Solutions to improve the quality of teaching phonics for the students of grade 4

As a teacher of English at Primary School, I am always awared of researching the specific methods in teaching English, especially in teaching phonics in order to make the students to bel

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC

"

English has become the medium of all relevant social interactions and the ability to use English effectively is considered an absolute essential for honorable existence."

Quotation from a retired Army Colonel

-English is a pre-eminent world language, it is at the heart of our culture and it is the language medium in which most of our pupils think and communicate It plays a very important role in in human life English is not only the language in the field of international communication but also the language of the science, information technology, socio-cultural, tourism and commercial,etc In Vietnam, English is considered as a compulsory subject at school, especially Primary School With the trend of international integration , Vietnam is increasingly able to be fully available in all areas Communicative languages becomes an effective tool in every aspects of life Besides the mother tongue, the Vietnamese consider English as the second communicative language and the major subject in the school course To meet the growing demand as well

as communication needs of society, the Ministry of Education and Training has put English into the progam at Primary School The English program in Primary Schools is to form and develop for students the knowledge and basic skills in English, through learning English, students gain knowledge and their love for the Vietnamese Learning English not only contributes for the development of personality and learning style but also provides students with basic knowledge and help students understand initially the knowledge about the people and culture of English speaking countries

At Primary School, English is a subject which has its own characteristics Therefore teachers are like an artist , he or she need to be creative and cheerful

in order to involve students in learning English excitingly As a teacher of English at Primary School, I am always awared of researching the specific methods in teaching English, especially in teaching phonics in order to make the students to believe that they can speak English fluently and naturally Children will not be motivated to speak in English unless they are presented with words

in context Once they believe this, we will be able to focus on improve the quality of their outputs The process of learning is just as important as the final product, and the children need to be encouraged to experiment with ideas and work collaboratively to share ideas Creating a positive classrooom ethos where children feel empowered to work in a collaborative way is an important role of the teacher We need to understand the inter-relationship between speaking, listening, reading and writing and we need to plan for speaking opportunities in the classroom in the same way that we plan for teaching phonics

Phonics is a method of teaching reading that emphasizes the predictable relationship between sounds and the alphabetic symbols in our language It is also called “alphabetic principles.” There has been great controversy about the necessity of teaching phonics in our country for many years

It is a method for teaching reading and writing the English language by developing learners’ phonemic awareness the ability to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes in order to teach the correspondence between these sounds and the spelling patterns that represent them

The goal of phonics is to enable beginning readers to decode new written words by sounding them out, or in phonics terms, blending the sound-spelling patterns Since it focuses on the spoken and written units within words, phonics

is a sublexical approach and, as a result, is often contrasted with whole language, a word-level-up philosophy for teaching reading

Phonics is once again a hot topic that teachers, parents, school board members and legislators are discussing about it In this research, there was little knowledge on which to base decisions regarding how phonics should be taught

at Primary School In the decades since, we have accumulated vast amounts of knowledge about how brain works, how children learn, and how words are structured

After exploring and accumulating the experiences from colleagues, I have applied modern teaching methods in teaching phonics and achieved quite effective results The students are more interested in learning English and more confident in speaking before the class This improves that my methods are right With the passion and the love for teaching English, I have studied and developed

the research: "Solutions to improve the quality of teaching phonics for the students of grade 4 "

1.2 THE PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH.

- The research applies the methods of teaching phonics to involve students

in learning phonics well

- Creating the language circumstance to communicate in English and promote students to actively participate in communicative activities; offering some solutions to help students use knowledge of vocabulary, phonetics and grammar in communication

- Giving some solutions and methods for teaching phonics

- Exchanging and sharing some methods of teaching phonics for primary students

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTS.

- The object of study: With this research I focused on the students of grade 4

- Systematizing some theoretical issues about the procedures and activities in teaching phonics in English Primary program according to the communicative approach

- Exploring the present situation of teaching phonics at Primary School

1.4 RESEARCH METHODS

1.4.1 Theoretical research method :

Researching and reading legal documents, scientific literature and textbooks which are related to researching problems by means of analysis ,

synthesis, comparison, to find the theoretical issues as a basis for solving problems and researching tasks

1.4.2 Survey Method :

To survey the actual situation of teaching and learning phonics at Primary School in order to discover new problems that need to be solved, determining the common causes and preparing for the next procedures

1.4.3 Conversation Method:

Exchanging to colleagues about the advantages and disadvantages of phonics and know how to use it to develop speaking skill for elemantary students

1.4.4 Observation Method :

Observating the colleagues’ classes

1.4.5 Comparison Method :

During the researching and teaching in grade 4, I have used this method to compare the survey results before and after applying the experiences of teaching phonics

1.4.6 Checking and assessment Method:

Through the lessons and students’ test survey From the test results of the assessment I classified the students into groups and had suitable methods for each kind of student

1.4.7 Group of complementary Methods :

- Methods of mathematical statistics

- Methods of data analysis

1.5 NEW POINTS OF EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

These new features are to share solutions in teaching phonics to develop speaking skills for elementary students, helping them be more confident to communicate in English

2 RESEARCH CONTENTS

2.1 RATIONALE:

A significant base of research, developed over many years, is available to inform educators about effective approaches to teaching children to read However, research on applying the methods of teaching phonics for primary students is in its infancy This reflects the fact that many teachers in the Vietnam are faced with the challenge of teaching children to read and write in English when the students have a heritage language that is not English and they are not yet proficient in English Making this a more critical issue, several studies suggest that teachers are not receiving adequate professional development in effective strategies to teach phonics for studnts As part of the effort to learn more about teaching phonics for primary students, educational researchers and teachers in Vietnam have looked at instructional practices in Primary Schools When those Primary Schools are faced with the challenge of teaching phonics for children, there has been greatest transfer of best practices Research and close observation of teaching phonics has been conducted in primary education system, and a smaller amount of research in Vietnam for the obvious reason that phonics helps to prevent common errors that arise from sight reading; it ensures that children adopt a rigorous strategy that enables them to deconstruct each word individually, rather than trying to remember what the word looks like This will benefit children from all backgrounds If they have internalised some words through sight reading, this method will help to iron out any errors In addition, phonics can help support those who aren’t from culturally rich homes If students aren’t read to at home, they will have a lesser reservoir of sight-learned words to draw from when reading If we teach them the phonics strategy, they will be able to approach any new word with more confidence If kids feel confident when reading, and experience the sense of success from being able to successfully decode, reading will become a more pleasurable experience for them In order to make best use of the information presented in this research, many teachers might want to consider the following set of questions together in preparation for making decisions about teaching phonics for primary students Note that this research focuses on teaching phonics to help children in the elementary grades learn to read It does not address many other important issues about the impact of phonics on literacy, such as what it means to be information literate in the 21st century Nor does it address the role of phonics in language arts in general, or in reading beyond the elementary level

Educators generally agree that children learning to read and write English need to understand that there is a relationship between letter patterns and sound patterns in English (the alphabetic principle), to internalize major relationships between letter and sound patterns, and eventually to develop an awareness of the

"separate" sounds in words (phonemic awareness) In other words, educators agree that emergent readers and writers need to develop a functional command

of what is commonly called phonics However, this does not not necessarily

mean that children should be taught phonics intensively and systematically,

through special phonics programs or even through phonics lessons in basal reading books and workbooks Indeed, various lines of research argue for helping children develop phonics knowledge in the context of reading and enjoying literature and in the context of writing, rather than through isolated skills lessons Many of these reasons are listed below, followed by a list of ways that teachers can help children learn phonics and develop phonemic awareness while reading and writing interesting texts

Despite extravagant claims found in the popular media, research does not strongly support the teaching of phonics intensively and systematically-and

certainly not phonics first At best, systematic phonics (in comparison with

traditional basal-reader/whole word approaches) may produce better scores on reading comprehension tests, but only through grade 4 (Chall, 1967/1983) A recent study suggests that an approach which emphasizes phonemic awareness and phonics may get children off to an earlier start in grasping letter/sound relationships and reading words than an approach that embeds phonics in a whole literacy context, but the direct instruction, whole language, and embedded phonics groups showed no significant differences in comprehension (Foorman et al., forthcoming) Overall, "there is little evidence that one form of phonics instruction is strongly superior to another" (Stahl, McKenna, & Pagnucco, 1994)

in developing phonics knowledge and phonemic awareness

2.2 THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE PROBLEM

Analysis of my school’s performance in teaching and learning phonics in recent years showed that our average score in phonics had been consistently below that of like other schools in urban areas It was a situation that was of concern and motivated a thorough examination of the school’s approach to the teaching of phonics

Our school is a public primary school in the center of Thanh Hoa city It

is a large school with around 1747 students, ranging from 6 to 10 years old There are seven to eight classes in most year levels, meaning that collaboration among teachers is extremely important to ensure consistency in learning programs In the school year 2009 - 2010, Ministry of Education and Training applied Phonics International as the framework in the progam of teaching English for primary students After some year of teaching Enlish 4, I found that most of the students can not pronounce the new words correctly They only focused on grammar and vocabulary and didn’t like to learn phonics during the lesson

2.2.1 About students:

In fact, in the process of learning a foreign language, students often focus

on learning grammar mainly because the test requires the application of grammar, the tests often have a few exercises with phonics In English class they have little chance to practice pronouncing Over time they lose their ability to communicate in English In addition, the limitation of students’ speaking skill of the have some reasons:

+ The old habit of learning English does not motivate students to communicate in English

+ Being lack of knowledge of English to communicate everyday

+ Having a few opportunities to practice English in the classroom with their teacher and classmates

2.2.2 About the teacher :

Many teachers in the Vietnam are faced with the challenge of teaching children to read and write in English, when the students have a heritage language that is not English and they are not yet proficient in English

Normally when teaching a foreign language, teachers often focus on teaching vocabulary, grammar or structure However, grammar is not the final result of the teaching and learning process It is only a tool to help learner to communicate more effectively But in fact, there are some differences between spoken English and written English Written English requires the accuracy statement of the structure, whereas spoken English needs the flexibility and the intimacy in communication

From those factors, there are some problems in teaching phonics for primary student at school However, in a number of causes, teachers and students can progressively overcome the difficulties Therefore, in the teaching process teachers must use some suitable techniques to teach students how to lean phonics effectively He or she should have creative and flexible approaches in using the methods of teaching phonics

2.2.3 About the teaching facilities.

My school has facilities of teaching and learning to meet the needs of specific subjects such as: projectors, the modern teaching equipment like Robot Teacher, Television, CD player,etc So the application of teaching phonics is quite effectively

2.2.4 The quality survey and students’ classification

Based on the present situation of students in class 4 the level of all students is acquired after a few weeks of the school year with the methods of teaching phonics I had 40 minutes to test students in class 4D to survey and classify the students The result is:

Class The numbers

of students

Excellen t (A)

Good (B)

Fair (C)

Poor (D)

Fail (F)

According to the survey result, I have classified the students and immediately applied the methods and experiences which I accumulated over the years to improve the teaching and learning quality

2.3 THE SOLUSIONS

According to the present situation in English classes at my school, pronouncing wrong still exists in all grades from 3 to 5, especially in grade 4 To improve this situation, I would like to present the defintion of phonics, some

methods of teaching phonics and elicit the stages of teaching phonics for primary student which I have researched and applied quite successfully at my school

2.3.1 What is Phonics?

There has been much confusion over this term Phonics is a method of teaching beginners to read and pronounce words by learning to associate letters

or letter groups (graphemes or phonograms) with the sounds they represent (phonemes) Students must learn to unravel the secrets of the code (in other words, decode) before they can comprehend the meaning of the written word

Phonics is seen to be an improvement on the previously used method of learning the approximate sounds represented by letters(b=buh) first and then blending them with other sounds (bl=bluh) to decode and encode words in written form This newer method attempts to eliminate the extraneous "uh" sounds which were unavoidable in the older method Children also learn strategies to figure out words they don't know It is considered an "analytical" approach where students analyze the letters, letter combinations and syllables in

a word; in an effort to "decode" the speech-sounds represented by the letters and the meaning of the text The advantage of phonics is that, especially for students who come to schools with large English vocabularies, it enables students to decode or "sound-out" a word they have in their speaking vocabulary

2.3.2 How much phonics is enough?

Phonics is the training wheels of reading So, how much phonics is enough? When do we take off the training wheels and let them fly? You see, that

is the question; how much phonics and practice are needed for mastery? Some

of us may need training wheels a lot longer than others Too little, and some children will become struggling readers unnecessarily Too much, and some can develop an overdependence on phonics if it’s pushed too hard and too long

Phonics is a means to an end, and generally speaking, most of the phonics

a child will need can be covered in two years with more advanced concepts taught in quick mini-lessons at later years One study I read said that grade 3 phonics could be covered in forty minutes per day, while in grade 4; it should only take twenty minutes After that, it can be covered in just a few minutes per week, especially if you’re using a phonics-based spelling program and take the time to teach the phonics concepts

Students need to be encouraged to work toward automatically recognizing larger and larger chunks of the words But in the meantime, they must learn the code if they’re every going to be able to read easily

The primary focus of phonics instruction is to help beginning readers understand how letters are linked to sounds (phonemes) to form letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns and to help them learn how to apply this knowledge in their reading

Phonics instruction may be provided systematically or incidentally The hallmark of a systematic phonics approach or program is that a sequential set of phonics elements is delineated and these elements are taught along a dimension

of explicitness depending on the type of phonics method employed Conversely, with incidental phonics instruction, the teacher does not follow a planned sequence of phonics elements to guide instruction but highlights particular elements opportunistically when they appear in text

Phonics is presented in part 1 of lesson 2 in all Units of the book “

English 4” which is published by Vietnamese Educational Publishers

Teaching pronunciation in English 4 consist of teaching Phonics and Songs/ Rhymes/Chants Phonics enables pupils to recognise the relatioship between letters or letter combinations and the souds they make With the knowledge of phonics, pupils are able to improve their speaking and reading skills because they can identify the spelling and the pronunciation patterns of listening new words and decode them quikly Focus the pupils’ attentions on the letter and its sounds in words, and model the new sounds a few times for pupils

to repeat

In teaching Phonics and Songs/ Rhymes/ Chants, it is advisable that the teacher should introduce the Songs/ Rhymes/ Chants in which the new sounds are embedded; teach new vocabulary, using flashcards, realia, pictures,etc; and mime the lines if it is possible

Teaching pronunciation in the book “ English 4” includes teaching phonics, songs, rhymes all chants Pronunciation help students recognize the relationship between letters and letters with the corresponding sounds With knowledge of pronunciation, students can improve their speaking and reading skill because they can recognize patterns pronunciation and spelling of new words when listening

Here are 5 basic steps to teach phonics that I have applied successfully at

my school:

Step 1 : Introducing the sounds in the songs, rhymes or chants; teaching

new words using word cards, real objects, pictures,etc Focusing on the sounds

of letters and words

Step 2 : Playing the recording a few time or let pupils listen to the Robot

Teacher; having them repeat each line of the Songs/ Rhymes/ Chants and clap the words containing the focused sounds

Step 3 : Clap your hands to the beat while listening to the words that

contain the sound that need to be trained

Step 4 : Organizing students to practice in pairs or groups to practice the

songs, rhymes or chants

Step 5 : Calling on some volunteers to perform the Songs/ Rhymes/

Chants at the front of the class and have the rest of the class clap the rhythm of the chant

Those are five steps that I usually use to teach phonics in Lesson 2: Listen and repeat It need to be noted that in the classroom, the correct pronunciation of the teachers is not enough, it also needs the modern equipments such as speakers, CD player, Robot teacher,etc

For example: Unit 7: Places in my school - Lesson 2 (Page 48)

1 Listen and repeat

- Have students look at the words small and big and notice the letters coloured differently in both words

- Tell them they are going to distinguish and produce the sounds sm in small and that of b in big.

- Produce the sounds sm and b a few times And ask students to say what

they think about when they hear these sounds

- Teach the words book, pen, big, small and together

Small Big

Look Look

A big book

Look.Look

A small book

Big, small

Big, small

Big and small togetther.

- Play the recording all the way through for students to listen as they read the chant on the board or in their books Clap the syllables

- Play the recording again for students to repeat each line of the chant and clap the syllables

- Call on the group of six to the front of the class, have three of them repeat each line of the chant, and the other three clap the syllables Repeat the step but this time have the students swap their parts

- Ask students to practice saying and clapping the chant in groups

- Monitor the activity and offer help; correct pronnciation error(s) (stress, assimilation of sounds, intonation) when necessary

- Call on a group to recite the chant The rest of the class clap the syllables

- Ask some questions about the chant to ensure students’ comprehension

of the language

- Have the whole class recite the chant and clap the syllables to reinforce their pronunciation

2.3.3 Ten Simple Phonics Activities.

Getting students to discover and practice the connections between letters and the sounds they represent should be an important part of any English class routine The following activities can be adjusted to meet different levels and adapted to fit into any timeframe Please note that not every activity you do in class has to be extremely challenging Simple ideas that everybody is able to accomplish can work wonders with student confidence which, in turn, can increase motivation

The following are ten activities that can assist us in practicing phonics at any point in the lesson:

* Letters on the Board: At first, the teacher writes some letters on the

board The teacher reads out a word, one at a time, and asks the students to try

and spell each word using only the letters on the board It is always a good idea

to stop after the first word in order to write the correct spelling on the board This can then be used as a reference point for the students for successive words After reading out five to ten words, go through the spellings of each word Also, limit the number of vowel sounds you practice as the variety of sounds they represent can be really challenging for students, especially beginners

* Speed Reading: Write a number of words on the board If necessary, go

over the pronunciation of each word Then read through a list of the same words

at a good speed leaving out only one of the words The students should be listening to you read the list of words while following along on the board After you are finished, they tell you which word (words) you did not read out This activity can be targeted for a higher level by adjusting the vocabulary used, the speed you read, the number of words you leave off, or by doing additional tasks

* Battleship Phonics: This is based on the popular game Battleship The

teacher would draw a grid on the board with initial sounds written across the top, and medial and final sounds written together down the left side of the grid You would let the students know that you have chosen a few squares as ‘special squares’ that they should seek out They find these squares by volunteering to say a whole word made up of a letter at the top and the side of the grid The intersection of this row and column highlights a particular square The object is for the students to find all your designated special locations

* Phonics Bingo: Write a good number of sounds on the board, e.g., pha,

ma, la, ga The students would choose a designated number of sounds you wrote and write them on an available space for writing You would then play this like bingo and read out the sounds one by one The students can get bingo when they have three of their sounds chosen or all of their sounds chosen It is a good idea

to go over all of the sounds written on the board beforehand to help ease comprehension

* Criss-cross Phonics: All the students stand up To begin, show a word

or a picture The first student to raise their hand gets called upon and if they can correctly say the first (or last) sound of that word they can sit down and choose

if the people in their row, horizontally or vertically, can also sit down Gradually, there are fewer and fewer students standing

* Missing Sound: Draw or show an image on the blackboard Beside the

image, write all but one of the sounds For example, there is a picture of a dog

on the board, you write ‘og’ beside it and the students have to provide you with the missing sound, not the letter This can be made into a group contest or a simple whole - class exercise where you would give the class time to think of the answer and get everyone to say the answer at the same time

* Two Sounds: Good to practice sound distinction Have two words on

the board representing the two different sounds you would like to practice, e.g., MEN, MAN You would then show the students pictures and get them to put those words under the appropriate column For example, you show a picture of a pen, the students should write ‘pen’ under the MEN column (If you are dealing