Reading Aloud Training in English Teaching of Primary Schools.doc

reading aloud training in english teaching of primary schoolschapter 1 introductionalong with the acceleration of information communication, the world becomes smaller and smaller, so that communication becomes more and more convenient. the language is the main approach. english , as an international language, is widely used by the people of all walks of life. therefore, the education of english is more and more significant, especially the english teaching of primary schools. the methods of english teaching have been springing up in these recent years. this paper introduces the functions of reading aloud training in english teaching of primary schools.reading aloud training is one of the most important ways of english teaching. chinese english learners are learning a foreign language in our own country, where it is not easy to get enough opportunities to practice listening and speaking. teachers should help the pupils to choose some suitable reading materials which can provide pupils with conversation backgrounds that contain the culture of english speaking countries. reading aloud training help the pupils to cultivate good pronunciation and good intonation, which are essential to all language learners. whats more, reading aloud training is also one of the most efficient means to improve pupils various abilities. it can improve their ability of expressing themselves, ameliorate the quality of their oral english, and help them gain more language sense. whats more, reading aloud training can also help them consolidate their self-confidence.generally speaking, the goal of foreign language learning is to master the target language in the shortest possible time. by mastering the target language , we mean that the learner is able to have successful communications with others in the target language. in order to reach the goal, foreign language teachers as well as applied linguists try very hard to find out the most efficient and effective ways in foreign teaching , such as the grammar-translation method, the direct method, the oral approach, the audiolingual method, the cognitive approach, the natural approach, and the communicative approach(舒白梅，1999). from the general trend of development in language teaching and learning, we see that both teachers and learners pay more and more attention to the communications , without the expectation of english teaching and learning. that is to say, in the five english basic skills(listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating), speaking and reading take up more of the learners emphasis. and this paper deals with reading in english learning, especially reading aloud. however, what is reading aloud?chapter 2 introduction of reading aloud training as is known to all, the methods of reading english are various. in term of the different criterions, there are different reading methods classified, such as perusing, fast reading, skipping ,reading silently and reading aloud. according to readers demands , they can choose the fittest methods to read. whichever methods learners choose, they all want to learn english well and use it freely. there is a reading method , easily ignored but the most useful for learners,which is reading aloud.2.1 definition of reading aloudwhatever languages we learn , the concepts of reading aloud are the same. and the posture of reading aloud must be correct, which means we must sit upright, put the reading materials in proper positions, and the distance between the books and our eyes must be right. while we are reading aloud , not only do we pronounce the words , but also we are required to pronounce the words correctly. in a word, reading aloud refers to pronouncing the words of passages in correct phonetics , stress and intonation, with eyes seeing the reading materials and taking a right posture. 2.2. distinguishing reading aloud from general readingas mentioned above , apart from reading aloud, there are many other reading methods. we have to distinguish reading aloud from general reading. while reading the words loudly, we must use correct phonetics, stress and intonation. however , general reading , including perusing, fast reading and skipping, belongs to reading silently. in other words, it is not know whether the pronunciation is correct through general reading, people want to acquire their needed information or improve the reading speed or enlarge vocabulary. reading aloud focuses on spoken english and some other aspects.chapter 3 the requirments of reading aloud trainingnow i will talk about the requirements of reading aloud training first of primary schools. its impracticable that while pupils are reading aloud they fail to master correct english phonetics ,stress and intonation. and it is unworkable to read aloud without choosing the suitable reading materials for pupils.3.1 mastering correct english phonetics, stress and intonationits the most fundamental for pupils to master correct english phonetics, stress and intonation from the very beginning at learning english. the teaching staff must teach the pupils correct pronunciation, and let the pupils practice the correct phonetics, stress and intonation through reading aloud training in their daily life. fluent oral english needed correct pronunciation which has three elements factorsphonetics, stress and intonation. on the whole, before reading aloud training, teachers should let pupils read following the tapes in large quantities, and let them initate the normative phonetics, stress and intonation.3.2 how to choose reading materials for pupils?what kind of materials should teaching staff choose for pupils? the reading materials cannot be too longer or complicated. if the materials are too longer and complicated, there are so many strange words even some technical terms in them and when pupils read them, they cannot read them fluently and cannot understand the context clearly, and even will lose their confidence. therefore, according to the age, the abilities of study and comprehension of pupils, teachers should prepare some reading materials that are easy to read for pupils, which are closely bound up with their real life, and which are provided with tapes. it would be advisable to choose those materials that are linked with conversational occasions. because of this, it can help pupils to improve their oral english.chapter 4 the functions of reading aloud trainingas ive mentioned what reading aloud is and how pupils should read aloud above, now lets talk about the functions of reading aloud training in english teaching of primary schools in the following. currently, there are some people dont attach much significance to reading aloud training. even someone think reading aloud wastes their valuable time. as a matter of fact, whoever thinks that is grievously in error. look at the history of english teaching, there were many learned experts and scholars bringing forward the advantages of reading aloud training. in the foreign language teaching methodology published in 1983, mr. li mengxiang come up with the functions of reading aloud training: (1) it can foster the basic reading skills. (2) reading aloud is the easiest way for learners to understand the textbooks. (3) reading aloud is the one of the most important way to train and improve learners phonetics and intonation（李梦芗，1983）.in the following, this paper deals with the relations between reading aloud and pupils spoken english, the relations between reading aloud training and conversation backgrounds, and the relations between reading aloud training and pupils memory.4.1 reading aloud training and pupils spoken english it is universally acknowledged that great spoken english consists of pretty phonetics, stress and intonation and accurate expressions. during the period of primary schools, teachers can cultivate pupils spoken english through reading aloud training, which can help pupils improve their oral english. the pupils can speak english more and more fluently. (it is to be noticed that fluency doesnt mean speaking fast.) to be specific, the relations between reading aloud training and spoken english can be summarized as follows:4.1.1 reading aloud training and phonetics reading aloud training is helpful to correct pupils phonetics. phonetic teaching is the elementary step and groundwork of english learning. however, some pupils are too shy to open their mouths to speak english. this phenomenon results in that even they pronounce incorrectly, their wrong pronunciation cannot get corrected. therefore, teacher should encourage and lead pupils to read out loudly, and let them imitate the standard pronunciation. only when they read out loudly, can they use their speech organs exactly and find whether they pronounce right or not. as such, teachers have to teach pupils how to distinguish the subtle differences among some phonetics. whats more, as we all known, the process of phonetics is a process of imitation, teachers must let pupils imitate the standard pronunciation repeatedly and help them cultivate a good habit of pronouncing correctly.4.1.2 reading aloud training and intonationreading aloud can express proper intonation. chinese is a tone language. it has four tones. they are level, rise, fall-rise and fall. nevertheless, english is not a tone language, which is different with chinesea tone language that has level, rise, fall-rise and fall four tones. english has four basic types of intonation, known as the four tones: the falling tone, the rising tone, the fall-rise tone, and the rise-fall tone. the most frequently used are the first three. as mentioned above, the same sequence of words may have different meanings. generally speaking, the falling tone indicates that what is said a straight-forward, matter-of-face statement, the rising tone often makes a question of what is said, and the fall-rise tone often indicates that there is an implied message in what is said（戴炜栋, 2002）. therefore, if readers just read silently, perhaps they cannot convey precisely the meanings that they want to express. some pupils ofen speak english with chinese tones. this situation is due to the shortage of their speaking practice. so teachers can arrange the reading aloud training to ameliorate pupils intonation.4.1.2 reading aloud training and language sensereading aloud can foster language sense. language sense is a correct, acute and perfect feeling for languages. it directly influences the understanding, accumulation and application of languages. language sense is so important in english learning for learners, especially for new learnerspupils. primary teachers can prepare some suitable reading materials to let pupils read them out loudly again and again. and at meanwhile, pupils should read with mouths, see with eyes, listen with ears and try to think about questions by using english ways and try their best to make themselves melt into english atmosphere. day after day, they can accumulate a large number of nice words, expressions and passages. when they want to use them, they can speak without thinking. as the aesthetic master, zhu guangqian said, “we must read the good articles again and again and think them over. when we begin to write by ourselves, millions of beautiful expressions will occur to us.” (朱光潜，1983)4.2 reading aloud training and conversation backgroundsin chinese primary schools, pupils have little environment of communicating in english, and they dont have many chances to chat with the native speakers. sometimes, when they want to express what they think they cant recognize the language very well, even what they say is called chinglish. how to solve this problem? teachers usually prepare some short easy reading materials which introduce the english speaking countries cultures, and let pupils read them out loudly. reading aloud training can make pupils feel that they are speaking in real english conversation backgrounds. moreover, we all know the relationship between language and culture. language is a social institution. only in the context of society， are these features significant and integrate, and can a language bear its form and forward its development and keep up the interaction with the society. therefore instead of “being idealized” out of linguistic research, social factors should be regarded as the base of the research. otherwise, the object of the research will be totally changed and the research itself will be misguided(戴炜栋，2002).the culture affects the conversational backgrounds. if pupils often read aloud, the reading materials will show them different backgrounds. it seems that they are speaking in english environment. day to day, recognizing language is not difficult for them.4.3 reading aloud training and memoryfinally, lets deal with the relationship between reading aloud and memory. according to kachroos research (1962), if a learner wants to remember a word successfully, he must meet the word seven times continuously. in english teaching of primary schools, if let pupils only memorize the words mechanically, its very boring and the effect is not ideal. through a test, the three psychological professors, harold, f.e. betel and h.g. baikal, proved that the memorizing method of reading aloud can lead to the resonance of several feelings. if do like this, the memorizing e