A Case Study of Phonetics Teaching to EFL Students

DING Peng

Abstract：Phonetic course is the foundation of EFL learners.However，in the process of the theory study，students often expose deficiency in phonetics study.To look into the problems，we used questionnaire investigation and interview as tools to give a research on the present condition of phonetics teaching.The result shows that the students have enough understanding of the phonetics study，teachers have serious teaching attitude and good grasp of the knowledge in the subject.But they lack a clear teaching goal，and the teaching method is simplistic.

Key words：Phonetics teaching;phonetic knowledge;teaching goal

Introduction

As a traditional rudimentary course for English learners，English phonetics is the foundation of improving the students’ listening，speaking and translation.The syllabus stipulated clearly that the goal of the phonetic course is to introduce to the students the English phonetics and intonation，and to integrate listening，pronunciation and oral expression together by distinguishing sounds and improving skills.However，students often expose their weakness even deficiency in their basic phonetics.In the light of this phenomenon，we made a research on the condition of the freshmen’s and sophomore’s phonetics teaching.

II Research design

2.1 Subject

EFL students learning English as a double major，in the three classes of one grade in the School of foreign languages of Shan Dong University of Technology.

2.2 Research instrument

86 pieces of questionnaire is given out to collect data from students and 86 is received.Interview is carried out on the teacher.

III.Research results and discussion

3.1 Students’ understanding on phonetics study

Students have abundant understanding of the importance of this subject.The author gets to know the information that the students know the hows but not the whys of the production of the sound before they are enrolled by the colleges or Universities through the talks with them.This reveals that the students feel the phonetics course is very important and they have great desire to learn it.

3.2 Teaching method

Research shows that most students think the teacher teaches them in English.In the interview，two thirds of the teachers speak frankly that they mostly use Chinese when they teach the students，especially when they teach the suprasegmental analysis.This result has relationship with the students’ English proficiency.

3.3 The evaluation of the textbook and test

Result shows that the textbook is suitable for the students.There was only oral examination for the previous phonetics test.This simplistic test can not fully exam the students’ study and application of the phonetic knowledge effectively.Most of the students are satisfied with the new form of test which is the combination of oral examination and the written examination.

IV.Interview with teachers

4.1 Teaching attitude and teaching goals

Result shows the teacher’s attitude is serious，their teaching goal is clear.At the same time，the teachers don’t agree with the simplistic testing forms.So far，the result of the review with the teacher supports the hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2.

4.2 Teaching design and teaching emphasis

It can be seen that two thirds of the teachers put their emphasis on the teaching of pronunciation or correcting the students’ pronunciation.Though the teachers realized that the phonetics knowledge should be one of the teaching goals，but they didn’t put into practice in their teaching.The interview also shows that the degree of stereoscopic teaching is low in the phonetics class，more than half of the teachers didn’t combine the differentiation of pronunciation with input practice.

4.3 The subject knowledge and the teaching capability

All the teachers confirm that they have proficient subject knowledge，and are sure that they have taught the according to the textbook，and related to all the phonetic point.The result of the interview does not coincide with the result of the questionnaire research，which shows that the students are confined by their limited English;it also reflects that the English teaching in the middle school is short of the environment of target language.

V.Conclusion

The findings of this research are as follows：

1.The teachers have serious teaching attitude，and ample preparation for lessons.The students also have high degree of satisfaction with the teaching evaluation.

2.The teachers’ understanding of the teaching goals don’t parallel with the practice.Though the students said the emphasis of the class is the teaching and training of phonetics，yet the research of the pedagogy and the result of the interview with the teachers shows that the emphasis is put on the correction of pronunciation，the teaching form is simplistic，and the teacher didn’t give the students some training that combined with some other skills.

3.The teachers have solid knowledge in this subject，and skillful operation.They have certain teaching experience and are quite sure that they have taught all the phonetics point in the textbook.

4.The students have fully recognized the importance of phonetics study.Most students think that it will greatly help them in their study of oral English，listening English and vocabulary if they have good foundation of phonetics.

References

[1] .Chen，Y.（2008）.Study of the patterns of intonation of Chinese students.Shanghai，Shanghai Foreign Language.

[2] .Crystal，D.（2008）..A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics（6th ed.）.Oxford，England：Blackwell Publishing.

[3] .Roach，P.（2009）.English Phonetics and Phonology：A Practical Course（4th ed.）Cambridge，Cambridge University Press.

[4] Wang，J.（2013）.Latest overseas developments in the study of prosody and some reflections.Journal of Foreign Languages，6，18-26.

（作者單位：School of Foreign Languages，Shandong University of Technology）