 62-64) translated Phonics as Natural Spelling. His paper “Application of Phonics in Primary school English teaching” put forward that Phonics teaching combines pronunciation and spelling, which is helpful to improve the efficiency of students’ learning and memorizing vocabulary. What’s more, she also believed that Chinese Pinyin can promote English consonant learning.

Guo Yanling（Guo 72-76) takes advantage of Phonics to promote students’ reading learning. Based on reading stage theory, information processing theory and mother tongue transfer theory, by comparing the phonological awareness before and after the experiment and the test of spelling, it is concluded that Phonics can improve students’ spelling ability, phonological awareness and stimulate students’ interest in learning.

To sum up, most Chinese scholars focus on the function of Phonics and many educators study the application of Phonics from the reading level. However, they do not pay attention to the problems of the application of Phonics in English vocabulary teaching and the research on this aspect is less.

2.3 Definition of Phonics

When English-speaking people first learned English, they did not learn phonetic symbols and replaced them with Phonics. Phonics is a method of teaching people to read in which they are taught to recognize the sounds at letters represent (Longman Contemporary English Dictionary 1401). Phonics is also defined as a method of the study of how sounds are related to ordinary spelling in Merriam-Webster’s Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary Many scholars have different opinions on the definition of Phonics. Among them, Adams wrote in his book Beginning to read (M.J 50）that Phonics refers to a system of teaching reading that builds on the alphabetic principle and a system of which a central component is the teaching of correspondences between letters or groups of letters and their pronunciation. He emphasized that Phonics is based on the rules of letters combination and its core is the correspondence relation between letters or letters combination and pronunciation. A famous scholar emphasize that Phonics mainly describes letters or symbols that decode phonemes. However, Armbruster and Osborn believe that Phonics is a teaching method which helps students know the relationship between morphemes and phonemes.

From different angles, different Chinese scholars have different views about Phonics. Guo Yanling（Guo 72-76）believes that Phonics is a way to help learners establish intuitive pronunciation and letters by using natural memory without any symbols. Gao Min (Gao 62-64) expounded the basic principles of Phonics: By learning a total of 44 phonemes represented by letters or combinations of letters, students can grasp the relationship between letters or combinations of letters and their pronunciation, thus forming the ability to read and listen to words.

To sum up, the basic principle of Phonics is to let students learn the pronunciation rules of each letter or combination of letters so that they can pronounce vocabulary according to letters without resorting to International Phonetic Symbols. Thus, it solves the problem that vocabulary cannot be memorized and spelled. The Phonics proposed in this paper refers to a teaching method that teachers use the phonetic correspondence of words to help students master the rules of pronunciation.

3. Research Methodology

3.1 Research subject

The subjects of this study are all from an experimental primary school in Wu Jiang. It included 81 students and 4 English teachers. Among them, 81 students are from the sixth grade and the 4 English teachers who have used Phonics to teach vocabulary in a certain degree.

Table 1 The basic information of the 4 teachers

3.2 Research question

In this study, according to the relevant literature at broad and home, four English teachers were interviewed and questionnaires were distributed to the students of two teachers’ classes. Through the following questions, to investigate the application of Phonics in English vocabulary teaching in Primary Schools and put forward the corresponding improvement measures:

1. How do primary English teachers understand Phonics?

2. How is the situation of the use of Phonics by primary English teachers?

3. What difficulties do primary English teachers have when using Phonics?

3.3 Design of the study

This study included three parts: interviews, questionnaires and class observation.

In Phonics teaching, teachers play an important role because their mastery of Phonics influence the application of Phonics. Therefore, this paper includes the interviews. The interview is mainly concerned about the basic information of teachers themselves, their understanding of Phonics, the application of Phonics and the difficulties they encounter. Teachers must answer the questions of the interview based on their own situation.

The main body of the study is the students and teachers’ tasks are to provide various activities which can enhance students’ interest and make them become the host of the class. The questionnaire aims to investigate the situation of the students’ attitude and understanding about Phonics.

Classroom observation is a direct way to find the problems of the application of Phonics in English vocabulary teaching. Therefore, the author observed the four English teachers’ vocabulary classes.

3.4 Instruments

The research instruments are follows: First, designing an outline of teachers’ interview according to the purpose of the study. Then, preparing a students’ questionnaire based on the aim of the study. Finally, observing the teachers’ class.

3.5 Research procedures

This research included three parts: interview, questionnaires and classroom observation. Firstly, the author had an interview with the four English teachers. Secondly, 81 students were asked to finish the questionnaire. Finally, the author observed teachers’ class.

3.5.1 Interviews

In order to know the four English teachers’ familiarity with Phonics, the author had an interview with them. There were three questions to be answered: the degree of familiarity about Phonics, the situation of the application of Phonics in vocabulary teaching and the difficulties in Phonics using.

3.5.2 Questionnaires

This questionnaire selected 81 students from an experimental primary school in Suzhou as subjects. The 81 students were both in grade 6. The questionnaire aimed to investigate students’ understanding, mastery and popularity of Phonics. There were 12 multiple choice questions in this questionnaire and students need to finish them by their own.

3.5.3 Classroom observation

The author takes teachers’ teaching behavior and students’ learning behavior as observation perspective, and through classroom observation, deeply understands the actual application of Phonics in primary English vocabulary teaching. In this survey, the author observed the English vocabulary teaching classes of the 4 English teachers.

3.6 Data collection and analysis

3.6.1 Interviews

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