Natural spelling in previous lives.

When it comes to English enlightenment, it inevitably involves natural spelling. Looking back on our own English as a student, the whole process of memorizing international phonetic symbols is also very drunk. Now that children are exposed to natural spelling, they suddenly feel that their eyes are bright. It turns out that there are such interesting ways to learn English pronunciation. I came across an article introducing natural spelling from a psychological point of view, which is arranged as follows, hoping to have reference and reference.

Natural spelling in previous lives.

In 1980s, when English learning was hot in the world, there were two kinds of English teaching methods, one after another.

One is natural spelling, which was popular in the 1960s and 1970s (which is what we are familiar with now). Natural spelling actually originated in North America. After World War II, the baby boom reached the end of 1970. During this period, the language ability of foreigners in North America was weak. For example, many people spell "before" as "befour". This is what China people used to call Mr. Shirako. At that time, because of the war, the education of foreigners was also very poor. They will say that they can't write, and writing mainly depends on memory. At the same time, a large number of immigrants poured in, and suddenly, the national English enlightenment education became the top priority of the government.

At this time, the natural spelling method came into being and solved everyone's problems.

Phonics, also known as alphabet teaching, is a teaching mode of reading and spelling by teaching students the relationship between letters and their pronunciations. By learning 26 letters as 44 phonemes represented by a single phoneme or combination (such as sh), natural spelling teaching enables students to master the relationship between letters or letter combinations and their pronunciation, thus gradually forming the ability to read, listen and write words, and finally improving their reading ability.

Compared with traditional phonetic learning, natural spelling has two main characteristics:

1. Enlightenment is easy, combining letters, 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, and it also has shortcomings. I think the rules are complicated and there are too many special cases. The deeper you go, the harder it is to master.

Therefore, in the 1980s, the second teaching method, the whole language teaching, flourished in the United States and was regarded as a reflection on the teaching of letter spelling.

Whole language teaching emphasizes the integrity of language. It is believed that language learning is not a gradual construction from zero (letters, phonetic symbols and words) to the whole (sentences, paragraphs and articles), but learning the whole language first, and then gradually distinguishing its details. Therefore, the whole language teaching emphasizes the direct use of the learned target language in the classroom, and the ability of listening, speaking, reading and writing is cultivated simultaneously through thematic learning activities, classroom language environment layout, mutual assistance and cooperative learning, group discussion and publication. For example, we didn't know many words in the English exam before, but if we have all the abilities and experience, we can guess the general meaning of the article. This is the way to learn English through communication and understanding.

However, about one year after the implementation of 10 in the whole language, the results shocked the whole country. 1992 national test results show that 40% children's reading ability fails to meet the basic standards; California, with the most active language teaching in the whole country, ranked first from the bottom in the state examination of 1994.

The problems of overall language teaching are thus highlighted:

1, delaying the language development of some children. Even students with good qualifications can't fully understand the true meaning of an article, and they can often pass the general basic reading test by guessing the main idea of the article. Therefore, students with good qualifications but poor reading ability usually can't be diagnosed until the fifth and sixth grades of primary school. At the time of discovery, the reading ability of such children has lagged behind their peers for more than two years.

2. This teaching method is very difficult for underachievers, middle and lower class students 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 overall 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 recognized by more scholars, teachers, parents and students.

You may be curious, what's the use of understanding 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 and rarely practiced in person. There are many opinions on how and when to study in the market, so it is very important to trace back to the source.

What are the benefits of spelling 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 pictographic characters, you will master the "sunflower collection" of Chinese character learning.

Then the problem is coming. English vocabulary is a combination of letters, mainly pictophonetic characters, which also leads to our inability to understand with pictophonetic characters like Chinese characters. Therefore, starting with phonetics and morphemes is actually to keep the pulse of English learning.

Grasping phonetics and morphemes, the old methods of our generation of parents learning English, such as learning phonetic symbols, memorizing words, practicing grammar and memorizing texts, are actually no problem. This method is actually a way for British and American people to learn Latin.

But after learning the phonetic symbols, children still have a hard time reading. Every time they meet a new word, they still have to look it up in the dictionary, otherwise they will feel like they are in the throat and feel very uncomfortable. I believe that anyone who has read the original English book must have had such an experience. Repeated reference to the dictionary interrupted their thinking, and many books could not be read.

After learning natural spelling, 85% of conventional words can be read directly without looking up dictionaries or phonetic symbols. In this way, when reading, it will not be so uncomfortable. Be sure to look it up in the dictionary. Children can read more effectively and make progress. Children born with spelling ability usually read more books, so their reading ability improves quickly, forming the "Matthew effect" of reading. (Note-Matthew effect: the better, the worse)

In 2006, Timothy Shanahan and Isabel Beck*** discovered five systematic studies on the influence of natural spelling on second language students. This study shows that natural spelling has 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 about the languages learned, because there are huge differences between them. It is especially pointed out that in view of this, natural spelling teaching should be implemented for children whose mother tongue is Chinese.

Moreover, phonetic symbols and spelling are actually applied to 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 Sperry in 198 1, people's left brain is mainly engaged in logical thinking, while their right brain is mainly engaged in image thinking.

Then the traditional pronunciation learning method relies on the image thinking record of the right brain, and 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. The longer you study, the more you gain. Many parents don't let their children learn spelling until primary school, which is a bit late; It is completely beneficial that children can start learning when they are over two and a half years old. In fact, at an appropriate age, the earlier you study, the better.

In addition, some parents may say that natural spelling takes a long time to learn. Yes, the learning of natural spelling is a 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 on the market are appropriate (because my family uses the natural spelling textbooks and supporting courses of Taiwan Province Dongxi Publishing House all the time, the focus is on this analysis):

1. I heard that I am ahead and lay a solid 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 sound" and "unknown shape", and you can match them by mastering the rules. However, for children in China, these two items are 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 process of research, the experience of Taiwan Province Dongxi Publishing House has three inspirations for the mainland:

First, the implementation of natural spelling from childhood requires a lot of listening and speaking training, so that children have stored a certain amount of English vocabulary and situational dialogues in their minds before they really start the rules, so that natural spelling learning can approach the law of mother tongue acquisition and reduce the pressure of learning rules.

Second, when teaching natural spelling, we should fully consider the characteristics of language environment and 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 of words while learning and applying the rules.

Third, the course of natural spelling requires a lot of listening and speaking exercises, not just reading and writing exercises, and strengthens listening and speaking ability while consolidating spelling rules.

2. Systematic teaching and consolidation of natural spelling rules

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 methods rather than analytical methods.

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 the study of 44 phonemes should be completed within two years. The teaching is divided into the following six months: learning the basic sounds of 26 letters, teaching the combination of short vowels and consonants, and combining long vowels and other consonants. Secondly, it takes six months to learn 26 letters and their basic pronunciations, because they are the basis of the whole spelling rules. Grasping firmly, watching when you see it and writing when you hear it plays a vital role in the learning of the following combinations.

Everyone must have doubts in their hearts. What do you mean by systematic natural spelling teaching instead of analytical teaching?

Systematic natural spelling teaching method refers to the method of 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 teaching method of analyzing natural spelling refers to the teaching method that teachers encounter new words in the process of reading teaching, let students guess the pronunciation of words according to the context, and decompose phonemes according to the pronunciation of whole words, that is, the whole-to-part teaching method. The general view is that systematic natural spelling is superior to analytical teaching method.

According to the report published by NRP (National Reading Group) in 2000, it not only clearly affirmed the important role of natural spelling teaching, but also deeply discussed whether a certain natural spelling teaching method is better. The research result of this team composed of "chief reading experts" is that "systematic natural spelling has a remarkable effect on kindergarten to sixth grade students and children with spelling difficulties". In view of the remarkable effect of systematic natural spelling teaching method, systematic teaching method should be implemented in the implementation of natural spelling teaching in Chinese mainland.

3. Three-dimensional presentation to stimulate interest in spelling.

In order to stimulate interest, we must also realize three-dimensional teaching methods, that is, organically integrate traditional teaching methods such as "games", "children's songs" and "competitions" to realize three-dimensional presentation of the same or similar content. It can not only keep children's interest in learning, but also help to internalize and apply the rules. The matching design of sharing APP paintings is also very careful, which helps you create so many presentation methods, such as "follow-up", "click to read", "listen 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 apply the rules of reading internalization. Traditional English education has always been based on textbooks, requiring students to recite almost all textbooks. However, most students have hardly read any other English books except textbooks. If natural spelling remains the same, 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 teaching of natural spelling. As far as reading materials are concerned, the difficulty should be appropriate, the subject matter should be diverse and the quantity should be huge.

With English books with rich content, diverse topics 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. 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.