Phonological Awareness, English Reading Achievement And English Underachievers In China

For decades of years, the term of phonological awareness has drawn the attention of researchers, and the relationship between phonological and reading was mostly examined, however these studies were mainly conducted among native young readers. Based on the situation in China, the present study, using 67 Chinese sophomore college students, aims to investigate the similar situations concerning Chinese EFL adult readers, especially for EFL underachievers. The research conducted in this thesis explored the interrelationship between phonological awareness and reading comprehension, between graphophonemic awareness and reading comprehension for Chinese adult EFL learners. The effects of phonic knowledge instruction on Chinese adult EFL learners, especially on English underachievers were also examined. The research was also concerned with these participants'reactions and attitudes to the role phonic knowledge plays in their English study.The research reveals that though there is no significant correlation between phonological awareness tasks and reading comprehension ability for Chinese adult EFL readers, there is a significant correlation between graphophonemic awareness test and reading comprehension for these readers. Besides, phonic knowledge instruction proves useful in improving these adults'graphophonemic awareness and these adult readers, especially those who achieved less in the English learning, still expect systematic instruction in phonic knowledge.The implications of the study are mainly practical in terms of empirical support of the validity of the research concerning the term phonological awareness in adult EFL learners. The research not only puts forward innovative suggestions for policy makers, for Chinese EFL learning and teaching, but also sheds some light on the further theoretical development of the similar researches.