Abstract
The nature of phonological awareness (PA), PA tests, and PA training have become important issues in reading instruction involving phonetic writing systems, in particular the English alphabet that has complex letter-sound correspondences. This paper begins by introducing three concepts needed in discussing PA: the nature of PA, of phonetic units, and of writing systems. It then describes how PA is studied in phonetic scripts, i.e., alphabets and syllabaries. Finally it explores how PA applies to reading logographic Chinese characters as well as the phoneticized scripts devised for Chinese. The paper concludes that, in reading and learning to read, PA is less important in Chinese than in English, and that visual skills are more important in Chinese than in English.
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Taylor, I. (2002). Phonological Awareness in Chinese Reading. In: Wenling, L., Gaffney, J.S., Packard, J.L. (eds) Chinese Children’s Reading Acquisition. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0859-5_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0859-5_3
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