Effects of Chinese Transliteration Systems on English Literacy Learning

Abstract

In the literature, it was found that China ESL or EFL learners’ experience with phoneme-based Pinyin would help learners develop phonological awareness at the phonemic level, and this skill could be positively transferred to learners’ English literacy acquisition. However, it still remains unclear whether Taiwan EFL learners’ early experience with Zhuyin Fuhao would help them develop phonological awareness that is required in reading and spelling English and facilitate their English literacy acquisition. The present research followed the methodology of Holm and Dodd’s study (1996) in order to examine whether Taiwan EFL learners differ from learners from China and Hong Kong in English phonological awareness skills and English literacy skills as measured by word reading and spelling. 10 Taiwan EFL learners at the college level participated in this study. All of the participants took a battery of phonological awareness tasks, a non-word reading task, and a non-word spelling task. Results of the study showed that in the phonological awareness tasks aiming at the phonemic level, Taiwan learners performed worse than the China learners but better than the Hong Kong learners; however, in the phonological awareness task aiming at the onset-rime level, no significant difference was found between Taiwan and China groups, and both of them outperformed the Hong Kong group. In the English literacy tasks, it was found that in the reading task of non-words with high-frequency rimes, no significant difference was found between Taiwan and China groups, and both of them outperformed the Hong Kong group, while in the reading task of non-words with low-frequency rimes and non-word spelling task, Taiwan learners performed significantly worse than the China group but better than the Hong Kong group. The results of the study provide evidence that Taiwan EFL learners’ experience with Zhuyin Fuhao did help them develop phonological awareness at the sub-syllabic level, though the phonological awareness was enhanced more at the onset-rime level than at the phonemic level, and that Zhuyin Fuhao did facilitate English literacy learning, though not as well as Pinyin did.