problems and strategy of teaching english pronunciation in junior middle school--初中英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音教學(xué)中的問(wèn)題及策略

1、<p>　　Problems and Strategy of Teaching English Pronunciation in Junior Middle School</p><p>　　Introduction</p><p>　　English teaching in our country pays too much attention to the examinati

2、on and paper marks. Even the professionals who have taught English for years misunderstand about the subject. Ordinary English teachers in junior middle school with a heavy examination burdend(擔(dān)子) on their shoulders hold

3、 that phonetic（語(yǔ)音的） teaching has few marks in examination and it can only help to learn, and consequently only need spare a little time and energy in learning it. This is not a good idea because pronunciation</p>

4、<p>　　Why is English pronunciation teaching so important in English language teaching? There are five main reasons about it.</p><p>　　a) The sound is the first nature of language. Language is a tool of

5、communication. Only through vocal organs sending out voices, only depending on the sounds of the language, people finish the goal of communication with each other. In linguistics, the definition of language is “a system

6、of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication”. It has two salient features: One is sound; the other is meaning. It is the base of language learning. Phonetics is an essential part of language because i</p&g

7、t;<p>　　So a teacher of a foreign language must be able to teach the correct pronunciation of that language. A teacher untrained in phonetics is as useless as a doctor untrained in anatomy( 解剖學(xué)) . Facts show that

8、teacher must repeat the sounds many times. Without any knowledge of pronunciation and intonation, the teaching result will be unsatisfactory. So one of the principal aims of a foreign language teacher is to master both t

9、he pronunciation of the language he or she is going to teach and the method</p><p>　　b) Phonetics is the clothes of language. Acquiring the beautiful and correct sounds of one language helps acquire the word

10、s and learn the grammar of it, and also helps improve the ability of listening, speaking, reading and writing, especially speaking and listening. It helps to acquire the proper manner of exchanging thoughts and feelings

11、effectively.</p><p>　　c) Phonetics is the material existence 存在of language. English pronunciation teaching is the beginning and first step of English teaching, especially in junior middle schools. We must ha

12、ve a basic ground of English learning in this period. If we ignore it, there would be much troubles and confusion in the future of learning.</p><p>　　d) There is a quite difference between English and Chines

13、e. We can say that English is a kind of hearing language, and our Chinese is the language both hearing and seeing. In short. English put much emphasis 著重、強(qiáng)調(diào)on sounds so we should focus on sounds to learn.</p><

14、p>　　e) Phonetics is also the main element of stylistics. To judge a piece of writing, sounds’ beauty is an important standard. If we could not put this notion in students’ brains, and let them know what is good or bad

15、 of the sounds in English, students were losing one of the rules to check the nature of English language. They would not have known how to distinguish a good article from a bad one. Good writings are the perfect combinat

16、ion of the sound and meaning.</p><p>　　For the reasons mentioned above. We fully understand that phonetics is a sharp weapon to fight language. Correct pronunciation will keep correct track of word’s spellin

17、g in brain. It is a whole and total attack. It adds another stimulation to memorize new words. The sound’s stimulation is more effective than just writing new words again and again. Learning is understanding and memory.

18、Reading aloud helps us understand and memorize more effectively.</p><p>　　To learn their mother tongue, babies acquire first from sounds of their language. And to learn a foreign language, students also shou

19、ld start from this basis. In English, phonetics has a close relationship with its words spelling and grammar. Not only to master the skills of listening and speaking, but also grammar and words, to master English languag

20、e wholly and totally, have we needed phonetic learning. We need to make students familiar with English sounds. To master a language, is to master t</p><p>　　Every phoneme in English decides its meaning. Mist

21、aken pronunciation leads to misunderstanding. For example: sheep and ship are two different words, one is “sheep (羊)”; the other is “ship（船）” decided by the length of the vowel. “Bed（床）”and “bad（壞）are decided by the open

22、ing height of mouth. And there are words “eyes” and “ice”; “singing” and “sin”. If we pronounced them in a wrong way, we would understand the meaning mistakenly. Pronouncing the word right or wrong influences we hear oth

23、ers’ words</p><p>　　Of course, the importance of English pronunciation teaching is far from mentioned above. As a kind of spelling language, there are many aspects in English as grammars and vocabulary great

24、ly influenced and controlled by sounds. Different from Chinese, if we say, meaning of Chinese language can be found in reading, and then meaning of English can be found in hearing. English word “supper” is from the sound

25、s of taking the soup, and then there come “slurp”, “sip”, “slop”, “sloppy” and “slob”. </p><p>　　According to the change of sound, we find some rules of how the irregular verbs change: meet\ met\ met, leav

26、e\ left \left, and sleep\slept\slept which belong to one group. And then there is another: think\thought\thought, bring\brought\brought. And more: teach\taught\taught, sing\sang\sung, ring\rang\rung, drink\drank\drunk, b

27、egin\began\begun, drive\drove\driven, rise\rose\risen, write\wrote\written, and ride\rode ridden.</p><p>　　Furthermore, rhythm and rime play their roles in English language, too. English sentence is based on

28、 the rhythm of stressed and unstressed pattern. In many cases, this rhythm pattern decides the formation of English sentence. English people say: “Wrap it up” or “Wrap up the book”, not usually saying “Wrap up it” or “Wr

29、ap the book up”. They say: “give me the book” or “give it to me”, they do not usually say: “Give me it”. </p><p>　　Grasp the correct English pronunciation will help us a lot in learning grammar and memorizin

30、g words well. Phonetics has a close relation with grammar. The different function of grammar produces different reading sounds even of the same words. For example, the verb “read” plays the role as present indefinite ten

31、se and infinitive read as [ri:d], but as past indefinite tense and past participle is read as [red]. The word “house” as a noun read as [haus], but as a verb read as [hauz]. The relation b</p><p>　　Intonatio

32、n develops in the same way. The same sentence with different intonation shows different feelings and attitude. If we use the rising tone to say: “What’s your name?” It carries the meaning of informal and politeness. But

33、 saying in the falling tone it means formal and official. It is unimaginable that we communicate effectively without the correct tone. Sometimes English people use rising tone in a special question.</p><p>　

34、　Teaching practices show that the standard of teaching pronunciation decides not only the students’ quality of pronunciation, but also the whole process of their English learning. If they have a good pronunciation, the p

35、rocess will go smoothly and successfully. If not, there will be lots of barriers and difficulties in their learning afterwards. Many students are frightened by English only because they form a bad habit of learning. They

36、 ignore the sound side of English language and gradually lose</p><p>　　In present situation, the textbook of new target for juniors absorbs a large amount of dialogues and texts from real American life. The

37、only aim is to let students catch up with the time and with the ability of intercultural communication. But the examination being pulls them to the opposite way. This is one important reason why we ignore pronunciation t

38、eaching. One reason is phonetics are invisible and our natives have the rooted faith in that “Seeing is believing”; the other is there is no pla</p><p>　　English teachers in junior middle school must realize

39、 this and change it, and put the phonetics teaching into focus. If we were not strict with students’ phonetic training and education, we would always fall into the passive position. “Professor A. C. Gimson notes that ‘to

40、 speak any language a person must know nearly 100% of its phonetics, while only 50-90% of its grammar and 1% of the vocabulary may be sufficient’ ”.</p><p><b>　　I</b></p><p>　　1. The

41、 Basic Content of Teaching English Pronunciation in Junior Middle School </p><p>　　Not like babies grasping their mother tongue, students in junior middle school have more intelligence we can use. We should

42、use it to avoid wasting time and energy at the first step of their English learning. We can tell students the main organs of speech and their functions. We should give them some common sense of pronunciation to avoid the

43、ir blindness in pattern drills. The following senses are needed: the relationship between pronunciation and the vocal organs, the movement of lips and tongu</p><p>　　a) Teaching Vowels and Consonants<

44、;/p><p>　　Teaching Vowels</p><p>　　At first we must put emphasis on the position of the tongue (especially the front vowels). The aim is let students know the position: front, middle, behind; and h

45、igh, middle and low positions of the tongue where the voices are produced. The mouth is quite a small space but 20 vowels are produced here. A little change will cause the change of vowel from one to another. Take the di

46、fficult vowel for Chinese students as an example: the difference of [i:] and [i] is not only longer or shorter of the </p><p>　　When teaching vowels, we can use the picture of the form of the mouth, or the m

47、odel of the tongue movement in the mouth, or multi-media. Pointing to the place and movements and let students do it themselves. There is a great difference between English vowels and its phonemes(音素，英語(yǔ)有48個(gè)). In teaching

48、, we can let them support each other. Thus we need to teach single sound in word companioned by rules of spelling. But we need not tell students the terms of open and closed syllables, and showing stud</p><p&g

49、t;　　[ei] came face late</p><p>　　[ ? ] bag flag cap</p><p>　　[ei] day say way</p><p>　　[a:] car star dark</p><p>　　Teaching Consonants</p><p>　　F

50、irst we must let students make it clear that if their vocal cords vibrating or not while they sound the voiced consonants. It separates breathed consonants from the voiced ones. For example, there are pairs like “pig” an

51、d “big”; and “dark” and “dug”. We can let students touch their larynx(喉部) to feel if their vocal cords vibrating. We had better to practice voiced consonants with breathed ones together, which fitted to the rule of compa

52、rison.</p><p>　　Besides, consonants except the fricative and the nasals can not be voiced at length. If students voice longer, they truly add the vowels behind. For example, [t] be voiced longer, it must be

53、added [? ]. Consonants can not exist independently. We need to exercise them with syllables. The reading skill of the links of consonant only exists in word, which is quite strange to Chinese students. We can use a kind

54、of compound way to exercise: lack—black; tab—table; tar—star.</p><p>　　b) Teaching Alphabets and International Phonetics Transcriptions</p><p>　　There are three ways to teach phonetics.</

55、p><p>　　1) Alphabets first, phonetics later—once been commonly used.</p><p>　　2) Alphabets and phonetics teaching at the same time—which is the way trying now.</p><p>　　3)

56、 Phonetics first, and Alphabets later—which is uncommon.</p><p>　　I prefer the second because students can learn phonetics and Alphabets at the same time, which can support each other.</p><p>

57、　　Teaching the letters of Alphabets</p><p>　　Pay attention to the cooperation: combining the name of the letters with pronunciation; the map of Alphabets with the diagram of vowels and consonants; comparison

58、 of the pronouncing of the letters with the spelling of words; and comparison of pronunciation of English letters with Chinese.</p><p>　　Words and typical sentences help students to master pronunciation and

59、its form. Give students a deep impression through cards and fast listening and writing exercise to fix the link of letters’ sound and form in their brains. As a good method to grasp English letters, various kinds of comp

60、etition to link the sounds of English Alphabets letter with their form are welcomed warmly.</p><p>　　Teaching the International Phonetic Symbols of English</p><p>　　Phonetic symbols are used to

61、record the basic sounds of one language. We can connect the linked sound from it. It plays the function of suggesting the responding sound. Many English words’ spelling is irregular. Students face a new word, look it up

62、in the dictionary and find its phonetics and read out the correct pronunciation of the word. It plays the role of a helper to learn. With phonetics, students would teach themselves. Sometimes they hear a new word, and th

63、ey can record its phonetics for</p><p>　　But the importance of its teaching should not be exaggerated. In primary stage it should not disturb the teaching of the letters. To recognize and spell the phonetic

64、symbols is the main task of this period, and it happens after students master the English letters, and they can compare with them. How to teach phonetic symbols effectively really needs study. There is comparison in the

65、system of phonetic alphabet, too, like [v], [w], [e], [ ? ], and [a:] [a] etc,. </p><p>　　c) Teaching Language through Speech Flow</p><p>　　Teaching of Stress</p><p>　　Stress includ

66、es word stress and sentence stress. Both of them are very important, but often ignored. At least not be stressed in teaching as the basic sounds. So there may appear the correct pronunciation of a word, but stress. But s

67、tress is like the basic sounds, influencing the meaning, too. For example, “record”, putting the stress on the first syllable means “record(唱片) n.”, and on the second syllable means to write something down (記錄v.). The st

68、ress of the word is more important than the sou</p><p>　　When we teach the words, we must emphasis the stress of the words. They are an inseparable part of words’ pronunciation, just like the 4 rising and fa

69、lling tones of Chinese characters(字). The word stress is the life of English words. </p><p>　　When the concept of word stress is found in students’ brain, we should tell them at a proper time the word stress

70、 is changeable in the speech flow, or we can say it is moving. The word “Afternoon” usually put the word stress on the second syllable, but when combined into “afternoon tea”, the stress moves to the first one. The chang

71、e is influenced by the rhythm. English Rhythm is the soul of English language. We need to pay attention to the sentence stress. Sentence stress on one side shows Engli</p><p>　　Teaching of the rhythm</p&g

72、t;<p>　　Although their pronunciation is correct, students often feel that their speech is unnatural. It means that their English rhythm is wrong, because no teachers tell them and practice their English rhythm. No

73、 one tell them: that English rhythm is the soul of English language. Teachers have not the knowledge and understanding of English rhythm and ignore it. So students may learn standard pronunciation but living language. Bo

74、th in pragmatic and appreciative level, teachers must teach students Englis</p><p>　　To teach the rhythm, we should let students know stress and pause first. We should let students pay attention to the pheno

75、menon: in Chinese, the time length of a sentence is decided by the number of words used. But in English, the time of a sentence is decided by the number of stressed sounds. </p><p>　　The space between the

76、two stressed words is called it stress distance. No matter how many words are used, the time to speak the sentence is nearly alike, just like singing in one beating, no matter how many words (or characters); we must fini

77、sh them in one beat. The musical nature of English shows from the rhythm. Quite opposite from Chinese, which shows its music from the rising and falling tone of the characters (漢字). </p><p>　　This is why I e

78、mphasize reciting the best English poems, because the poem recitation is the best touching of English rhythm. To grasp phonetics is to grasp the key to learning English, and to grasp the rhythm is to grasp the key to lea

79、rn English phonetics, to touch the soul of English spoken language.</p><p>　　To practice students’ English rhythm is to let them listening and speaking more, and to tell them why it is so important for learn

80、ing English. We may let our students to beat the beatings to feel while they speak and imitate: English is interesting--The English book is interesting.—The English book is very interesting.</p><p>　　For the

81、 listeners to hear our speaking clearly, our speech needs to flow rhythmically and naturally. The long sentences we are speaking must have pauses. The pause also has a great influence on the sentence meaning. Where and w

82、hy there is a pause shoulders the meaning. Give students examples to let them know that the stop of the long sentence changes the meaning of the sentence differently.</p><p>　　1) I don’ understand,/ Sam

83、. –I don’t understand Sam.</p><p>　　2) “Tom,” said the teacher “is very lazy.”—Tom said, /“The teacher is very lazy.”</p><p>　　3) Seven plus two/times two/equals eighteen.—Seven plus/t

84、wo times two equals eleven.</p><p>　　Practice these sentences orally, especially the third example and let students written down the interesting formula and they can understand the importance of the pause na

85、turally.</p><p>　　Teaching of the liaison and loss of explosion</p><p>　　Because English is fixed by the stress distance, there are many sounds may occur at one beating. So the front and the end

86、 of the words are connected with each other. There are liaison and loss of explosion, which is particular in English. If we want to speak naturally and fluently, we need to master these skills. Teaching of them can be fi

87、xed by rules. Exercise through typical phrases and sentences. The basic procedure is listening—writing—reading closely followed one after another. Let students</p><p>　　Teaching of intonation</p><

88、p>　　Because the intonation of Chinese language falls on characters, which means intonation is not so strict as English. So Chinese language no matter how the sentence pattern is, falling tones are commonly used at the

89、 end of the sentences. Chinese students are not familiar with using the rising tone. Their intonation appears boring and singular. English pronunciation in junior middle school should take intonation teaching as a focus.

90、 Let students take the English tones as granted, never forget to pr</p><p>　　Words Tone</p><p>　　Singular word to be read as sliding down: rose\</p><p>　　Double syllables to be read

91、 as go down the steps: apple-\ mother--\ </p><p>　　Multi-syllable words read it as a short sentence: responsible—It’s possible; attractive—It’s active; absolute—Have some fruit. </p><p>　　Sen

92、tence Intonation</p><p>　　Sentence intonation is very rich because of its show of feelings, attitude, and aim in communication. Some students imitate blindly, so produce a kind of odd self-made tone: Some of

93、 them use the rising and falling tone carelessly. That is difficult for them to express their mind. So, in teaching, teachers need to analyze the tone of typical sentence, give students some knowledge of intonation and l

94、et them absorb the English tone naturally and rationally. For acquiring the ability of reading alou</p><p>　　For example:</p><p>　　The book is on the table. (Until “table”, the reading line of t

95、he sentence is flat. This kind of reading often used in ordinary statements.) </p><p>　　Is she early? (Flat—rising, the reading is used in special questions.)</p><p>　　Who is he? (Flat—high—fall

96、ing, the reading is used in special questions.)</p><p>　　Where did he go? (Flat—falling, the reading is used in special questions.)</p><p>　　In tone teaching, we need to guide students to have t

97、he whole sentence in their mind, and to feel the waves of the sentence not the separated words. We may use the method of training singers. Let our students sing the sentence out. At the beginning of our teaching, we use

98、natural tone to read the sentence out. Then we use a sound like “ta” to sing the sentence out instead of words. Then exchange. Repeat them several times until students grasp the general rising and falling of the sentence