In recent years, phonics instruction in early literacy education has gained in popularity due to its critical role in facilitating phonological awareness and processing skills, said to enable the self-teaching mechanism inherent in an alphabetic language. These claims are based on research on L1 learners of English, however: little has been reported on the utility of phonics instruction for foreign language learners. This study therefore investigated young Taiwanese learners of English who had undergone phonics instruction as part of their EFL programme of study. Textbook analysis, teacher interviews, a student questionnaire, and a battery of diagnostic tests and tasks were used to uncover the role and efficacy of phonics in Taiwanese EFL learners’ literacy development as well as the underlying factors that contribute to shape its role and affect its efficacy. The data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively and findings related to the presentation and practice of phonics teaching in class, teachers’ and learners’ perceptions and beliefs related to phonics and English literacy, and learners’ strategy use in oral reading, spelling and word learning were analyzed and discussed. The results revealed that due to the influences of socio-contextual constraints, learners’ insufficient phonological skills, the absence of a well-developed spoken system in the learners, and a distinctive L1 writing system, phonics plays a distinctively different role for young Taiwanese learners of English from the one it plays for English L1 learners.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:550071 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Kuo, Ling-Chun |
| Publisher | University of Warwick |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/45408/ |
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