| Author: | Huo, Yan |
| Title: | A comparative study on the impact of phonological awareness on students' spelling ability of a secondary school in Tianjin |
| Degree: | M.A. |
| Year: | 2014 |
| Subject: | English language -- Phonetics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- China English language -- Orthography and spelling -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- China Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of English |
| Pages: | viii, 46 pages |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The concept of PA (Phonological Awareness) has been introduced and widely discussed as a concept in psychology by researchers for decades. Since the 1960s, phonological awareness has been a heated psycholinguistic topic and has been studied systematically, particularly on the relationship between PA and spelling. However, most research focused on young native English speakers, while little was conducted among non- native speakers, especially secondary school students. In addition, it is clearly seen that the senior high school English learners in China have difficulties in English vocabulary learning. As a result, this study aims at exploring the relationship between phonological awareness and English word spelling ability of senior high school students in China with a case study in Tianjin No. 14 High School. In order to investigate the relationship between PA and spelling, 90 senior high school students in two parallel classes were chosen from this school. The three main questions in this case study are: 1. What are the current situation and the main problem of secondary students' vocabulary learning? 2. What is the relationship between PA and spelling ability? 3. Can PA training help students' spelling ability at senior high school level? In order to find the answers to these questions, Class 1 was regarded as the control group and Class 2 as the experimental one. The results of the pre- and post- tests presented that the experimental class made greater progress than the control class after the PA training. It proved that they could use the PA knowledge and skills to help remember words. The study also explored the influence of PA training on the subjects' attitude, confidence and motivation. The follow- up interview, the pre- and post- questionnaires showed that students benefited a lot after PA training, both in English word spelling and the development of their motivation. From the theoretical aspect, this research provides powerful evidence that the PA training can help enhance senior high school students' word spelling ability in China. Besides, from the practical aspect, it is a practice to combine the PA with the traditional vocabulary teaching in China. It could offer useful suggestions to improve the vocabulary teaching in China. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b27759209.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 1.13 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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