The Application Of IPA And Phonics To Primary School English Phonetic Teaching

The English curriculum standard in the phase of Compulsory Education(2011 version)points out:"Pronunciation is one of the most significant parts of English teaching.Standard pronunciation and intonation can help learners to lay a solid foundation on verbal communication." Pronunciation is the basis of English learning and a good command of phonological knowledge will help to improve learners'communicative competence.The curriculum standard requires that reading and spelling teaching ought to be carried out to fulfil certain goals.It also prescribes that student should "learn basic rules of spelling and spell words according to certain phonics rules."Nowadays,phonics instruction is quite popular among American,the UK and other countries whose mother language is English.And the main function of phonics instruction is to improve the learning of written language and it can make effective connection between the spelling and pronunciation of English words.As a result,it has great potentiality to improve learners' abilities to speak and write.As there is not a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and spelling of English words,and the rules of phonics does not always apply to every words.Therefore,it is obviously insufficient for non-native learners to only learn phonics.For non-native learners,International Phonetic Alphabet is beneficial to enhance their phonological awareness and the accuracy of pronouncing words.Also,it could help students to learn actively by themselves.In most part of China,the only chance for students to learn English is in class but due to limited class hours,schools have weakened the teaching of spelling and IPA.Students do not have specific class to learn IPA and that is why students could not do well in phonological tests(such as odd me out).Therefore,by teaching students both phonics and IPA during certain grades in primary school English teaching,students can get a higher score in exams and embrace the joy of success.This study is divided into two parts.Firstly,the author interviewed 20 people from different countries with various professions during the teacher training program in the University of Southern California.Several questions are asked to investigate how people around the world acquire English pronunciation.Then the author conducted a teaching experiment in Cai Mo Primary School in Maanshan,Anhui province.After analyzing the results of spoken test by SPSS,certain pronouncing problems are found out,such as unnecessary stress on weak syllables and incorrect rhythm.In addition,the questionnaire showed that primary schools pay less attention to phonics and what's worse,IPA is not taught at all.After the one-month teaching,the author analyzed the post-test of the spoken test and states that it is beneficial for primary students to learn IPA and phonics with certain procedures.Also,it helps students to memorize words and acquire English correct pronunciation.And thus,it could prepare students for following learning in middle school.