Teaching phonics for students in grade 3

PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. The reasons of choosing topic
Nowadays, the economy of the countries in the world is growing,
exchanges in policy, culture, society are increasingly expanding among
countries.
To communicate with each other, requiring that different nations of the
world must know proficient use of a common language besides their mother
tongue.
In the languages of communication in the world, English is the most
common

language

that

is

considered

as

the

most

popular

one.

They can use it as their "mother tongue". However, to help students get what
they want to be effective, English teachers need to use their method appropriate

to each age level, use their knowledge to teach their students. Beginning
students of English often say that their top priorities are to know grammar well
and to learn as many words and everyday phrases as possible. Many students
think that phonetics is a luxury that they can do without. It's a big mistake to
underestimate the importance of pronunciation. If you want to communicate in
English, you need to speak English. Speaking to people is the only way to
communicate effectively. If not, you can exchange written messages, of course.
Or use gestures to show what you want to say.
But seriously, you need to know how to pronounce what you want to say.
How you say something is as important as what you say. It means that it is
necessary for you to acquire standard correct English pronunciation if you want
to understand English speakers and want them to understand you.
The use of correct English pronunciation can make the opposite understand what
he said, and also understand the opposite easier and more accurate.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
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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 do not much affect the progress of learners.
From the above reasons, I strongly research and write the experience initiative
named "Teaching phonics for students in grade 3”. I decided to choose this
topic with the desire to help students learn English well and can communicate
in English. Language learners not only communicate corectly but also self
confidently in lessons. This is more excited than they are willing to learn in
order to improve their English pronunciation.

1.2. The purpose of the research
The purpose of reseach is to contribute to innovating English teaching
methods in primary schools following the direction of promoting a positive,
creative initiative of students, enhance individual coordinate activities with
academic exchanges. Formating and drilling skills to apply knowledge to
perform the communicative process. Create interest in learning English for
students.Language learners communicate not only correctly

but also self

confidently in lessons. This is more excited when they are willing to learn in
order to improve their English pronunciation

and this also helps them

strengthen and deepen knowledge further.
1.3. The subject of research
With this research I focused on the Primary students at Minh Khai 2
primary school, especially the students of grade 3.
1.4. The methods of the research
To research a topic, people often choose many different methods. With
this

topic, I use the following methods:
1. Theoretical research method
I read the conducting material issues related to my research needs.
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2. Learning experience from my colleagues
Attend the colleagues’ lesson to follow their good method.
3. Experimental matching method.
4. Observation method.
PART 2. CONTENT
2.1. Rationale
Through a lot of research material , as well as a combination of theory and
practice, we need to rely on the basis of the following reason:
Facing with a problem of teaching and learning that I think of figuring out a way
to teach phonics, and the work that I have written to teach phonics method in a
class. Teaching phonics to help students create language learning atmosphere of
pronouncing words correctly in English lessons. Much purpose of teaching
phonics in a language class is not intended to make students capable of
pronouncing 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 in English 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. Because the learner's native
language affects the pronunciation, English teachers need to have a certain
understanding of the sound system. Phonics helps your students 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 why Ministry of Education put on phonics lessons to Primary English.
2.2. The situation of the problem
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Analysis of my school’s performance in teaching and learning
pronunciation for recent years has showed that our average score in phonics has
been consistently below, so has that of other schools in rural areas. It is a
situation that needs to be concerned and motivated through a thorough
examination of the school’s approach to the teaching of phonics.
Our school is a public primary school in Thanh Hoa city. It is a large
school with around 537 students, ranging from 6 to 10 years old. There are three
to four classes in most year levels, meaning that collaboration among teachers is
extremely important to ensure consistency in learning programs. Ministry of
Education and Training applied International pronunciation l as the framework
in the program of teaching English for primary students. After the first year of
teaching the book 3 I found that most of the students cannot pronounce the new
words correctly. They only focused on grammar and vocabulary and didn’t like
to learn pronunciation during the lesson.
The organization of teaching English in primary schools meets the needs
of students in learning a foreign language elementary and accordants with the
requirements of educational development. On the other hand, learning English in
primary school will help students get a certain knowledge of English to be able
to learn English better when they are at junior high school. Pronounciation in
the general case, particularly in primary schools has long been a problem. Many
students encounter new words they do not know how to pronounce. Often
teachers must use International Phonetic form and read to students. Some times
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 to say, less communicate 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
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the result of students in English in grade 3C at Minh Khai 2 primary school
Academic Year for 2016-2017.

RESULT BEFORE APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING

Students
35

Excellent

Average

Fail

3 students 9%

20 students 57%

12 students 34%

This table shows the number of students pronouce the words weakly
accounts for 34 percent. This is figure is comparatively high.The reasons may
come from students,teacher as well as the teaching facilities.
2.2.1. About students
In fact, in the process of learning a foreign language, students often focus
on learning grammar mainly because the test requires the application of

grammar, but the tests often have a few exercises with phonics. In English class
they have few chances to practice pronounciation. Over time they lose their
ability to communicate in English. In addition, the limitation of students’
speaking skill has some reasons:
+ The old habit of learning English does not motivate students to
communicate in English.
+ Being lack of knowledge of English to communicate every day.
+ Having a few opportunities to practice English in the classroom with
their teacher and classmates.
2.2.2. About teachers

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Many teachers in the Vietnam have faced with the challenge of teaching
children to read and write in English, when the students have a heritage
language that is not English and they are not yet proficient in English
Normally when teaching a foreign language, teachers often focus on
teaching vocabulary, grammar or structure. However, grammar is not the final
result of the teaching and learning process. It is only a tool to help learner to
understand English structures. But in fact, there are some differences between
spoken English and written English. Written English requires the accuracy
statement of the structure, whereas spoken English needs the flexibility and the
intimacy in communication.
From those factors, there are some problems in teaching phonics for
primary students at school. However, in a number of causes, teachers and
students can progressively overcome the difficulties. Therefore, in the teaching
process teachers must use some suitable techniques to teach students how to
learn phonics effectively. He or she should have creative and flexible approaches
in using the methods of teaching phonics.

2.2.3. About the teaching facilities
My school has facilities of teaching and learning to meet the needs of
specific subjects such as: projectors, the modern teaching equipment like Robot
Teacher, Television, CD player, etc. So the application of teaching phonics is
quite effectively.
2.3. Solution and implementation
According to the present situation in English classes at my school, wrong
pronouncing still exists in all grades, especially in grade 3. To improve this
situation, I would like to present the defintion of phonics, 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.

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Why is pronunciation important?
Pronunciation is about so much more than accent! Many of the features
that play a role in pronunciation also are important in reading and writing.
* Understanding how to make specific sounds and how sounds are similar
helps with spelling and decoding (sounding out) unfamiliar words. This understanding
of phonetics can help teachers and parents understand kids' spelling and reading
errors, too.
* Understanding stress and intonation helps speakers be more
understandable. It also helps readers develop their reading fluency.
Stress and intonation make a big difference in comprehension! Not only
that, but they help us convey emphasis and feelings.
There has been much confusion over this term. Phonics is a method of
teaching beginners to read and pronounce words by learning to associate letters
or letter groups (graphemes or phonograms) with the sounds they represent
(phonemes). Students must learn to unravel the secrets of the code (in other

words, decode) before they can comprehend the meaning of the written word.
Phonics is seen to be an improvement on the previously used method of
learning the approximate sounds represented by letters(b=buh) first and then
blending them with other sounds (bl=bluh) to decode and encode words in
written form. This newer method attempts to eliminate the extraneous "uh"
sounds which were unavoidable in the older method. Children also learn
strategies to figure out words they don't know. It is considered an "analytical"
approach where students analyze the letters, letter combinations and syllables in
a word; in an effort to "decode" the speech-sounds represented by the letters and
the meaning of the text. The advantage of phonics is that, especially for students
who come to schools with large English vocabularies, it enables students to
decode or "sound-out" a word they have in their speaking vocabulary.
2.3.1. Here are 5 basic steps to teach phonics that I have

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Step 1: Introducing the sounds in the songs, rhymes or chants; teaching
new words using word cards, real objects, pictures,etc. Focusing on the sounds
of letters and words.
Step 2. Playing the recording a few times or let pupils listen to the Robot
Teacher; having them repeat each line of the Songs/ Rhymes/ Chants and clap
the words containing the focused sounds.
Step 3. Clap your hands to the beat while listening to the words that
contain the sound that need to be trained.
Step 4. Organizing students to practice in pairs or groups to practice the
songs, rhymes or chants.
Step 5. Calling on some volunteers to perform the Songs/ Rhymes/ Chants
at the front of the class and have the rest of the class clap the rhythm of the
chant.

However, for children I usually use to teach pronunciation in a simply
way, especially for students in grade 3:
Listen and repeat. It needs to be noted that in the classroom, the correct
pronunciation of the teachers is not enough, it also needs the modern equipments
such as speakers, audio visual, and teacher’s showing the picture which describe
the possition of the tounge.
For example
In unit 2 . “p” is pronouced /p /

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Consonant /p/

9


Introduction : is voiceless consonant sound which is created by two lips
(bilabial), power-on (flosive)
How to pronounce: the first upper and lower lips close and then open the
mouth slightly, turn inside out to create a sound / p /, pronounce fast:
Only consonants "p" is pronounced as / p / When it stands at the top of a
word, the end of a word or after.
In unit 5. I teach vowel “e”

Short vowel /æ/

Introduction : /æ/ is a short sound.
Open your mouth wide.
It's pronounced /æ/....../æ/.

Identify the vowels which are pronounce /æ/
“a" is pronounced / æ / in the following cases: In one-syllable words that
end in one or more consonants
In unit 5. I teach vowel “a”

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Short vowel /ʌ/

Introduction:
Open your mouth wide by 1/2 compared to the pronounced/æ/ and give
tongue back I dentify the vowels which are pronounced /ʌ/
In unit 8 . “th” is pronounced /ð/

Consonant /ð/

Introduction : sonant (voiced consonant), tip-dental, rubbing consonants
(fricative).
How to pronounce: Similar to pronounce / θ /, using voice sound
vibrations generated in the palate.
2.3.2. Teaching phonics through songs, poems
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No one can deny the important influence of the music and poetry on
human life. Most everyone loves music. It's always show whether that person is
happy or sad. It appears everywhere, all the time to share joys or relieve sadness
when we need to. Futhermore, poetry-music can increase concentration, enhance
memory, make people closer together, create motivation and joy in learning,

makes people relax when they are depressed or stressful,...
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 songs and poems in class can make the classroom atmosphere
becomes fun and dynamic. Students will not feel stressed, even scared they may
like to speak English in class solemn atmosphere. It is this which will make
them feel really excited and voluntarily participate 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 sounds 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 pronounced in your language. The wrong
pronunciation can change the meaning of the phrase, which will 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 repeat a similar sound. When they hear
many times, they will indirectly be told how to pronounce the sounds which
makes you remember them and eventually the correctly pronounce
For example
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In Unit 10. I have students chant the poem “What do you do at break
time?”

After chanting, they can pronounce the couples of consonants br and pl
fluently.
In Unit 6.

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The students can sing the song Come in and Sit down to learn the
consonant c and d
2.3.3. Teaching phonics through practical training
In the process of teaching phonic I often organize activities to practice and
reinforce training words temperate through listening, speaking, reading and
writing to increase fluency when students use words. These activities will help
students focus on the identification and proficient use of the learned words in
each context.
Along with that, I myself always focus on the role of students in teaching
and learning vocabulary. I always encourage them to participate actively in the
learning process through a long and continuous period
2.3.4. Teaching phonics through simple activities
a. Train the voice.
Children may love the voice and intonation of some famous people,such
as: Former US President Bill Clinton,famous Australian, pop princess Kylie
Minogue or British legendary actor Hugh Grant legend. It would be nice if the
teacher heard the voice of the character that is kid’s fans. So listen to them very

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often, pay attention to their English pronunciation, and then speak like them.

Student’s ability to pronounce will be improved fast there.
Give children the talk shows, the English songs on the Children radio.
Take a look at the animation program, YouTube video and blockbuster movies in
theaters, too. And keep in mind, do not let them the subtitles offline! You can
also aloud English songs, English stories on computers and MP3 players. Let the
space surrounding your students is the standard English pronunciation - as much
as possible.
For example
In review 1, student can listen and learn to read an interesting story about
their close animals.

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b. Get students to use English as much as possible
Practice, practice and practice. Give students lots of talking and talking.
Give students remembers things that get told throughout the day and talk again.
Your students will be a child play with the ability to hear very well!
In the bathroom, when walking the park, visiting the zoo, or just the small
advertisement. Let practice English pronunciation anytime, anywhere. So you
have created exciting learning environment but extremely effective. Like riding
a bike, playing instruments or painting - the more you practice the more you
progress.
Let them record their voice, aloud and recording again - continues,
continues and continues.
c. “Getting acquainted” with students’ voice
Hear how the students say, pronounce the star then please point out
mistakes, and correct their mistakes little by little. Let them prepare before the
talk, record on an MP3 player or phone and then listen to every word. There will
be a new way of training that will be effective for these angels of our talented

children.
Clearly show them how to say, clearly pronounce each word until the end
The important thing is how to say for others to understand. Make sure children
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speak clearly and people can understand what they say. This is a tool that I can
help my students pronounce effectively .
Speaking Lab. All the teacher need is a computer with the Internet,
speakers and microphones.
Student’s pronunciation training students is hard work, requiring long
process of trying to train children as well as parents of students. Happy parents
& kids achieve increasingly better results.
2.3.5. Some tips to teach phonics successfully
There are 44 sounds in the English language, which we put together to
form words. Some are represented by one letter, like 't', and some by two or
more, like 'ck' in duck and 'air' in chair. Children are taught the sounds first, then
how to match them to letters, and finally how to use the letter sounds for reading
and spelling. Synthetic phonics refers to 'synthesising', or blending, the sounds
to read words. It's based on the idea that children should sound out unknown
words and not rely on their context. Once the first sounds have been taught,
children are introduced to the idea that sounds can be represented by more than
one letter (i as in tiger, ie as in pie, igh as in night) and that sounds can be
written in different ways. A systematic approach can facilitate the children’s
progress towards independent reading and writing.
Now I specifically refer to some tips for teaching phonics in English and
use them to the lessons which are applied for students in grade 3 at my school.
*One sound at a time. Introduce one sound at a time.
For example, the sound /ei/, as in rain, train, etc, can be practised before
moving on to other sounds.

In Unit 19.

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*Context. Introduce each sound in a simple context that the students will
understand. If the context is too complex, students will struggle to understand
and their attention will be divided.
For exemple, the consonant “h” can be taught in the chant Hello

*Model the sounds. Always say the sound and not the letter name when
teaching phonics.
In Unit 3.
Some sounds are short eg ‘t’, so it is a good idea to repeat the sound a few
times so that the students can hear it properly: ‘t, t, t, t’

In Unit 4.
Some are long “f,f,f,f”. We can stretch these sounds out as we model
them.

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*Use simple example. After the introduction of the sound in context,
show a selection of images that contain the target sound. Point to each one in
turn, naming as you do so and encourage the students to repeat after you. Don’t
show the words for these images at this stage. Emphasize the target sound in
these words. Use vocabulary items the children are familiar with.

In Unit 7.

*Reading. Practice makes perfect, so once you have taught the first six
sounds, introduce the students to captions and mini-stories that contain only the
sounds they have learnt so far, eg sit in “sit down”. The students will begin to
gain confidence and realize that they can read on their own.
In Unit 6.

19


* Writing. Some sounds require extra teaching as they have multiple
graphemes. Sounds such as ‘c’, ‘s’ ‘cl’ and ‘st’ will require 3 or 4 separate input
sessions. Students will quickly begin to read words containing the three different
graphemes, but extra work will be required to help them determine when to
write each one. If you have mini-whiteboards, short dictations can help as can
activities that encourage the students sort and classify words according to
spelling.
In Unit 6.

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*Actions. If you are using a multi-sensory method where you introduce
the letter sounds accompanied by an action, this will aid students’ memories and
serve as a tool to help them read more difficult sounds. This way, instead of
reading the word for the students when they get stuck, use the action to remind
them of the sound to get them back on track.
*Review all the sounds you have taught before introducing a new one
Stick the grapheme cards you have introduced so far on the board and point to
each one in turn. Make sure the children are confident in making the sounds

before you move on.
2.4. The effect of initiative application
After a period of application of the new method, in addition to guided
reading, students are always diligent, painstaking to read English, the learning
result of the children has increased significantly. Most children are interested in
learning English with the following results.
Survey result of class 3C- in the first semester of
Academic year 2017-2018

Students

Excellent

Average

Weak

35

12 students 34.3%

21 students 60%

2 students 5.7%

Through this table , we can see the quality of students has increased
significantly, along with the quality of their learning interests has also greatly
increased. I can see them eagerly participate in English lessons which I have
taught. What I have applied helps students learn better, remember new
vocabulary, sentence structures longer and put them in practice well.

PART 3. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
3.1. Conclusion
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Through teaching phonics for students in grade 3, I have summarized some
small experience and the results are very encouraging. The number of students
who read slowly, read poorly in class has dropped a lot students demonstrate
their learning very well. These classes are very eager to learn English, not bored
with learning. 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. I look forward to the
comments of the teachers, to administration in the teaching process more.
3.2. Recommendations
3.2.1. To the leaders
To enhance the capacity of teachers in teaching English, the leaders
should organize the training courses for the English teachers regularly. Through
the training courses, teachers have the opportunity to exchange and learn their
experience.
3.2.2. To the teacher
- Being creative and active in teaching English, especially in teaching
pronunciation.
- The exercise allows clear practice in production and reception and gives
concise feedback to individual learners as well as where their problems lie in
these areas and how to repair them. Often these are very simple physical
questions such as not rounding the lips as in / u: / in fool , which the teacher can
help them focus on.

- This, in turn, allows discussion on learning strategies for pronunciation
which can be drawn up in the classroom.
With the implementation of foreign language instruction under the
direction of communication and respect not only vocabulary and grammar , but
also phonetic, I have found that myself alone has obtained some positive results.
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Thanh Hoa, April 16th 2018

HEADMASTER’S CONFIRMATION

I assure this is the initiative written
by my self, not copied from others.

Mai Thi Mao

REFERENCE BOOKS
1.

English 3.

2. English’s teacher book.
3. A practical English Grammar -A.J Thomson and A.V Martinet.
( Edition 1997 )
4. Oxford Advanced Leaner’s Dictionary - New Edition 1991
5. Fraser, H. (2001). Teaching pronunciation: A handbook for teachers and
trainers. New Southwales Department of Education and Training.
6. English Phonetics, J. Marks
7. English Pronunciation in use

8. Cambridge University Press, 2007 Oxford Advanced Learners’
Dictionary, OUP 7th Edition.

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9.

Tips for encouraging CPS to speak English. David F. Dalton. Academ

01.chs. itesm.mx. Chiapas.
10. Hedge, T (2000). Teaching and learning in the language classroom. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

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