English Phonetic Teaching in Primary School

For beginning learners， accumulating massive words is the basis of learning English well. However， students usually memorize words without knowing the rule of pronunciation， which makes their vocabulary learning time-consuming and ineffective， thus hindering their improvement in English. Phonics is a method that shows the pronunciation rules of 26 letters and their monograms， and links pronunciation of letters with letters themselves. It aims to help students master pronunciation rules and acquire the ability to read English words at the first sight of them， and spell English words when first hearing them.

It would be better to make foreign language learning unconscious like mother tongues acquisition. Nowadays， English teaching focus too much on grammar， translation， phrases and fixed sentence patterns， which doesnt follow the rule of language acquisition， resulting the phenomena of dumb English， translation English， students are weak in applying English. However， phonics solves this by corresponding articulation of vocabularies with concrete things and contexts. For example， when teach short vowels of letter ‘A， the teacher can combine TPR with phonics， teach it with a chant： /?/ /?/ /?/ （make gestures at the same time）， A is for ant （ fingers spring on the arm， perform as an ant）. This concrete context may develop students habit to speak English at the sight of this context， students can improve their English thinking ability through this.

Phonics takes advantage of Pinyin and the study of Pinyin lays a good foundation for phonics study； and phonics is based on childrens massive perception of English， which conforms to the sequence of language acquisition.

Phonics follows the rule of pronunciation， and from the perspective of speech sounds， it divides 48 phonemes into letters and monograms. Because of the consistence of phoneme-type in phonograms and words， students are able to spell and transliterate words directly with the help of phonograms. Phonics fills in the blanks that may be resulted from the absence of IPA， and becomes a new method of learning English. During this process of study， students find that with the help of phonics， they can memorize words in a much shorter time and get great emotional experience， which may improve their confidence. They find that reciting words and using them can be very easy， this sense of achievement could encourage them to study harder.

Although there still exist some problems in English phonetic teaching， we have some strategies to deal with them. Such as listen more to develop language sense and develop students phonemic awareness entirely， improve the comprehension and memorization of the corresponding relationship and rules， and facilitate semantic understanding through situational teaching and picture book reading.

With the reform of college entrance examination， English has occupied an increasingly important position concerning students future. Besides， we are in great need of learning English well in current situation. Only by this can we connect China with the world. However， due to lack of effective English teaching methods， Chinese students are weak in speaking， listening and spelling， and form the phenomena of dumb English， grammar English and translation English. Because English words are phonographies， phonics can be a bridge that links sounds and figures and helps students develop the ability of spelling word at the first sight of it， so that memorizing words are not that difficult.

Because phonics fits students features and the rule of students study in western countries， it is highly advocated and widely applied there. However， phonics is still unfamiliar to many students in China since that it has not been popularized in Chinese public schools and there are few researches about it. This study put forward some guiding principles to solve the problems that may happen， which are defined personally as： listen more to develop language sense and develop students phonemic awareness entirely， improve the comprehension and memorization of the corresponding relationship and rules， and facilitate semantic understanding through situational teaching and picture book reading， in order to offer some references for practical phonetic teaching.

【作者簡介】張娜，陜西師范大學。