English Phonological Awareness Research Articles

Spanish Phonological Awareness in Kindergarten Uniquely Supports Second-Grade English Morphological Awareness in Spanish-English Dual Language Learners.

This study investigated the longitudinal, cross-linguistic developmental relationships of phonological awareness (PA), letter identification (letter ID), and morphological awareness (MA) in 71 heritage Spanish-English dual language learners (DLLs) in kindergarten and second grade. Multiple linear regression was used to test if kindergarten Spanish and English PA (sound elision and sound matching) and letter ID significantly predicted later English MA (oral derived word stress judgment, oral derivational morpheme blending, written derived word decomposition, and morphologically complex word spelling) performance in second grade. Cross-linguistically, the PA skill of sound matching in kindergarten was the most reliable predictor of MA in second grade for Spanish-English DLLs. Spanish PA explained the majority of variation in oral MA skills in English. English PA was only uniquely predictive of written MA skills in English. Both the cognitive operation of sound sequence manipulation in PA (elision or matching) and the modality of morpheme representation in MA (oral or written) appear to mediate the transfer of metalinguistic knowledge in Spanish-English DLL development in early elementary school. Results are discussed within the context of classroom practices.

A meta-analysis of training effects on English phonological awareness and reading in native Chinese speakers.

Enhancing English phonological awareness is critical in promoting native English speakers' reading development. However, less attention has been paid to the role of phonological awareness development for English language learners in a logographic context. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the effectiveness of training native Chinese speakers' English phonological awareness and reading across age groups. Thirty-three articles, including 37 independent samples, were identified as training studies that reported English phonological awareness as an outcome measure, and 16 articles, including 17 independent samples, featured training studies that reported reading as an outcome measure. Results based on a random-effect model revealed the effect sizes for overall English phonological awareness (including English syllable awareness, phoneme awareness, and rhyme awareness) and overall reading (including word reading and pseudoword reading) were g = 0.651 (n = 3137) and g = 0.498 (n = 1506), respectively. Specifically, instructional training exerted a small impact on word reading (g = 0.297), moderate effects on syllable awareness (g = 0.468) and pseudoword reading (g = 0.586), a medium to large effect on phoneme awareness (g = 0.736), and a large impact on rhyme awareness (g = 0.948). The moderator analyses yielded several significant findings. Regarding the English phonological awareness outcome, programs integrating lexical semantic knowledge exhibited the largest trend in enhancing native Chinese speakers' skills. Among all age groups, upper elementary students benefited most from instructional training. Furthermore, more intensive training had a greater impact than less intensive training. In terms of the reading outcome, similar to English phonological awareness findings, upper elementary students realized the greatest improvements. Additionally, unpublished articles indicated a larger training effect on reading than published ones. These findings provide practitioners with guidelines for delivering effective instruction to promote phonological awareness and reading ability for English language learners in a logographic language context.

Cross Linguistic Transfer of Phonological Awareness and Word Recognition: An Exploratory Study on English Language Learners

Bilingual studies on cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness and word recognition emphasize the relevance of nature of language and orthography. The current study was designed to examine the significance of language and orthographic structure for phonological awareness and word recognition skills in children who are native speakers of Malayalam language learning English at school. The association of phonological awareness and word recognition in 30 Malayalam speaking preschool English Language Learners (ELL’s) was tested using a set of stimuli in both English and Malayalam. Results revealed that word recognition was associated with phoneme awareness in English whereas in Malayalam, all the three levels tested in this study (rhyme, syllable and phoneme awareness) showed association with word recognition. However, considering the cross-linguistic associations, Malayalam word recognition was related to all levels of phonological awareness in English whereas no strong association was observed for word recognition in Malayalam with phonological awareness in English. Regression analysis revealed phoneme awareness in English as a strong predictor of word recognition in both the languages. These findings highlight the cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness between English and Malayalam supporting the Transfer Facilitation Model (TFM). Pedagogical implications of these findings on ELLs are discussed.

Relationships Between First and Second Language Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming in Chinese Children with Dyslexia

Relationships Between First and Second Language Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming in Chinese Children with Dyslexia

The Effects of Sub-syllabic Phonological Awareness on Korean Elementary EFL Students’ Word Reading

This study investigated Phonological Awareness (PA) which is considered an important prerequisite for literacy acquisition. For this purpose, this study explored the contribution of phoneme awareness, rhyme awareness, and letter name knowledge to English word reading. The participants were thirty Korean EFL third-grade elementary students who were initiating their English learning. The results indicated that the EFL elementary students’ overall English PA predicted their English word reading. Also, the students were more accurate with phoneme awareness than rhyme awareness and phoneme awareness played a more important role than rhyme awareness and letter name knowledge in word reading. Phoneme awareness predicted word reading more than rhyme awareness for EFL elementary students. However, the students’ rhyme awareness was not associated with phoneme awareness and lettername knowledge. These results suggest that rhyme awareness is underdeveloped and not yet well established to allow for promoting their word reading and show that native language plays an important role for their English word reading. This is in line with previous findings that have shown a positive relationship between phoneme awareness and English reading for Korean EFL learners. It seems that education about PA at the beginning of English learning would be helpful for students’ learning English.

Longitudinal predictors of French word reading difficulties among French Immersion children.

In Canada, approximately 12% of school-aged children are enrolled in French Immersion (FI), with some provinces estimating close to 30%. FI programs are intended to produce bilingual individuals who can functionally communicate in both of Canada's official languages. Yet, we are currently underinformed as to how to identify children with French word reading difficulties in such programs. Within this context, and in the interests of informing early identification of second language reading challenges, we examined early English predictors of French word reading difficulties. We also examined potential overlap of these difficulties as well as the stability of these difficulties over time. A total of 108 children in FI participated, completing measures of English nonverbal intelligence, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and receptive vocabulary in kindergarten, as well as English and French word reading in grades 1, 2, and 3. Logistic regressions revealed that kindergarten English phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) distinguished between good and poor French word readers in grade 3, with adequate sensitivity and specificity. These results suggest that English phonological awareness and RAN may be appropriate early skills to identify children at risk of word reading challenges in bilingual programs. Chi-square analyses demonstrated significant overlap of English and French word reading challenges in grades 1, 2, and 3, highlighting the possibility that English and French word reading difficulties do not exist independently. Finally, chi-square analyses revealed retrospectively stable word reading difficulties in English and French. Interestingly, prospective stability was stronger for French than English word reading challenges. Overall, our results underscore the importance of considering the specific nature of word reading difficulties in bilingual readers.

Phonological awareness intervention in mother tongue among Filipino kindergarten learners

Developing strong reading skills in children is crucial to overcoming language and academic barriers and ensuring future success in education. The extent of phonological awareness (PA) substantially affects children's reading ability (Hoff, 2014). Thus, the goal of the study was to document the success rate of ten Filipino kindergarten pupils enrolled in one public school in Calaca who underwent twenty sessions of 30-minute integrated PA intervention. The study employed mixed methods research utilizing intervention design. The quantitative results were taken from a single-group pretest-posttest, and the qualitative results were taken from a thematic analysis of interviews of educational assistants and kindergarten teachers at three-time points. Muñoz et al.’s (2018) pedagogical framework and Cummins’ (1979) Linguistic Interdependence Theory provided foundational support in analyzing how PA intervention in the mother tongue assists children in gradually promoting their reading outcomes in the mother tongue and English. Results show significant differences in PA and letter knowledge in Batangas Tagalog and English before and after the intervention. Batangas Tagalog scores show a very high significant positive correlation. Additionally, observations reveal positive changes among the pupils after undergoing the intervention. The study demonstrates that PA intervention in the mother tongue potentially provides a promising and sustainable way to improve the early reading skills of Filipino kindergarten pupils.

Directionality and developmental mechanism of cross‐linguistic transfer of phonological awareness to early writing skill in young Chinese learners

AbstractThe longitudinal study investigated the directionality and transfer mechanism of cross‐linguistic transfer of phonological awareness between L1 and L2 in predicting early writing (word dictation) in Chinese children learning English as L2. Ninety primary school Grade 1 (P1) students were assessed on phonological awareness in Cantonese (syllable deletion, onset deletion, rime deletion, and tone awareness), phonological awareness in English (syllable deletion, rime detection, and phoneme deletion), Cantonese word writing, and English word writing at Time 1. These students were assessed on the same measures 1 year later at Time 2 when they were in Grade 2. The results demonstrated bidirectional cross‐linguistic transfer of phonological awareness and early writing between Cantonese and English. It also showed that the transfers were achieved through same time writing skills (bidirectional) and future phonological awareness (from L1 to L2 only). No direct effect of earlier phonological awareness to later writing skill was found.

Spelling as a way to classify poor Chinese-English literacy skills in Hong Kong Chinese children.

Previous work has predominantly focused on word reading in studying literacy difficulties; very little work has focused on spelling difficulty instead. The present study adopted spelling (dictation) as the criterion to classify poor literacy skills in Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual children. We examined the cognitive-linguistic skills profiles across four groups of children with different spelling abilities. Based on performances on Chinese and English dictation (criterion = below 25% in a larger sample), four groups were identified, 21 poor spellers of Chinese (PC), 18 poor spellers of English (PE), 27 poor spellers of both languages (PB), and 30 good spellers of both scripts (GB). Measures on language-specific tests of cognitive-linguistic skills (phonological awareness, lexical decision, morphological awareness, rapid naming, and delayed copying) were included to compare the degree of deficit exhibited by each group. With age, grade, and non-verbal intelligence controlled, one-way ANCOVA results revealed that, compared to GB, PC manifested significant deficits in Chinese-delayed copying but scored similarly on all English cognitive-linguistic skills. PE and PB showed significant deficits in Chinese and English phonological awareness compared to PC; they were significantly weaker in English-delayed copying, morphological awareness, and rapid naming (RAN). The PB group was significantly slower in both Chinese and English RAN compared to GB. Findings highlight the critical role of delayed copying in distinguishing poor spellers in both Chinese and English, the importance of phonological awareness for spelling in English but not in Chinese, and the role of automaticity in bilingual spelling difficulties.

Lexical restructuring stimulates phonological awareness among emerging English-French bilingual children's literacy.

This longitudinal study investigated how lexical restructuring can stimulate emerging bilingual children's phonological awareness in their first (L1) and second (L2) languages. Sixty-two English (L1) - French (L2) bilingual children (Mage = 75.7 months, SD = 3.2) were taught new English and French word pairs differing minimally in phonological contrast. The results indicated that increasing lexical specificity in English mediated the relationship between English vocabulary and English phonological awareness both concurrently and longitudinally at the end of Grade 1. A longitudinal relationship was established among French vocabulary, French lexical specificity, and French phonological awareness at the end of Grade 1. Notably, cross-language transfer from English lexical specificity was a better predictor of development in French phonological awareness, especially for words that contained phonological contrasts that occurred in both languages. The results from this study highlight the phonological foundations of early literacy and extend the lexical restructuring hypothesis to emerging bilingual children.

Understanding the role of cross-language transfer of phonological awareness in emergent Hindi–English biliteracy acquisition

This study examined within and cross-language relations, and specifically, the role of phonological awareness (PA) skills in reading among young Hindi-speaking children (L1) who were learning to read English (L2) in Delhi, India. Data was collected from 143 children in Grades 1 and 2 using measures validated for this population. The analyses examined the associations between L1 and L2 PA and decoding, both within and across the two languages. The results showed that PA skills within each language significantly predicted decoding in that language. Furthermore, there was evidence of cross-language transfer with Hindi PA significantly predicting English word reading even after controlling for English PA. English PA also significantly predicted Hindi decoding, however, these effects decreased once Hindi PA was added to the model. These findings emphasize the important role that both L1 and L2 PA plays in reading among emergent Hindi–English bilinguals. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings on literacy instruction in India are discussed.

Cross-linguistic influence of phonological awareness and phonological recoding skills in Chinese reading acquisition among early adolescent students

This study investigated crosslinguistic phonological awareness and phonological recoding skills in Chinese reading acquisition among early Chinese adolescent students. 76 Chinese children participated in this study and finished a series of reading measurements over 1 year (from Grade 5 to Grade 6). In Grade 5, they were assessed by Chinese phonological awareness (syllable, onset, rhyme, phoneme, and tone awareness), English phonological awareness (syllable, onset, and rime, phoneme awareness) as well as English and Chinese phonological recoding skills. In Grade 6, the students completed the measurement of Chinese lexical inferencing ability. Subsequent hierarchical regression analyses showed that Time 1 (Grade 5) Chinese phonological awareness and recoding skills made a joint intra-lingual contribution to later Chinese lexical inferencing ability. Moreover, English phonological recoding skills had a unique inter-lingual contribution to later Chinese lexical inferencing ability after age, nonverbal intelligence, and English phonological awareness were controlled for. Results expanded the self-teaching hypothesis to account for variations within and across languages over time and underscored the uniqueness of inter-lingual phonological recoding in later orthographic and semantic learning.

The impact of lexical skills and executive functioning on L1 and L2 phonological awareness in bilingual kindergarten

This study investigated the role of lexical skills and executive functioning on L1 Dutch and L2 English phonological awareness in children enrolled in bilingual Dutch/English kindergarten in The Netherlands (n = 95) and monolingual Dutch kindergarten (n = 83). Participants had an average age of 5 years and 10 months and completed tasks on phonological awareness, lexical skills (vocabulary and lexical specificity), and executive functioning (sustained visual and auditory attention, behavioural self-regulation, and verbal short-term memory) in the L1 Dutch and the L2 English. Dutch phonological awareness was predicted by self-regulation and verbal short-term memory. English phonological awareness was directly predicted by Dutch phonological awareness and visual sustained attention. The results highlight the importance of executive functioning such as sustained attention, behavioural self-regulation and short-term memory in first and second language learning in kindergarten, and support cross-language transfer effects from L1 to L2 phonological awareness among bilingual learners.

The Effects of Bilingual Reading Program on Chinese Children from Low Socioeconomic Status Families

ABSTRACT Research Findings: This study evaluated the impacts of a bilingual Chinese-English reading program on Chinese children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families. Ninety-nine children in the third year of kindergarten (K3) were recruited from five local kindergartens in two low-SES districts in Hong Kong, China. Children in the intervention group who participated in 15-weeks of language and literacy intervention were compared to a control group of 40 children who attended only regular literacy classes in their kindergartens. ANCOVA analyses revealed that after controlling for child gender and age, the intervention group performed significantly better than the control group on the posttest in Chinese phonological awareness and morphological awareness, English phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and English word reading. These results point to a reading program’s utility, emphasizing multi-component interventions for early bilingual language and literacy learning. Practice or Policy: Findings support the development of locally derived, evidence-based reading programs to cater to low-SES children’s learning needs. These findings may also provide research-based evidence for formulating public policies and services, targeting the early language and literacy issues for low-SES children and their families and raising public awareness of the influence of poverty on child development in the early years.

Adaptation to an Unfamiliar Accent by Child L2 Listeners.

The study examines school-aged L2 listeners' adaptation to an unfamiliar L2 accent and learner variables predicting such adaptation. Fourth-grade Mandarin L1 learners of English as a foreign language (N = 117) listened to a story twice in one of three accent conditions. In the single-talker condition, the story was produced by an Indian English (IE) speaker. In the multi-talker condition, the story was produced by two IE speakers. In the control condition, the story was produced by a Mandarin-accented speaker. Children's (re)interpretation of IE words/nonwords was assessed by referent selection tests administered before and after the first and the second exposures to the story. Repeated exposure to IE-accented speech forms influenced performance: the participants demonstrated better recognition of IE words across the referent selection tests but worse (re)interpretation of IE nonwords sounding similar to existing lexical items. Exposure to an IE-accented story yielded an additional advantage in word recognition, but the advantage was limited to words heard in the story. Furthermore, children's English phonological awareness, phonological memory, and vocabulary predicted their reinterpretation performance of the accented forms. These results suggest that school-aged L2 listeners with better phono-lexical representations develop better capacity in adapting to an unfamiliar accent of a foreign language by loosening their acceptability criteria for word recognition but the adaptation does not necessarily entail perceptual tuning to the specific phonological categories of the accent.

A Systematic Review of Phonological Awareness Interventions for Latino Children in Early and Primary Grades

This article summarizes the findings of a systematic review of 15 group and two single-subject experimental design studies that evaluated the effectiveness of phonological awareness interventions for dual language learners (DLL) in preschool through second grade. Studies were evaluated using a Consumer Reports-like rating system. Each study was rated on quality indicators for design characteristics, measurement and reliability, evaluation of treatment effects, and external validity. The effects of phonological awareness interventions for Latino children who are DLL in the early and primary grades are promising, although the studies’ results are tempered by conceptual limitations. Most studies demonstrated acceptable design characteristics and implementation fidelity. Few studies included measures of social validity and consumer satisfaction. Although the review did not identify a single treatment approach to be superior, preliminary evidence suggests that children can benefit from phonological awareness instruction that is explicit and allows for multiple response opportunities. The results of this review also indicate that children who are DLL benefit from bilingual phonological awareness instruction without detracting them from acquiring English phonological awareness skills.

The moderating effect of Korean preschoolers' receptive and expressive language skills on the link between Korean PA and English PA.

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether oral language skills moderate the effect of Korean phonological awareness (PA) on English PA for Korean preschoolers in the initial stage of learning English as a second language. The study participants comprised 81 five- to six-year-old Korean preschoolers attending Korean-medium preschools in South Korea. The findings demonstrated that Korean PA was significantly associated with English PA. In addition, Korean receptive and expressive language skills had moderating effects on the relationship between Korean PA and English PA, respectively. This study is discussed not only in terms of cross-language PA transfer in processing two phonologically and orthographically different languages but also in light of the importance of native language skills interacting with native PA in the second-language PA development of preschool children in the initial stage of learning a second language.

Phonological specificity relates to phonological awareness and reading ability in English–French bilingual children

The 1-year longitudinal study presented here examined the extent to which the ability to build phonologically specific lexical entries as a result of increasing vocabulary size predicts word reading via its impact on phonological awareness within and across languages in 62 emerging English (L1) and French (L2) Grade 1 children (M = 75.69 months, SD = 3.18) enrolled in an early French immersion program in Canada. Lexical specificity was assessed with a computerized word learning game in which children were taught new English (e.g., ‘foal’ and ‘sole’) and French (e.g., bac ‘bin’ and bague ‘ring’) word pairs contrasted by minimal phonological differences. The results revealed that the specificity of English words at the beginning of Grade 1 predicted English word reading at the end of Grade 1 and that this relationship was mediated by English phonological awareness at the beginning of Grade 1. French lexical specificity at the beginning of Grade 1 did not predict French word reading at the end of Grade 1. Notably, English lexical specificity at the beginning of Grade 1 also predicted French word reading at the end of Grade 1 and this relationship was mediated by English phonological awareness at the beginning of Grade 1. It is concluded that exposure to word pairs involving minimal phonological contrasts fosters phonological awareness, which in turn facilitates word reading within the L1 that then transfers to the L2.

Phonological Awareness Trajectories: Young Spanish-English and Cantonese-English Bilinguals.

This study focused on the phonological awareness skills of 72 Spanish-English and 86 Cantonese-English bilinguals, all enrolled in bilingual and mainstream classrooms in the same schools. Bilinguals were assessed on phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, and knowledge of book reading each year from kindergarten until second grade. Individual growth modeling analysis revealed no difference in growth trajectories of English phonological awareness between (a) Spanish-English and Cantonese-English bilinguals and (b) children enrolled in bilingual and mainstream programs. Within-language decoding, vocabulary, and knowledge of book reading were associated with the estimated average initial levels of phonological awareness skills, while only knowledge of book reading had significant effects on the estimated growth trajectory of phonological awareness skills. These findings suggest that young bilinguals with different home languages may have similar growth trajectories in English phonological awareness skills during early elementary school years. The findings have implications for early educational practices.

L1 Language Experience and English Phonological Awareness of Chinese College Students

This study investigates the roles of two kinds of L1 language experience—early spoken language acquired before literacy and used as home language as well as Pinyin alphabetic knowledge—in Chinese college students’ phonological awareness (PA) in English. PA is critical to the improvement of language skills in either L1 or L2. Research on contributing factors for PA performance can provide language teachers with guidance on enhancing their students’ PA. A questionnaire was conducted to examine 408 adult participants’ home language. A Mandarin PA test, which included syllable differentiation, onset oddity, rhyme oddity and tone identification, was used to assess their Pinyin alphabetic knowledge. An English PA test was carried out to assess three levels of PA (syllable, onset-rhyme and phoneme) across four tasks (oddity, segmentation, blending and substitution). Results show that 1) these two kinds of L1 language experience exerted significant effects on adult learners’ PA in English; 2) the effects were modified by both level of PA and difficulty of task; and 3) the effects appeared weak due possibly to adult learners’ higher English proficiency. These results underscore the necessity to consider the impact of L1 language experience in both researching and training Chinese learners’ PA in English.