Phonetics Knowledge Is Helpful to Students In English Learning

侯顏英

Thesis：

This paper discusses that phonetics knowledge can help the students learn well and remember English words easily， improve their listening and develop their listening and develop their spoken English（the skills of communication），which can make them fill with interest and confidence in the study of English.

Outline：

Ι.The denfination of phonetics

A. Denfination in dictationary

B. Denfination in the book

Ⅱ.The reasons for mastering phonetics knowledge

A. Requirement of the syllabus

B. Requirement of students

C. Requirement of teachers

Ⅲ.The great help of phonetics in learning English words， improving listening and spoken English

A. The help of pronunciation in learning English words

B. The help of stress and intonation in listening improvement

C. Correct phonetics makes students good at spoken English

Conclusion

Through all the evidence above， a conclusion can be drawn that students must master some phonetics knowledge， which can help them remember English words well， improving their listening and develop their spoken English， also can make them fill with interest and confidence to open their mouth to speak and speak fluently anywhere，

Ⅰ. The denfination of phonetics

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds and their production.（Oxford：1989）.In the book， An Introduction to Lingistics， phonetics is definited as the study of the phonetic medium of language which has three branches—articulatory phonetics， acoustic phonetics and auditory phonetics. Articulatory phonetics studies the human speech oragans， and the way in which the speech sounds are produced. Accoustics phonetics deals with the physical properties of the speech sounds； it studies the sound waves through the use of such machines as a spectrograph. Auditory phonetics is the study of the perception of sounds by the human ear.（Dai Weidong：1985） In fact， it is too abstract for a middle school student to learn them. A middle school student should learn some simple and specific phonetics knowledge such as pronunciation（we called phonetic transcripts of words）， stress and intonation， and so on.

Ⅱ. The reasons for mastering phonetics knowledge

The National English Teaching Syllabus for Middle Schools requires that listening test should be included in all the tests or examinations， and it should covere not less than 20 percent. Spoken English and listening practice are emphasized in the students book. So students must pay much attention to phonetics.

There are people who claim that students do not need to learn pronunciation because pronunciation will take care of itself as the students develop overall language ability. However， failure in pronunciation is a great hindrance in language learning. Phonetics rules regarding what sounds a letter or a cluster of letters should be pronounced are helpful for students to develop the ability to cope with English pronunciation.If they master the ability，the students will feel that it is easy to remember English words.The more interest they have，the better they study，as the saying says，”Interest is the best teacher.”

But in fact，many students are poor in phonetics so they usually speak in”mute English”.The following facts explain the reasons for”mute English”.The following facts explain the reasons for”mute English”.First，students often complain that they do not know how to pronounce the new English words，so it is very hard for them to remember new words.Secondly，a survey from the students in our school says 78 percent of the students have not learnt phonetics knowledge systematically when they began learning English at primary school.Thirdly，many teachers ever experienced that students always wore a long face when doing listening practice or dictation，even though they were told what to dictate before， they cold not get a good mark or some even could not spell out one word. Fourthly， during the listening examination，it is too easy for students to lose much of mark because of the misunderstandings caused by their poor phonetics：stress and intonation.

Ⅲ.The great help of phonetics in learning English words， improving listening and spoken English

All of the faces tell us that middle school students are expected to master the phonetics knowledge： the different sounds between British English and American English， pronunciation， stress， intonation， liaison， shorten forms and weak forms， etc. These knowledge can help students remember English words much easier. If the phonetics is accurate， it can help the practice of listening，speaking，reading and writing，especially listening and speaking.

In phonetics learning we always teach students R.P.（Received Pronunciation）system English. But now G.A.（General Amrican）system is widely used in many listening materials， including the teaching materials for middle schools. Swan， the British scholar，said，“American English is becoming more and more popular.” Sometimes it makes the students quite difficult to understand a great part of the materials. For example，“cant” is pronounced/ka：nt/by R.P.，but/k?nt/by G.A.，Once the sentence“He cant do that，I am sure.”appeared in the material，pronounced/hi：k?nt du： ??t aim ?u?/by G.A.， but the students did not know the sound/d/in the word“do”is a plosive，and the sound/t/in the word“cant”is also a plosive but lost.So the sentence sounds like/hi： k?nt du： ??t aim ?u?/by R.P..（Wang JIE：1995）Because of that the students may misunderstand the meaning. The following example may improve this fact. In the listening part of the examination paper， the first part usually is to choose the right word or phrase after listening to the speaker. For example， the speaker reads/fi：d/，students should choose from

A. fee B. feel C. free D. feed

Phonetics also can help students remember new words quickly and well， especially long words. The word “pronunciation” pronounced /pr?，n?nsi ei?n/.It is a waste of time to remember it by one letter after one letter. However， it is easy to divide the word to ”pro nun ci a tion “to remember. That is the help of phonetics in words learning.

There are two kinds of stress that are important in achieving good pronunciation. The first is word-level stress. The second is phrase-level stress. It is very important to stress the proper syllable in multi-syllabic words and phrase-syllabic. If the wrong syllable is stressed， listeners will often not understand the meaning or what word or phrase is being pronounced. For example.

1.“record” can be pronounced/rek?：d/when it is used as a noun but/rik?： d/as a verb.（Wang Jie：1995）

2. A.Thatsnot the one he wants.

B.‘Thats not the one he wants？（Dai Weidong：1985）

Sentence A， is means to be a statement of fact； Sentence B is only an information-seeking question.

Aslo intonation can greatly affect the intention of the speakers message. Intonation is used by native speakers to express meanings in many subtle ways such as surprise， complaint， sarcasm， friendliness， But if the intonation is not appropriate， it may convey the opposite meaning. In the example below， different intonations for “Sorry” indicate different meanings. A neutral tone would indicate a normal apology. However， a sharp falling tone or a rising tone would mean the opposite.

A： Would you please turn down the radio a little bit？

B： Sorry. （No， I dont want to.）

or

B： Sorry？ （What did you say？） （Wang Xiang：2000）

Somebody regards phonetics as the stick of English learning. If students only remember English words letter by letter， they will lose interest in English learning. Phonetics is like Pinyin in learning Chinese. We know the pupils can read books quickly with the help of Pinyin after they learnt Pinyin. They can look up new words in the dictionary. So they can tell story and then can write diaries.（They would use Pinyin instead of what they do not know how to write.） The same is as true of English learning. Without phonetics， students can not know how to pronounce words correctly， and of course they can not tell the meaning. Lack of words can be a “hindrance” in English learning. The difficulty in remembering words will make the study be ”time waste but little efficiency， high mark but feeble mindedness， and mute English “，（English Weekly：2002：25） The knowledge of phonetics students learnt and mastered will improve their skill to learn new knowledge.

Conclusion

From all the facts above， students must master the phonetics knowledge. After the discussion， a conclusion can be drawn that with the help of the phonetics knowledge， students can do well in the four skills， especially in listening and speaking. They can listen clearly and understand correctly. If the students learn phonetics knowledge well， they would dare to say anything. At the same time， they are full of confidence to speak out and communicate with others fluently. When they know they speak well， they would be more interested in speaking. The better they speak， the more interest and confidence they have.

References：

[1]Dai Weidong，An Introduction to Linguistics，1985.

[2]Matthew Mark Jen，Flashing Memory，Foreign Languages Press，2000.

[3]Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English with Chinese Traslation（the Latest），Shanxi Peoples Press 1989.

[4]Wang Xiang，A Course in English Language Teaching，High Education Press 2000.

[5]Wang Jie，Yue Hongli and Sun Jianghui，Improving the Skill of Listening，Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press，1995.

[6]Xing Xiaoqing and Ru Zhaobin，The Test of “ Vocabulary Spelling by Pronunciation” Method，English Weekly 2002：25.