Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background of This Study
Vocabulary teaching plays an important role in English teaching of middle schools and affects all aspects of English learning. Vocabulary accumulation directly affects the cultivation of students' listening, writing, reading and speaking abilities, representing the basis of middle school English learning. After students accumulating a certain number of words, the fewer new words they’ll encounter in listening, the better results they will get. In the process of reading, the less new words students encounter, the more they can understand the article. In oral class, students will be familiar with English learning environment and their oral English ability will be improved if they accumulate many words. In the process of writing, students will write a composition with proper expressions if they grasp plenty of words. The less obstacles studentsencounter in English learning, the stronger their interest and confidence in learning English will be. Therefore, vocabulary teaching is an important part of English teaching.
However, teachers encounter many difficulties in teaching vocabulary. In the process of word interpretation, teachers lack the explanation to pronunciation rules and the guidance of word learning methods. As a result, students know how to read words in class, but forget the accurate pronunciation of these words after class, and then students' enthusiasm for learning words declines.
In the process of learning, students fail to grasp the words firmly. Most students memorize words by instant memory. As time goes by, their vocabulary reduces. Some students have nothing to remember words, but rely on mechanical memorization , which is ineffective. Some students do not master the pronunciation of words, but make phonetic symbols on books, which may lead to incorrect pronunciation of words. The problem that students have is the lack of scientific ways of learning words. Thus middle school students need a set of systematic word learning methods to solve the problem of word learning.
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1.2 Purpose and Significance of This Study
1.2.1 Purpose of This Study
In recent years, as a learning method to promote English vocabulary learning and reading, Phonics has been gradually discussed and practiced by many teachers and scholars. However, the study on Phonics teaching in rural middle schools is very few. The purpose of this study is to research on the current situation of applying Phonics to English teaching of rural middle schools and find the ways of optimizing its application. At present, there are many problems in middle school students' English learning, such as the lack of English learning methods, students' disinterest in learning English and so on. Based on the current English learning situation of middle school students, the author conducted relevant research on Phonics to explore how Phonics can be applied in the English teaching of middle schools in rural areas and promote English learning in middle schools of rural areas.
Based on the above background, the main problems to be solved in this study are: what is the current situation of applying Phonics to English teaching of rural middle schools and how to optimize the application of Phonics to English teaching in rural middle schools?
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Phonics
Phonics is a widely used English teaching method in foreign countries. Phonics means that students understand and learn the pronunciation of letters and letter combinations representing 44 basic sounds of English in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, and master the rules of English spelling. (Gao Min,2005) Once students have mastered the relationship between the pronunciation and spelling of letters and letter combinations, they can read a word when they see it or spell it out when they hear a word.
2.1.1 Definition of Phonics
When native English speakers first learn English, they don't learn phonetic symbols. Instead, Phonics is a whole set of Phonics spelling system that native English speakers are exposed to at the very beginning. Adams, M.J., a well-known expert of cognition and education, said, "Phonics is an instructional approach that links the sounds of the spoken language (phonemes) to printed letters (graphemes) in systematic ways". (Adams，1990) In Wikipedia, "Phonics is a method for teaching, reading and writing of the English language by developing learners’ phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes—in order to teach thecorrespondence between these sounds and the spelling patterns (graphemes) that represent them".
Due to the different perspectives, different scholars have different views on the concept of Phonics. Some scholars believe Phonics is a means by which teachers teach English through a system of pronunciation rules, and then cultivate students how to read words. Phonics teaches children to recognize letters in relation to their sounds, and is expected to improve their reading ability（Qiu Jianhua, 2005）. Phonics is a law according to the combination of letters and letters. Phonics allows students to spell out words directly if they have mastered the rules (Chen Benhong, 2015). Phonics is the rule of English spelling and pronunciation. Phonics allows students to read the word after reading it, which improves their reading ability (Hou Jiahui, 2013). Phonics is a systematic method of teaching vocabulary pronunciation in accordance with children's cognitive development (Nie Xiaoting, 2015). Compared with the International Phonetic Alphabet, Phonics is a kind of phonetic symbol more suitable for children (Ye Long, 2013). Although scholars have different views about the definition of Phonics, they have reached an agreement on the idea that Phonics is a system of rules concerning the correspondence between sound and form.
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2.2 Theoretical Basis
English is a foreign language for students to learn, so the process of learning will be affected by the mother tongue. At the same time, students' cognitive development level and critical period of learning will also have an impact on the foreign language learning. In order to help students study English well, this paper tries to explore the application of Phonics to practical teaching under the guidance of mother tongue transfer theory, cognitive development theory and the theory of critical period hypothesis.
2.2.1Mother Tongue Transfer Theory
In the process of studying a foreign language, learners' mother tongue will generally have an impact on foreign language learning. This is known as the phenomenon of "mother tongue transfer". When two languages have similar components, the use of mother tongue can play a positive and promoting role (positive transfer) or a negative and interfering role (negative transfer). Chinese pronunciation has both positive and negative roles in English learning. Positive transfer is mainly reflected in the fact that the pronunciation of some Chinese pinyin corresponds to a certain extent to that of English vowels and consonants. For example, the pronunciation of pinyin b, p, m, f, d, t, n, k, l, g, h and so on is similar to that of the consonants in English / b /, / p /, / m /, / f /, / d /, / t /, / n /, / k /,/ l /, / h /, / g / and etc. Negative transfer is manifested in the fact that students will be more or less disturbed by Chinese in the process of learning English, because Chinese pronunciation has been deeply rooted. Especially for the students at the beginning of the third grade, when they first come into contact with English, they are used to reading English with the Chinese pronunciationthey have learned. If we don't correct them in time, it will be difficult for them to get rid of this bad habit.
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3.1 Research Questions .................................. 17
3.2 Participants .................................... 17
3.3 Research Methods ................................... 18
Chapter Four Results and Discussions .................................. 21
4.1Results and Discussions of Interviews ............................. 21
4.2 The Results and Discussions of Questionnaires ............................ 28
4.3Results and Discussions of Classroom Observation .......................... 33
Chapter Five Conclusion .................................... 41
5.1 Research Findings .................................... 41
5.2 Implications .................................. 42
5.3 Limitations of This Study and Suggestions for the Further Studies ...................... 43
Chapter Four Results and Discussions
4.1Results and Discussions of Interviews
The basic information of the interviewees includes: the teacher's education background, major, professional title and teaching years. The details are listed in Table 1.
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Chapter Five Conclusion
5.1 Research Findings
The author has further understood the importance and necessity of the application of phonics to middle school English classes through the investigation and study of Phonics in English classes of a rural middle school.
In this survey, the author found that teachers have achieved some results in the use of Phonics, which include: 1. Teachers hold a positive attitude towards Phonics, and most of the teachers interviewed can use Phonics more or less in teaching; 2. Teachers adopt three-dimensional teaching method of Phonics through body movements, songs, games and other activities to carry out Phonics teaching, so that students can learn English naturally and happily. However, there are still some problems.Most teachers do not fully understand Phonics. Although most English teachers of rural middle schools understand the concept of Phonics, they do not have a systematic grasp of Phonics, let alone flexible use of integrated teaching materials.Meanwhile, the class hour is insufficient and there are no special teaching materials. Due to the limited class hours, teachers can only adopt the implicit spelling teaching method and permeate Phonics into daily vocabulary teaching. In addition, without a set of systematic spelling teaching materials as a guarantee, many teachers are unable to adhere to the continuous infiltration of Phonics in teaching process. Finally, students did not participate fully and effectively. A considerable number of students did not participate in the teaching ofphonics. Teachers applied phonics to "English interest groups" instead of all students. In addition, students' participation has become a formal participation, without their own thinking, thus they have not really mastered the spelling knowledge.
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