The Application of Phonics to Vocabulary Teaching in Junior High School

胡渲

【Abstract】English teachers in Junior school should use phonics and teach their students the relations between the pronunciation and the form of words， guiding students cultivate a suitable way to remember words. In order to lay a solid foundation for students English learning in the future， teachers help students improve their spelling and pronunciation by teaching phonics.

【Key words】phonics； junior high school； vocabulary teaching

I. The Definition of Phonics

Phonics refers to a method for teaching speakers of English to read and write that language. Phonics involves teaching how to connect the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters and teaching them to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations of unknown words. Phonics is a widely used method of teaching to read and decode words.

II. Influencing Factors in Junior High School English Vocabulary Learning

1. Teachers teaching methods

English in the Junior high school plays an essential role. English teaching in primary school only pays attention to games and activities， teachers pay less attention to cultivate the students spelling exercises， so that teaching can give students a short memory， students will quickly forget. Most of teachers completely teach words according to the textbook， only teach the textbook knowledge and ignore to train students ability of thinking and ignore to expand students knowledge.

2. Students learning methods

①The improper memory method. Students has formed the bad learning habits that they dont like memorizing words. Students under the pressure usually adopt the way of rote memory to study English words， and not according to their own situation to find effective memory method.

②The lack of vocabulary memory tools. According to the characteristics of English， memory tools of English words is phonetic symbols. Students lack the supporting of “memory tools”， which eventually leads to the unideal effect of memorizing English words .

③Some students are not interested in English， and they dont want to memorize English words， so their vocabulary is poor.

III. Systematic Training

Phonics mainly through teaching sound graph to help students learning English words， but sounds graph teaching is not only simply learning the sound graph， but the pronunciation， intonation， spelling， reading and so on. Therefore， when using phonics， teachers should continuously expand and extend their students English knowledge around the sound graph， improve students abilities of listening， speaking， writing， and reading. With all-round development， students will have good English comprehensive ability.

The key step is spelling training. There are totally 13 lessons， each lesson about 40 minutes. They are planed as below：

Lesson1： 1. Short vowel ‘a； 2. Some consonants rimes.

Lesson2： 1. Review ‘a and ‘a different rimes； 2. Quiz； 3. New items： ‘e & ‘I （short form）.

Lesson3： 1. Consolidation of rimes： ad， ag， am， an， and， ank； 2. Revision of ‘e ， ‘I and rimes.

Lesson4： 1. Revision of ‘a， ‘e， ‘I； 2. Quiz； 3. Consonant clusters ‘l （pl， pr， bl， br， gl， gr）.

Lesson5： 1. Revision on Consonant cluster and short vowels； 2. Game（Spelling； word wall）.

Lesson6： 1. Revision on short vowels； 2. New item ‘a （a-e； ai， ay） & ‘e （e， ee， ea）.

Lesson7： 1. Revision on long vowel ‘a and ‘e； 2. Word attack.

Lesson8： 1. Revision on short vowels； 2. Comparison between long vowel ‘a with short ‘a； 3. Introduction of the concepts of open syllable and closed-syllable.

Lesson9： 1. Revision on long vowel ‘a and ‘e； 2. New items ‘I （i-e， i） and ‘o（o， o-e）.

Lesson10： 1. Consolidation of short and long vowels； 2. Link up the spelling with Phonics

Lesson11： 1. Revision on long vowels； 2. New item ‘ar and ‘ir.

Lesson12： 1. Revision of all the vowels； 2. Reading and spelling test.

Lesson13： 1. Evaluation and summary of the test； 2. Analysis of the existing problems and puts forward the solution.

IV. Conclusion

Above all， phonics can improve junior students English learning of spelling and pronunciation， and phonics can also raise students' interest in learning English. Learning English is a gradual process， and phonics is an effective method to remember words， so it has been playing an important role in vocabulary teaching.

References：

[1]Blevins，W.Phonics from A to Z：A Practical Guide[M].New York：Scholastic Inc.1998.

[2]Cunningham，P.M.Phonics They Use：Words for Reading and Writing[M].New York：Longman，2000.

[3]Lloyd，S.The Phonics Handbook[M].Jolly Learning Ltd，1992.