title: Effects of a phonological awareness program on English reading and spelling among Hong Kong Chinese ESL children.
abstract: This study investigated the effects of a 12-week language-enriched phonological awareness instruction on 76 Hong Kong young children who were learning English as a second language. The children were assigned randomly to receive the instruction on phonological awareness skills embedded in vocabulary learning activities or comparison instruction which consisted of vocabulary learning and writing tasks but no direct instruction in phonological awareness skills. They were tested on receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonological awareness at the syllable, rhyme and phoneme 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 when age, general intelligence and the pretest scores were controlled statistically. The findings suggest that phonological awareness instruction embedded in vocabulary learning activities might be beneficial to kindergarteners learning English as a second language.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Studies, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, Hong Kong SAR ; Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Susanna S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Yeung
authors.forename: Linda S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Siegel
authors.forename: Carol K K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Chan
keywords: Biliteracy; Chinese ESL children; English reading; Phonological awareness instruction