通过声学提高英语初学者的单词拼写能力Improving Young Learners Spelling Abilities through Phonics

1、通过声学提高英语初学者的单词拼写能力Improving Young Learners Spelling Abilities through PhonicsSubmitted by Student ID number Supervised by 摘要随着社会的发展和进步，英语学习越来越重要。学习英语的年龄也越来越早。随着对英语听说及交际能力的重视，哑巴英语的现象已经极少了。新的问题是，近些年来，大家都在研究怎样提高英语听说能力的教学方法，对于读写往往只局限于机械练习。其实，英语是拼音文字，学习方法和中文有很大的区别。在英美国家，百年以来都在大力推广自然拼音法提高孩子的英语读写能力。这一教法在19

2、98年引入中国，但是由于存在着一些缺陷，没有被广泛应用及重视。通过对问题的分析，我制定了利用自然拼音教学提高孩子拼读能力的目标，并提出了“自然拼音法可以帮助小学生更快，更容易的拼读单词”的假设。为了完成这个项目，我选了自己在课外辅导中教学的一个班。 学生程度不高，有些同学努力背单词，但效果不明显。有些同学懒惰，不愿吃苦。他们喜欢英语课，但是很怕听写。这是目前大部分中小学生所存在的问题。我将这些同学分成好、中、差3组，每组5个人，以便于分析比较结果。由于有个别同学有缺课现象，最后我每组选了4位同学进行数据分析。整个项目预计4周完成，每周安排两节课，每节课40分钟。由于学生年龄小，基础弱，时间有限

3、，我的计划只设计了最基础的自然拼音，包括所有辅音字母及部分辅音字母组合的发音， 5个元音字母在闭音节中的发音：/æ/, /e/, /i/, /, /及在开音节中的发音/ei/, /i:/, /ai/, /u/, /iu/。我通过各种教法引导学生找到发音和拼写之间的关系，并运用到单词记背中。试验前我做了前测，请同学听音写20个单词，其中14个是熟悉的，6个是学过但大家掌握的不是很好的单词。试验最后一节做了后测，难度稍有提高的20个单词。除了前测和后测，我还从每组中找了两位同学进行访谈，并分析了结果。通过分析整理，该项目证实了自然拼音对孩子学习英语确实有很大帮助。利用这一方法可以将背单词

4、的时间减少，并提高正确率。即使出了错误的同学也能将单词中的大部分字母写对。同学们普遍认为这一方法很好，让他们不再那么惧怕英语学习，而更多的运用逻辑思维去分析单词的发音及拼写。有效提高了他们的学习兴趣。关键词：英语； 单词；拼写； 提高兴趣AbstractWith the development and progress of the society, the study of English becomes more and more important. The English learners are younger and younger as well. As the recognit

5、ion of the speaking and listening of English and the ability to communicate in English, mute English has become less and less. However, new problems appeared. For some years, the teaching methods of proving speaking and listening in English are popular. On the contrast, reading and writing are alway

6、s simple drills. In fact, English is a kind of phonetic writing, while Chinese is ideograph. So it is scientific to spell a word by its sound, or sound a word by its spelling. In English countries, Phonic teaching to be used to prove the abilities of reading and writing has been popularized for more

7、 than a hundred years. The teaching method was introduced to China in 1998. However, it wasnt recognized and wasnt widely used since there were still some shortcomings of the method. After analyze the problem by Socratic Dialogue and Cause Analysis, I hypothesized that phonics can help the young lea

8、rners to recite the new words more quickly and easily. To fulfill the project, I chose one of my after school class. The pupils are in low levels. Some of them work hard, but the effect isnt evident. Another part of the pupils are too lazy to recite the words. They enjoy English lessons, but they ar

9、e afraid to recite new words. And this is the popular problem among the young English learners. I divided the pupils in 3 groupshigher, medium and lower. Each group contains 5 pupils. Since some of them were absent, I chose four from each group to analyze. The whole project was designed to last 4 we

10、eks; each of them contains two of 40-minute classes. As the pupils are too young, with poor English and limited time, I just planned to practice the basal phonics, includes all the consonants, and the sounds of the 5 vowel letters in closed syllables: /æ/, /e/, /i/, /, / and the sounds in open

11、syllables: /ei/, /i:/, /ai/, /u/, /iu/. In the class, I lead the pupils to find out the connection between the sounds and the spelling, and use the method to remember the English words. Before the project, I give the class a pre-test with 20 words, among which 14 are easier, and the other 6 are hard

12、er ones. Then I give them a post-test in the last class, which contains 20 harder words. besides the pre- and post- tests, I interviewed two pupils from each groups to find out what they thought about this method. According to the consults of the analyses, the function of the teaching method was app

13、roved. It can help the young learners to learn and recite new English words easier and more quickly, with higher rate of right words. Even in the wrong words they can write most of the letters right. The pupils think the method is quite helpful, as they arent afraid of reciting English, and they can

14、 connect the spelling and the sounds of English logistically. Key words: English ; phonics ; words; interestsTable of ContentsPages1. Project Introduction 72. Project Problem Identification and Analysis7 2.1 Project problem7 2.2 Problem analysis8 2.3 Results of problem analysis93. Project Objective

15、and Hypothesis9 3.1 Project objective9 3.2 Project hypothesis94. Project Rationale9 4.1 The importance of vocabulary teaching to young learners 9 4.2 What is phonics?9 4.3 The advantage of phonics 4.4 The present situation of phonic teaching 10105. Project Design 10 5.1 Teaching activity outline10 5

16、.2 Teach plan12 5.2.1 General introduction 5.2.2 Procedures for teaching in detail 5.2.3 Data collection1212136. Project Implementation 14 6.1 A detail account 14 6.2 Data collection 157. Results and Discussion 15 7.1 A brief introduction of the research findings 15 7.2 Result of pre- and post- test

17、 15 7.3 Result of interview 7.4 Discussion 16 178. Conclusion17Bibliography18Appendix I. Teaching material of the first week19Appendix II. Teaching material of the second week19Appendix III. Teaching material of the third weekAppendix . Teaching material of the fourth weekAppendix Pre-testAppendix P

18、ost-test20212121Improving Young Learners Spelling Abilities through Phonics1. Introduction (一级标题采用Arial 12 号黑体)With the development and progress of the society, English studying is more and more important these years, and the learners are younger and younger. The days we studied English, the focus w

19、as connected in reading and writing, so we called it mute English. However, the teaching methods on speaking and listening have made great progress these years. On the contrary, mechanical drills are the only way used by most teachers to achieve the childrens abilities on reading and writing. It is

20、really much more difficult for the young learners to read and write in English than the former two abilities. After anglicized the problem by Socratic dialogues and cause analysis, I made my project hypothesis in helping the young learners to recite the new words more quickly and easily by practicin

21、g phonics. It is a modern method to teach English in English country. But in China, the method still needs improving, although the theory was introduced into China in 1998. In order to achieve the objective and prove my hypothesis, a four-week project is designed based on the rationale above. The pr

22、oject includes 8 40-minute lessons within four weeks-every two classes each week. The 15 pupils are chosen from a class of an art school, some of them are in grade one, while several are in grade two or three. They thought English studying is a hard but necessary work. Most of them work hard, but st

23、ill always have problems in reciting English words, while their parents know nothing about English. I divided them into three groupsthe lower, the medium and the higher. There are five pupils in each group. The data are collected by the research methods of pre- and post-tests. But since several of t

24、hem were absent some classes, I chose 4 from each group to fulfill analyze. I also interviewed six of them from different groups after the courses. The result reflects that all of the pupils has made progress in spelling abilitiesmore or less. They also encouraged their interests and declined fear o

25、n English learning. Thus, the objective is achieved and the hypothesis is proved. 2. Problem Identification and Analysis2.1 Problem identificationIm an English teacher of young learners training courses after school. My problem is that a part of my pupils cant remember the new words correctly. Of co

26、urse, some of them are too lazy to recite the words, whereas most of them are studious. It always takes them a long time to remember the words, but then forget them within a short time.I have been teaching English for 18 years. Since 2001, I began to give training courses to young learners after sch

27、ool. I found that it is quite difficult for the young learners to remember the new words, whereas they often forget them easily. The pupils who can remember the words well are really hard working ones and spend plenty of time and energy on English studying. My colleagues and I tried to make it easie

28、r for the pupils for ages by different ways, such as games, pictures, drawing, mime or acting, association and so on. Although we found every method has its advantage, we are still trying to find a better way. English studying has been more and more important for the young learners these years, espe

29、cially for those who want to entrance a better middle school, which in Chinese we say xiaoshengchu. But the children are much busier than the kids before, so find them an easier and a more rapid method is important and urgent. I suppose to help the pupils find the simple links between the letters an

30、d the sounds of the words in this project, within 4 weeks.2.2 Problem analysisTo analyze the problem, I used Socratic Dialogue and Cause Analysis. 2.2.1 Socratic DialogueQuestions Answers 1) Whats the problem of the pupils?They cant remember the new words.2) What does “remember” mean?Correct spellin

31、g, pronunciations, and the meaning of the words.3) In which part of the above do they have especial difficulties?Spelling.4) Theyve made a progress in pronunciation and the meaning of the words, but why do they still have problems in spelling? They didnt find the correct method to remember the words

32、 but still recite them letter after letter. 5) What can the teacher do for them?The teacher can help them to find the better way of remember English words.2 .2. 2 Cause Analysisa) Teachers side: . I am a new teacher of the class, and we still need more time to know each other well. I thought they we

33、re the level of the course, and prepared higher materials than they could accept. . I always ask them to recite the words after class, and have a dictation the week after the classes.b) Students side:. They had different courses with different teachers before. Some of them only learnt English at the

34、ir schools. Most of them come from the country, so their parents can hardly help them at home if they make any mistakes. . They were afraid of reciting words as it was a hard work for them, because they often forgot the words easily which they had recited for many times. 2. 3 Results of Problem Anal

35、ysisAfter the analysis, I found the cause of the problem. The pupils had no rules in remembering the spelling of the words. In that case, they had to recite the words just like reciting the telephone numbers. 3. Project Objective and Hypothesis3.1 Project Objective:The objective of the project is to

36、 help the young learners of English to remember the words quicker and easier. Hence, English study is not so hard for them as before. In that case, they wont be afraid of having English courses as before, and will be diligent in thinking during their later learning. 3.2 Project Hypothesis:It is hypo

37、thesized that phonics can help the young learners to recite the new words more quickly and easily.4. Project Rationale4. Project Rationale4.1. The importance of vocabulary teaching to young learners.There are four basic abilities in language studying: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Plenty

38、 of teachers consider listening and speaking are more important than the other two abilities. But in fact, the four abilities are connected as a whole, and vocabulary is the elements of them. As Professor Wangs theory: the frame of sentence is the bones of language, while the vocabulary represents t

39、he most important body parts, the flesh and blood. Consequently, vocabulary teaching plays an important role in English education. However, correct spelling of words is the biggest hindrance for Chinese young learners. Hence, vocabulary teaching is draw great attention of teachers. (小学英语教学策略，2010年7月

40、) For many years, teachers make any effort in improving vocabulary teaching. In recent years, people are paying more and more attention to a method in teaching wordsphonics. 4.2. What is phonics?According to Wikipedia, Phonics refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write tha

41、t language. Phonics involves teaching how to connect the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters. (e.g., that the sound/k/can be represented by c, k, ck or ch spellings) and teaching them to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations of unknown word

42、s. 4.3 The advantage of phonics. Phonics is the fastest, the easiest and most effective process to teach any students of any age how to read American English. (Professor Richard Berg US.) In 1971, professors of Stanford University analyzed 17009 English words by computer, and found 84% of them were

43、corresponding between their spelling and pronunciation. Accordingly, most of the words we can sound out by the arrangement of the letters, and can be easily recalled its spelling by its pronunciation. 4.4 The present situation of phonic teachingAs we have already known, that English is a kind of pho

44、netic writing, while Chinese is ideograph. So it is scientific to spell a word by its sound, or sound a word by its spelling. In fact, phonics has been used in language teaching in Britain and USA for around a century. We can find the following report from The Washington Post : The Bush administrati

45、on is making a concerted effort to promote the teaching of phonics in Americas classrooms Bush administration officials say they believe phonics is the best approach for teaching reading. However, although the teaching method was introduced to China in 1998, it wasnt recognized until recent years. W

46、hat a pity it is! To study a foreign language, the native method should be the better one. By phonics, the learners can infer the whole from a single instance( 举一反三). They can easily write out the words if they know the sounds. (Wang Qiang, 2006) Now, more and more teachers have seen the importance

47、of phonics in English education. Researches are carried and how to combine it with the other teaching methods are popular topics. So does this project. 5. Project Design5.1 Teaching Activity Outline:Date (proposed)Activity Description (topic, method)Objectives (must be related to hypothesis)Material

48、s (include classroom aids)Data Collection Methods (tables, diary entries, surveys etc.)Class Time (minutes)1. April 29Pre-test, the consonant lettersFind out the familiar sounds of the consonant letters in English words. Test paper, letter and word cards, computer and projectorPaper of pre-test80 mi

49、n2. May 6A, e soundsKnow the difference between vowel and consonant letters, and the importance of vowels. Cards, pictures, computer and projectorDiary entries80 min3. May 13I, o, u soundsFind out how easily to sound out lots of words that they had mistakes before. Encourage their self-confidence.Ca

50、rds, computer and projector, exercises80 min4. May 20The open syllable, the post-testKnow the sounds can be changed under certain situations. Inspire the pupils to find out more rules during their later studying. Test paper, cards, computer and projectorThe post-test paper 80 min5. 2 Teaching plan5.

51、 2. 1 General introductionThis is a four-week teaching plan that aims at improving the young learners ability of reciting words. It includes 8 lesson plans. 5. 2. 2 Procedures for teaching in detailWeek OneTime: 80 minutesResources: the material from the elementary course of phonicsMaterials: Test p

52、aper, letter and word cards, computer and projectorObjectives: Find out the familiar sounds of the consonant letters in English words. Let the pupils realize that English is not so difficult.Procedures: 1. Pre-test: Teacher hands out a piece of paper to each pupil and ask them to write down the word

53、s that teacher sounds. The words are: cup, hat, mat, shall, vest, bend, tank, list, smell, boss, fox, van, wind, must, brush, hot, mine, hate, broke, mule, 2. Hand in the paper, and then help them find out some letters that they should have written out. 3. Present all the 26 letters. Leave out the v

54、owel letters. Observe the consonant ones, find out the regulars. Which are familiar with Hanyupinyin? Which only sound the first sound in words? Which give the end sounds in words? 4. Teacher sound some words, the pupils fill in the consonant letters. 5. Games and competitions. 6. Conclusion: Do you

55、 find the words just wrote become easier? Youll find English studying is easier and easier if you learn more rules about the sounds and spellings. Week TwoTime: 80 minutesResources: the material from the elementary course of phonicsMaterials: letter and word cards, computer and projectorObjectives:

56、Know the difference between vowel and consonant letters, and the importance of vowels. Try to sound the simple words of letter Aa, Ee.Procedures:1. Review of the sounds of consonant letters. 2. Write down some words. Q: Can you sound out the words? Why not?3. Learn the vowel letters. Has a sense of

57、how important the vowels are. 4. Learn the sounds of letters a and e by observing some easy words: cap, cat, mat, sat, bat; pen, ten, hen, let, net 5. Let the pupils differ the two sounds by games. 6. Try to sound out some words they havent learnt which content the two vowel letters. Week ThreeTime: 80 minutesResources: the material from the elementary course of phonicsMaterials: Test paper, letter and word cards, computer and projectorObjectives: Find out how easily to sound