4. Results and Discussion 11

4.1 Results 11

4.1.1 The Results of Questionnaire 11

4.1.2 The Results of Tests 12

4.2 Discussion 13

4.2.1 Pupils' Phonological Awareness 13

4.2.2 Pupils' Spelling Ability 14

4.2.3 Pupils' Inerest in Reading 14

5. Conclusion 17

5.1 Major Findings 17

5.1.1 Phoincs can Improve Pupils' Phonological Awareness 17

5.1.2 Phoincs can Enhance Pupils' Spelling Ability 17

5.1.3 Phoincs can Arouse Pupils' Inerest in Reading 18

5.2 Limitations and Further Studies 18

References 19

Appendix 20

1. Introduction

1.1 Research Background 

In the research on language learning, linguists find out that reading plays a significant role. People cannot get either knowledge or information without reading. Pupils’ reading ability, to a great degree, determines their language level. English reading plays a very important role in Second Language Acquisition

In the Compulsory English Curriculum Standards (2011), the secondary goal specifies the requirements to achieve for graduate pupils in sixth grade in English reading: 1) be able to recognize and read words; 2) be able to read out simple words according to the law of spelling; 3) be able to read simple requests or instructions in the textbooks; 4) be able to understand the information expressed by cards and so on; 5) be able to understand simple stories or short passages with the help of pictures, and develop sense-group reading habit. 6) be able to read stories or essays.

However, after the teaching practice, the author finds out that pupils’ biggest problem and difficulty in English reading is to set up the relationship between prints and spoken words as English is their foreign language. In China, pupils start to have the English course at Grade Three, and most of the content are spoken English. But even the English course starts early, there are still many pupils meeting difficulties in reading. Some pupils can not correctly read out the word in reading text. Some pupils are weak in spelling. Some read word by word instead of paying attention to the sense-groups. These are all attributed to the lack of phonological awareness and basic voice knowledge. Pupils do not know the relationship between pronunciation and spelling of English words, so that can not recognize the literal words and set up relationship between the prints and spoken words. The reasons above caused the pupils to learn English passively. They are not willing to and even afraid to read, and find no fun in it. 

Traditional reading teaching methods includes Grammar Translation Method, Direct Method, Audio-lingual Method, and Communicative Method and so on. These teaching methods emphasize the meaning and usage of words in reading, but seldom teach knowledge about pronunciation and spelling rules to pupils. Wei Dong Qi (2008) stated that phonological awareness is the key for reading ability. Phonological awareness is a meta-language, refers to the inpidual's awareness toward the sound structure. Lack of phonological awareness is a common feature of the majority of dyslexic children. Zheng Xiaobei (2009) also believes that the speech skills may be the key to have good reading ability in the alphabetic writing system. Therefore, English teachers in primary schools need to improve pupils’ phonological awareness, as well as improve pupils' cognitive strategies and literacy skills.