(SKKN 2022) methods of teaching phonics for primary students

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for choosing the topic Nowadays, English has become a global language, the official language of more than 53 countries and territories, the second language of nearly 100 countries and a common language of more than 400 million people in the world Teaching and learning English in schools in general and in primary education in particular is a practice for students to be able to communicate through four skills such as Listening - Speaking - Reading and Writing From that actual request, English has been included in the main curriculum of all levels in our country The last goal of teaching and learning English is that students can communicate in English The ability to communicate on two aspects: receive (listeningreading) and produce (speaking - writing) language However, in order to achieve the final goal, the first of the students need to master is phonics Phonetics is considered one of the basic elements of all the languages of the world If the pronunciation is correct, all skills such as listening, speaking, reading will become much easier On the contrary, if the pronunciation is wrong or unclear, it will make the listeners misunderstand or even not understand the speaker's meaning The language skills are closely related to each other; skills to support other skills Correct pronunciation, therefore, is not only good for oral skills, but also to understand better for listening However, the pronunciation is a difficult skill; without the guidance and regular exercise, positive, the progress will be virtually impossible Besides, there are so many different factors related to teaching Learning methods, the influence of the mother tongue or conditions interact with native English speakers also not much affect the progress of learners Identifying that importance, the teaching and learning of phonics has been included in the primary school English curriculum However, most students are still surprised and have many difficulties in pronouncing and memorizing the learned sounds, while exploitation and use of materials for teachers' teaching and student’s learning are limited From the years when I directly taught English in Primary school, in addition to the phonics teaching methods I received from training sessions, attending classes of good teachers, and workshops, I always struggling to find out how to teach in a way that is suitable for their students, helping them no longer feel difficult and heavy when pronouncing English I researched and experimented in my teaching class and got the desired results Therefore, I boldly offer my experience on "Methods of teaching Phonics for Primary Students" for reference by friends and colleagues 1.2 Objectives of the study From this fact, I have constantly studied, researched and experimented with some tips of teaching Phonics for the purpose of finding the most effective teaching methods and suitable in Primary School to promote students’ activeness and creativity and help students learn English well and can communicate in English Language learners communicate not only correctly but also self confidently in lessons This is more excited than they are willing to learn in order to improve their English pronunciation 1.3 Objects of the study With this research I focused on the Primary students at Quang Van Primary school, especially the students of grade 1.4 Methodology of the study: To carry out my measures effectively, I combine the use of the following measures: - Theoretical research method I read the conducting material issues related to my research needs - Learning experience from my colleagues Attend the colleagues' lesson to follow their good method - Experimental matching method - Observation method - Use the Internet regularly to keep up date on the latest news 2 CONTENT OF INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE 2.1 Theoretical basis of experience initiative 2.1.1 What is Phonics? Phonics is a method for teaching children to read by linking together sounds (phonemes) and the symbols we use to represent those (graphemes) [1] Phonetics in English includes the elements: phonology, stress, rhythm and intonation According to phonetic research [2], for the most successful communication process, four criteria should be achieved: Good pronunciation, natural speech, natural rhythm and natural intonation Achieving these four standard criteria is the ambition of all learners of English Although we cannot speak English like native speakers, we can practice to speak acceptable English: Clear pronunciation means that when we pronounce it, the listener understands and distinguishes it from other sounds 2.1.2 Why is Phonics important for Primary students? Phonics has been taught in schools now for over two decades and it’s proven to be a very successful method for teaching early reading in children Teaching phonics to help students create atmosphere language learning correct pronunciation of words in lessons Much purpose of teaching phonics in a language class is not intended to make students capable pronounced similar to the native because it is not practical, unless the school has a special talent and highly motivated The goal is to teach phonics to help students gain an ability to pronounce correctly at a certain level to be able to communicate what they want to talk with other people Phonics is a teaching method used to help children learn to read Phonics breaks down words into individual sounds and syllables and shows children how each sound fits together to make up a word Children taught with phonics must learn the different vowel sounds, consonants and regular rules of English grammar Due to the learner's native language affects the pronunciation teaching English to people who need to have a certain understanding of the sound system of the learner's mother tongue to first guess the difficulties and advantages of learner's pronunciation Phonics helps your child learn to read and spell Without this ability, your child cannot be fully literate Words are like codes and phonics teaches children how to crack the reading code Phonics is therefore an important part of any reading development program That is the reason Ministry of Education put on phonics lessons to Primary English With the development of modern technology and Internet, it is not difficult for teachers to create a fun learning atmosphere in phonics lessons by using videos on the Internet or TV For example, we can search a lot of videos related phonics on Google or Youtube like this: 2.2 Current status of the problem before applying experience initiatives English Primary level in general and grade in particular, is an elective but still difficult subject, not all young learners are gifted to absorb it easily There are still many weak learners, they not have a firm knowledge, not have suitable learning methods, passively study, they always wait for the results of their friends and follow exactly Many of them are afraid of practicing out aloud in front of the class, afraid of saying because they think that it will be wrong They not even take notes in class, not homework This fact shows that these students have not liked the subject yet Some students, especially weak students, lack of sense of learning, lack of patience in learning, have not kept up with new learning methods, they are still confused in acquiring and applying knowledge, practice skills Some only study out of curiosity, so when it's difficult to learn, the students will let them go Therefore, they are not really serious and try their best in learning I have been teaching English in a primary school in the countryside, so the difficulties above are the facts that I have to face every day However, My students love English, they have only a little of time and opportunity to hear native speakers’ voice in real life or through CD player, TV and so on As a result, my students often have difficulty in pronouncing an English word correctly and they have great fear of vocabulary checking from the teacher Many students encounter new words they not know how to pronounce Often teachers must International Phonetic form and read to students Sometimes the students forget how to pronounce it late In practically, teaching at my school, I notice that some of them have the ability to read and pronounce very well Besides, there are some children who have difficulty in pronunciation They are afraid of the wrong director, afraid of friend's laugh, resultingly they are shy saying, less communicates and read the words As well as students mispronounce, this leads to make a marked accent and intonation wrong So to have methods of teaching reading - speaking - pronunciation well, I have conducted a survey earlier this year to classify students The following table is the result of students in English in grade at Quang Van primary at the beginning of the school year for 2021-2022 school year: RESULT BEFORE APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING Class 2A (33sts) 2B (34sts) 2C (32sts) Completed well 10 (30,3%) (26,5%) (25%) Completed 11 (33,3 %) 10 (29,5%) (25%) Not completed 12 (36,4%) 15 (44%) 16 (50%) Based on the survey results I see that most students are not good at learning English because of the specificity of the subject and because they cannot learn at home, outside of school Moreover , this is a new subject, the fresh students have accessed to and become familiar with a new language The students think that learning English is very difficult so they are not passionate about learning a new language They don’t find very interesting when studying this subject 2.3 The solutions are used to solve the problem According to the present situation in English classes at my school, pronouncing wrong still exists in all grades To improve this situation, I would like to present 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 The process of phonics lesson A phonics lesson will be really effective if the teacher follows a clear teaching process, specifically making the syllables easily receptive for students Therefore, a phonics lesson should be divided into parts: Presentation – Practice - Produce 2.3.1.1 Presentation - Teacher introduces letter by showing the flashcard and then stick it on the board - Teacher describes how to pronounce its sound (position of the tongue, lips, teeth ) - Play video or audio a few times to students listen and repeat - Teacher reads aloud some words that contain that sound - Stick flashcards of these words on the board - Play video or audio a few times to students listen and repeat For example: Unit – Lesson (I learn Smart Start 2) (Page 12) - Teacher show flashcard and introduce letter Nn by pointing from one to three - Teacher describes how to pronounce its sound To create the 'n sound' /n/, the air is blocked from leaving the mouth by pressing the tip against the tooth ridge and the sides of the front of the tongue against the side teeth The soft palate drops, allowing air to pass out through the nose The sound is voiced, so the vocal cords vibrate while producing it - Teacher plays video to students listen and repeat a few times -Teacher reads aloud some words contain that sound - Teacher plays video or audio a few times to students listen and repeat 2.3.1.2 Practice In this section, the students should be able to practice pronunciation in order: isolated words => short phrases => sentences => dialogue - - - The teacher reads some words and students listen to identify which sound the teacher reads Then the whole class repeats these words in turn, then repeats them in groups, and finally repeats individually Students practice reading phrases containing the sound they are studying Students practice reading sentences (in sentences there are many words containing the sound they are studying) Students look, listen and repeat according to the teacher or on video/audio a short conversation in which there are many words containing the sound being studied These conversations are often found in textbooks Students present the dialogue (or sentences) in pairs (after reading fluently, if there is time, students can add a few words containing the sound they are studying to the dialogue, but the words must match the meaning of the lesson) In the process of students practicing, the teacher monitors and corrects mistakes For example : Unit – Lesson (I learn Smart Start – Page 36) -Teacher reads aloud two words and asks students to identify /t/ sound Tiger Top -Then the whole class repeats these words in groups and individually -Teacher asks students to look, listen and repeat phrases containing the sound they are studying - Students work in pair to practice these sentences and demonstrate in front of class -Teacher observes and corrects the mistakes if necessary 2.3.1.3 Production _ _ 2.3.1.3.1 Teaching phonics through songs, poems No one can deny the important influence of the music and poetry of human life Most everyone loves music It's always with people whether that person happy or sad It appears everywhere, all the time to share joy or sadness relieve when we need to Furthermore, poetry music can increase concentration, enhance memory, makes people closer together, creating motivation and joy in learning, makes people relax when they are depressed or stress, Because of the tremendous value that brings poetry to music, it has been used as educators useful tool in teaching And now the use of songs, poetry as a tool to support the learning of foreign languages is quite common Just a few tunes of the song, students can learn the culture of authentic language, vocabulary, grammar, listening skills, and a variety of other skills Using song and poem in class can make the classroom atmosphere becomes fun and dynamic Students will not feel stressed, even scared like to speak English in class solemn atmosphere It is this will make them feel really excited and voluntary participation in classroom activities The songs, poems not only create excitement for student learning, but also contains elements of very rich language including pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar The songs, poetry can help students to learn about pronunciation For learners of English in general and in particular primary school students, there're some sound that are very difficult to imitate because our mother tongue does not have this sound such as: / ð /, / θ /, / æ / , Therefore, you must learn how to pronounce inflexibly that can still not pronounce The wrong pronunciation can change the meaning of the phrase; will not lead to communication results, because listeners misinterpreted the transmission of information Songs, poems can help them overcome this The melody of the song, the rhythm of the poem often repeated a similar sound When they heard many times, they will indirectly be told how to pronounce the sound that makes you remember them and eventually the correct pronunciation For example: Unit – Lesson (I learn Smart Start – Page 55) Have students look at the lyrics and identify the letter “Y” and correctly pronounce the sound of its - “/j/” Ask students read the lyrics aloud and actions following them 10 _ _ Play audio and have students listen and the actions Divide the class into three groups Have each group make a new verse with the word "yogurt" - Have each group read aloud their sentences in front of the class _ 2.3.1.3.2 Teaching phonics through phonics games One of the best ways for young children to begin learning phonics is through playing phonics games that make the learning process fun and engaging Below are some simple ideas on how you can carry out phonics games at school 2.3.1.3.2.1 Letter Races This phonics game requires a magnetic board, magnetic letters and a lot of space! Set up the magnetic board on one side of the room and place the magnetic letters in a basket or bowl on the other side Call out a sound, or a word starting or ending in a particular sound Then ask your child (with a ready, set, go!) to pick out the correct magnetic letters and run over as fast as they can to stick it on the board 11 2.3.1.3.2.2 I Spy the sound 'I Spy the Sound' is a fun way to build phonics skills and phonemic awareness In this variation of the classic game, 'I Spy', ask your child to spy words that begin with a certain sound, rather than a letter For example: Teacher : “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with mmm.” Students : Mmm mum, mmm moon 2.3.1.3.2.3 Matching Rhymes Rhymes help children understand that sounds in our language have meaning and follow certain patterns Find a corkboard or something you can stick pins into Write down a list of words on one side of a sheet of paper and on the other side write down words that rhyme with these words, but in a different order Here are some words you can use: hat, cat, sat, rat, mat pin, tin, fin, win, run, fun, sun, bun 12 Then stick pins next to each word Give your child some rubber bands and ask them to match the rhyming words on each side of the page by placing the rubber bands on the pins to connect the rhyming pair 2.3.1.3.2.4 Phonics Line Materials: flashcards Time: 6-10 minutes Receptive Language: instructions, various Productive Language: various Game Explanation: Two teams standing in straight lines The first student in each team approaches the instructor to receive a question (‘What letter is it?’, ‘What’s the first letter in ?’, ‘What sound does this letter make?’, etc), returns to her team, asks the next student in line the same question, & returns to the instructor with the answer If the answer is correct, the first student goes to the end of her team’s line & sits down, while the second student approaches the instructor for a new question; if the answer is incorrect, she must return to her team & ask the third student the same question, & so on 2.3.1.3.2.5 Phonics Hopscotch This phonics game helps children develop their ability to match letters to their sounds All you need for this fun phonics game is a piece of chalk and the ground Simply draw hopscotch markings on the ground (how many squares and in what shape they are arranged is up to you) In each square draw a letter of the 13 alphabet (you may want to draw both the upper- and lower-case letters in each) There are many ways you can play this game – you can call out a letter or combination of letters and ask your child to jump on those letters, and as they do, for them to sound out each letter This Fast Phonics game teaches the letter sound connection of P Or you can ask your child to jump on the letters in alphabetical order, sounding them out as they go along You can also roll dice and ask your child to jump to the square that matches the number rolled, counting the squares as they jump and sounding the letter out at the end 2.3.1.3.2.6 What's Missing? Divide class into two teams One team (the challenger) chooses letters to present the first member (the guesser) of the opposing team The guesser then has 5-10 seconds to memorize the set of letters With the guesser’s back turned, the challenger removes one letter and then prompts the guesser, “OK What’s missing?” Points awarded to guesser if she/he is correct, to the challenger if not Teams reverse rolls Rinse and repeat 2.3.1.3.2.7 Snake Game Board game in the shape of a snake with all the letters of the alphabet in random order Students advance by throwing a dice Each time they stop, they have to name the letter they land on and sound it out For more advanced students, teacher can ask student to name a word beginning with that letter Like any other board game, it also can include spaces for miss one turn, go back steps, etc 14 2.3.1.3.2.8 Guess the word Divide the class into four teams Write a word on the board with several letters missing E.g _ _ x – fox Have each team take turns calling out a letter and recognize the sound Add the missing letters to the word if correctly guessed Give that team one point if it’s a correct guess Continue until the students guess the word correctly The team that gets the most points wins 2.3.1.3.2.9 Patty Cake Divide the class into pairs Have students sit facing each other The teacher says a word (E.g watch) The students slap their knees once, clap their hands once, and then clap their partner’s hands once as they both say “/w/ /w/ watch” Continue doing the action for each of the two letters and words 2.3.1.3.2.10 Minimal Pairs: Teacher writes the International Phonetic Alphabet on the board and lets students list pairs of words that are similar For example: /I/ /i:/ Fifty Fifteen It eat Bin bean 2.3.2 Applied Lesson: Unit : Classroom Activities Lesson (I learn Smart Start - Page 60) After completing this lesson, students will be able to : - Identify the letter “Z” and correctly pronounce the sound of its “/z/” in the following vocabulary: Zebra, zoo 15 Presentation - Teacher shows flashcard and introduces letter Z by pointing from to 16 Stick this flashcard on the board and introduce /z/ sound To create the /z/, the front of the tongue is placed close to the tooth ridge The tip of the tongue should be close to the upper backside of the top front teeth The tongue is kept tense as air is pushed between a small groove along the center of the tip of the tongue and the front of the tooth ridge The front sides of the tongue touch the side teeth toward the front of the mouth The lips are held slightly tense during the sound - - Play video for students listen and repeat a few times 17 Have students look at the pictures of Part A on page 60 Play audio or video and ask students listen, repeat and trace when they hear the appropriate sound or word - Teacher introduces words containing letter Z and /z/ sound and sticks the flashcards on the board - Zebra Zoo Teacher reads aloud these words and asks students to listen and repeat the letter sounds Practise - Have students look at the pictures of Part B on page 60 - - Teacher plays audio Students listen and repeat then write the missing letter Call some students demonstrate in front of class 18 - Have students look at Part C on page 60 Have Students look at the lyrics and identify the letter “Z” and correctly pronounce the sound of its - “/z/” - Ask students read the lyrics aloud and actions following them - Play audio and have students listen, sing along, and the actions - Divide the class into three groups - Have each group make a new verse with the word "Zoo" and sing along the same melody as the first one - _ - Have each group sing their song in front of the class Production “Jump” game - Divide the class into four teams - Have one student from each team stand a distance from the board - Draw three circles on the floor Each circle has a letter (E.g Vv, Ww or Zz) - Call out one word (E.g zebra) - The students try to jump into the circle with the corresponding letter then say “/zed/ Z is for zebra.” - The winner is the student who jumps into the correct letter circle first 2.4 Effectiveness of the study 19 After a short period of time teaching phonics to help grade students remember new words, my students have changed a lot their attitude towards learning vocabulary Most of them find learning new words amusing and as not difficult as before With phonics, their pronunciation of new words has also been much improved In my observation, my students are able to remember the words longer and flexibly adapt them into their spoken speech and written form The children were excited during the lessons They can practice and remember for a long time Before many students were shy, not dare to speak in front of the class Now they are confident in communication, they get faster and love English very much They can now pronounce a new word correctly and naturally Therefore, the results are markedly improved RESULT AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH Class Completed well Numbers of Rate students 2A (33 sts) 2B (34 sts) 2C (32 sts) Completed Number s of Rate students 17 52 % 14 15 44,1% 16 16 50 % 15 Not completed Number s of Rate students 42,4 % 47 % 46,9 % 5,6, % 8,9 % 3,1 % And here are some photos taken in my English classes, the students are not only eager with their lessons, but also hope to study more 20 21 Conclusion and suggestion 3.1 Conclusion In short, Phonics is a perfect teaching tool to make children motivated and involved in language lessons, especially the little children, slower students or students with some learning difficulties They are helping the students understand and memorize easily, making the students relax, making the class more productive, and helping the teacher to handle the class Through teaching phonics for student in grade 2, I have summarized some small experience and the results are very encouraging Number of students who read slowly, read poorly in class had dropped a lot of sense demonstrate their learning very well These classes are very eager to learn English, not toxins Clearly that many of them well vocally train And the first step to learning in English has prospered It is also important for children to learn in different parts of the program Sometimes I use the phonics songs in my lessons to make my lessons more lively and effectively This experience is the best method of instruction in English pronunciation that I boldly launch I think this is a very interesting problem in ordinary English Under the limitation of time, I have just presented here only a few of my experiences on helping grade students remember new words through singing vocabulary songs related to the topic of the lessons and I’m really looking forward to receiving sincerely contributive ideas 3.2 Suggestion Learning as well as teaching phonic is not an easy task It requires patience, willingness and takes up time of students and teachers Teaching phonics and vocabulary effectively needs appropriate strategies The lessons can be implemented with a view to supporting as well as enhancing what are taught in the textbook 22 However, as mentioned above, this is a long-term strategy that the teacher has to devote much time to The teacher should carry out the process continually to get the effectiveness of the method Thus, enough time must be provided for both the students and the teacher to practice the strategies The selection of materials is indispensable for the successful execution of this method Therefore, it is advisable that the contents be comparatively straightforward; topics should be interesting and close to those in the textbooks Above are some of my experiences about "Methods of teaching Phonics for Primary Students" which I have learned in the process of learning, researching and teaching directly with students This is my own experience but it is not the optimal method There are inevitably shortcomings in the process of renewing experience; every contribution to the vocabulary activities is highly welcomed Through this I would like to sincerely thank my colleagues, the teacher in my school and Quang Van school administrators helped me make this study I would like to sincerely thank! THE HEADMASTER'S CONFIRMATION Quang Van, April 10th 2021 I assure that I wrote this experience initiative, not copy other people’s Written by Nguyễn Thị Huyền 23 Reference: [1] English Teaching Methodology Nguyễn Thị Vân Lam, M.A, Ngơ Đình Phương, Ph D, 2007 [2] English Phonology and Pronunciation Teaching, Pamela Rogerson-Revell, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011 Images from Textbook “ I learn Smart Start 2” Website : https://pronuncian.com https://www.google.com/ https://www.youtube.com/ 24 ... present 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 The process of phonics. .. is Phonics important for Primary students? Phonics has been taught in schools now for over two decades and it’s proven to be a very successful method for teaching early reading in children Teaching. .. Objectives of the study From this fact, I have constantly studied, researched and experimented with some tips of teaching Phonics for the purpose of finding the most effective teaching methods and