At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Education proposed that starting from the autumn of 200 1, primary schools in cities and counties across the country will gradually offer English courses. However, the Ministry of Education also pointed out that the primary purpose of learning English is to cultivate interest, and phonetic symbols are not taught in primary school English. This makes English teaching circles and parents talk about it. Recently, the author visited relevant experts, parents and teachers on this issue. Li Shujie, a doctoral student majoring in world economics in the Department of Economics of Beijing Normal University, said: "In learning English, the four abilities of listening, speaking, reading and writing should not be neglected, and correct pronunciation is the foundation, and phonetic learning is the foundation. Our college students and graduate students have high English scores, but they often can't speak because of inaccurate pronunciation. The phonetic alphabet foundation has not been laid well from the beginning. " This is why products such as "Big Mouth English" and "Speak English at will" frequently appear in the English textbook market. Dr. Li's own child happens to be in primary school. He has studied English for a year. The first step is to learn phonetic symbols. Up to now, his oral English and listening have been good. Some parents worry that if children don't learn phonetic symbols and follow the teacher blindly, word learning will become rote learning, which will affect their self-learning ability. Therefore, I hope to learn from phonetic symbols, make full use of the regularity of phonetic symbols, and cultivate pure and accurate pronunciation from an early age, so as to lay a good foundation for further study in middle schools. The key to learning phonetic symbols lies in the teacher. "Phonetic symbols are to be learned, but the key lies in the teacher." Teacher Ding from the Foreign Languages Department of Renmin University told me this. He believes that learning phonetic symbols can help children master correct pronunciation rules, but it is best to learn in one step, otherwise it will take a lot of time and energy to correct pronunciation in the future. Once the wrong pronunciation becomes a habit, it is difficult to correct it. So he thinks that phonetic symbols should be learned and learned well. However, he is still cautious about whether primary school students should start learning phonetic symbols immediately in English class under the current situation. Because he believes that the key to English learning lies in the teacher, and the learning of phonetic symbols can not be separated from the correct guidance of the teacher. At present, some primary school English teachers in China do not have a standard English pronunciation, so it is too early to expect them to teach the correct phonetic symbols to primary school students in a short time. There are many experts who hold this view, which also puts forward a big topic for the primary school English class in the new school year. Because of this, there are more urgent requirements for the training of English teachers in primary schools, and the corresponding training and further education plans have been gradually implemented in various places. Some teachers also agree with the decision of the Ministry of Education not to learn phonetic symbols. They believe that children in lower grades should focus on their interest in learning English, mainly to cultivate their sense of rhythm and rhythm, so as to maintain their motivation to further improve their English level after entering middle school. The study of phonetic symbols is boring, which is very difficult for children who have just started to contact English, and it will affect students' interest in learning English, so it may affect the effect of children's learning English. Wang Qiang, a teacher of the Foreign Languages Department of Beijing Normal University, argues that when you start learning English, you should not learn phonetic symbols first, and the pronunciation problem can be solved by "natural spelling". According to her introduction, "natural spelling" is a teaching method based on letter pronunciation. Through it, children can recognize and read words without knowing the phonetic symbols. In this way, students can learn one less system and reduce the burden. Mr. Ma, a primary school teacher in dengshikou who once taught English in primary schools, told the author that learning phonetic symbols in primary schools can easily cause some primary school students to confuse phonetic symbols with Chinese Pinyin. She believes that phonetic symbols should not be the main teaching content, and even if they are to be taught, they should be taught in different categories.