past lives, a natural speller
In the 198s, when English learning in the world was hot, there were two kinds of English teaching methods that strangled each other, one after another.
One is natural spelling, which was popular in the 196s and 197s (that is, we are now familiar with it). Natural spelling actually originated in North America. After World War II, the baby boomers reached the end of 197. During this period, foreigners in North America had weak language skills. For example, many people spelled "before" as "before". This is what China people used to call Mr. Bai Zi. At that time, because of the war, foreigners' education was also very poor. They could speak and could not write, and writing mainly depended on memory. At the same time, a large number of immigrants poured in, and all of a sudden, the English enlightenment education for all citizens became the top priority of the government.
At this time, the natural spelling method came into being, which solved everyone's problems.
phonics, also known as alphabetic teaching, is a teaching mode of reading and spelling by teaching students the relationship between letters and their pronunciation. Natural spelling teaching enables students to master the relationship between letters or letter combinations and their pronunciation by learning 26 letters as individual phonemes or 44 phonemes represented by combinations (such as sh), thus gradually forming the ability to read, listen and write words, and finally improving their reading ability.
Compared with the traditional phonetic learning, the natural spelling method has two main characteristics:
1. It is easy to enlighten, and the letters are combined with sounds and shapes, based on reading;
2.? Fast, in line with the law of memory, early learning is very advantageous.
However, natural spelling is not omnipotent. It also has shortcomings. It is considered that the rules are complicated, and there are too many special cases. The deeper you go, the more difficult it is to master.
Therefore, in the 198s, the second teaching method, whole language teaching, flourished in the United States, and was regarded as a reflection on alphabet spelling teaching.
Whole language teaching emphasizes the integrity of the language. It is believed that language learning is not gradually constructed from zero (letters, phonetic symbols, words) to whole (sentences, paragraphs, articles), but learning the whole language first, and then gradually distinguishing its details. Therefore, the whole language teaching emphasizes that the target language to be learned should be directly used in the classroom, and the ability of listening, speaking, reading and writing can be cultivated simultaneously through thematic learning activities, the arrangement of language environment in the classroom, mutual assistance and cooperative learning, group discussion and publication. For example, we didn't know many words in the English test before, but if we have all the abilities and experience, we can guess the general meaning of the article. It is this way of English learning based on communication and understanding)
However, after the implementation of the whole language for about 1 years, the results shocked the whole country. The national test results in 1992 showed that 4% children's reading ability failed to meet the basic standards; In 1994, California, which promoted the whole language teaching most actively, ranked first from the bottom in the state examinations.
The problems of whole language teaching are highlighted as follows:
1. Delaying the language development of some children. Even if students with better qualifications don't fully understand the true meaning of an article, they can often pass the general basic reading test by guessing its main idea. Therefore, students with good qualifications but poor reading ability are usually not diagnosed until the fifth and sixth grades of primary school. At the time of discovery, the reading ability of such children has lagged behind that of their peers for more than two years.
2. This teaching method is difficult for backward students, students from middle and lower classes, and second language learners.
Therefore, the balance of early reading teaching began to return to natural spelling. Even IRA (International Reading Association), once considered as the base camp of whole language teaching, declared that "teaching natural spelling is a very important part of early reading teaching". Even teachers or scholars who still adhere to the whole language teaching concept have affirmed the importance of integrating natural spelling into it. At this point, the positive significance of natural spelling has been widely affirmed, and the advantages of natural spelling have begun to be known by more scholars, teachers, parents and students.
You may be curious. What's the use of knowing these histories? Because many parents want to enlighten their children in English, they basically have no experience in learning natural spelling, and their understanding of natural spelling is basically known from various channels, with little personal practice. There are many opinions on how and when to learn in the market, and there are different opinions, so it is very important to get to the root of the matter.
What are the benefits of phonics for children's English enlightenment?
This has to start with the differences between English and Chinese. Chinese characters in China are square characters, mainly pictographs. Taking "water" as an example, we can see the following evolution process. If you master pictographs, you will master the "sunflower collection" of Chinese character learning.
Then the problem comes. English vocabulary is a combination of letters, mainly pictophonetic sounds, which also causes us to be unable to understand it with pictographs like Chinese characters. Therefore, starting from phonetics and morphemes, in fact, it is to hold the pulse of English learning.
Grasping phonetics and morphemes, there is actually no problem with the old methods of learning English by our parents, such as learning phonetic symbols, memorizing words, practicing grammar and reciting texts. This method is actually a way for British and American people to learn Latin.
However, after learning the phonetic symbols, it is still very hard for children to read. Every time they encounter a new word, they still have to look it up in the dictionary, otherwise they will feel like a fish in the throat, which is very uncomfortable. I believe that people who have read the original English books must have had this experience. Looking up the dictionary over and over again interrupts their thinking, and many books can't go on.
After learning the natural spelling method, 85% of the regular words can be read directly without looking up the dictionary or phonetic symbols. In this way, when reading, it will be less uncomfortable. Be sure to look it up in the dictionary. Children can read more effectively and make progress. Children with natural spelling ability usually read more books, so their reading ability improves faster, forming the "Matthew effect" of reading. (Note-Matthew effect: the better, the worse)
In 26, Timothy Shanahan and Isabel Beck*** found five studies on the influence of systematic natural spelling on second language students, which all showed that natural spelling had obvious benefits for children's reading ability development. So, is natural spelling effective for foreign language learners, especially China children whose writing system is different from English writing system? Koda pointed out that it is very necessary to have enough decoding knowledge of the language you have learned because of the huge difference between them. And especially pointed out that in view of this, natural spelling teaching should be implemented for children whose mother tongue is Chinese.
Moreover, phonetics and phonetics actually use two different methods, which are completed by the right brain and the left brain respectively.
According to the research results of Nobel Prize winner Roger Wolcott Sperry in 1981, people's left brain is mainly engaged in logical thinking, while their right brain is mainly engaged in image thinking.
So the traditional phonetic learning method relies on the image thinking record of the right brain, while the natural spelling method relies on the left brain to disassemble the pronunciation from left to right, and then relies on the right brain to repeat and deepen the impression. The perfect learning method is to give full play to the characteristics of the left brain and the right brain.
Therefore, from the psychological point of view, the study of natural spelling can be carried out as soon as possible, which is still useful for intellectual development. Study long enough, the more you get. Many parents don't let their children learn Phonics until primary school, which is a bit late; Children can start learning when they are over two and a half years old, which is completely beneficial. In fact, it is better to learn as early as possible at an appropriate age.
In addition, some parents may say that it takes a long time to learn natural spelling. Yes, the learning of natural spelling is a relatively long process.
So, how to learn natural spelling is the correct way to open it? Here are a few simple points for your reference to judge whether the natural spelling books or courses in the market are appropriate (because my family uses the natural spelling textbooks and supporting courses of Taiwan Province Dongxi Publishing House all the time, and focuses on this analysis):
1. Listening and speaking are the first, laying the foundation for natural spelling
The core of natural spelling is the corresponding rules of sound and shape, so the premise is that you have "known friends" and "unknown shapes", and mastering the rules can realize the matching of the two. However, for China children, these two items are all unknown. Therefore, we should learn to speak first, and then extend our skills, that is, learn the rules of natural spelling to assist reading.
In the course of the research, the experience of Taiwan Province Dongxi Publishing House has three inspirations for mainland China:
First, the implementation of natural spelling at an early age requires a lot of listening and speaking training, so that children have a certain amount of English vocabulary and situational dialogues in their minds before they really start the rules, which makes natural spelling learning close to the law of mother tongue acquisition and reduces the pressure of learning rules.
second, when carrying out natural spelling teaching, we should fully consider the language environment and the characteristics of foreign language learning, and try our best to make the textbooks in the primary stage correspond to sounds, shapes (spelling) and pictures (pictures of words or sentences). In this way, children can master the meaning or application situation of the word while learning and applying the rules.
Third, the natural spelling course needs a lot of listening and speaking exercises instead of just reading and writing exercises, so as to strengthen listening and speaking ability while consolidating spelling rules.
2. Systematic teaching, consolidating the rules of natural spelling
Systematic teaching here has two meanings: on the one hand, it means that the overall teaching arrangement should be scientific and systematic, on the other hand, it means that the implementation of natural spelling teaching should adopt systematic method rather than analytical method.
First of all, the overall arrangement of the course should conform to both the cognitive law and the natural spelling law. It is suggested that 44 phonemes should be studied within two years. Teaching is divided into six months in the following aspects: 26-letter basic sound learning, short vowel and consonant combination teaching, long vowel and other consonant combination. Secondly, it takes six months to learn 26 letters and their basic pronunciations because they are the basis of the whole spelling rules. Mastering it firmly, reading when you see it and writing when you hear it, plays a vital role in the learning of the following combinations.
You must have doubts. What do you mean by systematic natural spelling teaching instead of analytic teaching?
The systematic natural spelling teaching method refers to the method of clearly teaching the pronunciation of 44 phonemes in a planned and systematic way, and then asking students to spell all the phonemes, that is, the teaching method from part to whole. The analytical natural spelling teaching method refers to the teaching method that the new words encountered by teachers in the reading teaching process let students guess the pronunciation of the words according to the context and decompose the phonemes according to the whole word pronunciation, that is, the whole to part teaching method. The general view is that systematic natural spelling is better than analytical teaching method.
According to the 2 report released by NRP(National Reading Panel), it not only clearly affirmed the important role of natural spelling teaching, but also deeply explored whether a certain natural spelling teaching method is better. The research result of this team composed of "chief experts in reading" is that "systematic natural spelling has a significant effect on kindergarten to sixth grade students and children with spelling difficulties" In view of the remarkable achievements of systematic natural spelling teaching method, systematic teaching method should be implemented in the implementation of natural spelling teaching in mainland China.
3. Three-dimensional presentation to stimulate interest in spelling
To stimulate interest, three-dimensional teaching methods must be realized at the same time, that is, the traditional teaching of "games" pictures, "children's songs" competitions "and book making should be organically integrated to realize three-dimensional presentation of the same or similar content. It can not only keep children's interest in learning, but also help internalize and apply the rules. And the matching APP paintings share the design with great care, helping you create so many presentation ways, such as "following", "clicking", "listening to other children" and "animated video".
4. Enrich reading and internalize natural spelling rules
First of all, the main goal of natural spelling is to improve reading ability, and it is necessary and important to use reading internalization rules. Traditional English education has always been based on textbooks, and students are required to memorize almost all textbooks. However, most students have hardly read any other English books except textbooks. If this is still the case with natural spelling, the rules of natural spelling will not naturally translate into reading or writing ability.
Therefore, we should make full use of the advantages of the electronic age and apply a large number of foreign audio children's books to the natural spelling teaching. As far as reading materials are concerned, they should be appropriate in difficulty, diverse in subject matter and huge in quantity.
With English books with rich content, diverse themes and appropriate difficulty, the most important thing is to cultivate English reading habits.
Finally, natural spelling is an effective teaching method to improve students' English reading ability and spelling ability, especially to improve their comprehensive language ability. The teaching and research achievements of English-speaking countries for many years are worth learning from. However, in view of the huge differences in language systems and the differences between mother tongue acquisition and foreign language acquisition, for children whose mother tongue is Chinese, the application of natural spelling should follow the following suggestions: step by step, step by step, leading in listening and speaking, systematic teaching, three-dimensional presentation and rich reading.