The present research investigates the causal influence of phonological awareness
and oral language proficiency on beginning reading and spelling development of
Chinese kindergarteners learning English-as-a-second-language (ESL). Three
inter-related studies using correlational and intervention design were conducted to
examine (1) the role of phonological awareness in English reading and spelling;
(2), the contribution of oral language proficiency to English reading and spelling;
(3), the efficacy of the phonological awareness instruction led by kindergarten
teachers in classroom settings, and (4) the cross-language associations of
metalinguistic skills and reading between English and Chinese.
In Study 1, 50 children from two Hong Kong ESL kindergartens were
assessed on measures of general intelligence, English and Chinese phonological
awareness, English and Chinese oral language proficiency, and English word
reading. With age and general intelligence statistically controlled, both English
oral language proficiency and English phonological awareness (phoneme
awareness) accounted for unique additional variance in English word reading.
In Study 2, the effects of phonological awareness instruction were
examined on 59 children from two local kindergartens. The phonological
awareness instruction, which taught syllable awareness and rhyme awareness, was
compared to a treated control group. The instructional programme was able to
enhance phonological awareness skills at the rhyme level but not at the syllable
level. Word reading was not significantly different between the instructional
group and the comparison group during the posttest. The results suggest that
instructional programme that solely focuses on phonological awareness skills
might not be able to enhance reading skills of Hong Kong Chinese ESL children.
Study 3 investigated the effects of a 12-week language-enriched
phonological awareness instruction on 76 Hong Kong young ESL
kindergarteners. The children were randomly assigned to receive the instruction
on phonological awareness skills embedded in vocabulary learning activities or a
comparison instruction which consisted of vocabulary learning and writing tasks
but no direct instruction in phonological awareness skills. They were tested on
oral language skills, phonological awareness at varied levels, reading, and spelling
in English before and after the program implementation. The results indicated that
children who received the phonological awareness instruction performed
significantly better than the comparison group on English word reading, spelling,
phonological awareness at all levels and expressive vocabulary on the posttest. In
addition, regression analyses on both pretest and posttest data showed that
phonological awareness (phoneme awareness) and oral language proficiency
(expressive vocabulary) are significant predictors of English reading and spelling.
Cross-language transfers of phonological awareness were found.
The present research suggests that both phonological awareness,
particularly phoneme awareness, and oral language proficiency (expressive
vocabulary) play a causal influence on English reading and spelling among
Chinese ESL children. The efficacious language-enriched phonological awareness
instruction indicates that kindergarten teachers with sufficient training and support
are able to implement instruction that aims to teach phonological awareness
directly and explicitly. The significant cross-language associations suggest that
phonological sensitivity is a common competence that children need to acquire in
learning to read two writing systems. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/167185 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Yeung, Siu-sze., 楊少詩. |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Source | http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B48128570 |
| Rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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