Second‐Language Reading Difficulties Among Native Chinese‐Speaking Students Learning to Read English: The Roles of Native‐ and Second‐Language Skills

Abstract

The authors report two studies that examined how native‐ and second‐language skills were related to second‐language reading difficulties for native Chinese‐speaking fourth graders learning to read English. In study 1, 50 poor English readers with Chinese‐reading difficulties (the PB group) and 34 poor English readers without Chinese‐reading difficulties (the PE group) were compared with 53 typically developing controls on phonological awareness, rapid naming, and phonological memory. Results showed that both groups of poor English readers showed English phonemic awareness and rapid naming deficits in both languages and that the PB group had additional skill deficits in English onset‐rime awareness and phonological memory in both languages. In study 2, 69 poor English readers (25 in the PE group) trained on English phonological skills were compared with 43 typically developing controls before the training, right after, and one year later. Results showed that poor English readers caught up with their typically developing peers on English phonemic awareness irrespective of their Chinese‐reading status and that the PE group also caught up on English pseudoword reading and retained their gains one year later. After one year, about one third of the PE group performed comparably to their typically developing peers not only on English reading performance but also on bilingual language skills. However, the majority of the poor English readers persistently showed poor performance in English reading and phonemic awareness, as well as in Chinese and English rapid naming. Findings highlight both language‐universal and specific skill deficits contributing to second‐language reading difficulties.

Effects of Music Training on the Auditory Working Memory of Chinese-Speaking School-Aged Children: A Longitudinal Intervention Study

“…Teaching materials included relevant textbooks: Letter Land ( Wendon, 2009 ; Holt, 2011 ), Root Phonics English ( Sun and Lytton, 2010 ), and Pandeng English ( Pandeng English Project Team of State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning at Beijing Normal University, 2012 ). This training protocol has been used in previous studies ( Li et al, 2018 ; Xu et al, 2021 ). Teachers who were professionally trained in music and English language instruction at the master’s level were hired for this project.…”

Teaching Grapheme–Phoneme Correspondences Using a Direct Mapping Approach for At-Risk Second Language Learners: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Past research involving L2 students have suggested positive effects of phonics instruction on reading and spelling in L2 (Li et al, 2018;Vadasy & Sanders, 2012).…”

“…Past research involving L2 students have suggested positive effects of phonics instruction on reading and spelling in L2 (Li et al, 2018; Vadasy & Sanders, 2012). However, no study has examined the effects of shared book reading integrated with GPC instruction on L2 literacy skills among ESL students.…”

“…Such systematic phonics approaches have been shown to be effective in improving literacy for both average and at-risk readers (De Graaff et al, 2009;Savage & Cloutier, 2017;Suggate, 2016). Emerging evidence has been reported that phonics is also effective in enhancing English literacy for L2 learners (Jamaludin et al, 2016;Li, Tao, Joshi, & Xu, 2018;Stuart, 2004;Vadasy & Sanders, 2010). However, fewer studies have involved students with L2 reading difficulties.…”

“…However, fewer studies have involved students with L2 reading difficulties. Recently, Li et al (2018) report the positive effects of explicit phonological awareness instruction coupled with teaching of letter knowledge (letter name and letter sound) for struggling ESL readers for L2 learners in China. We argue that intervention effects may however vary across diverse groups of learners from different socioeducational contexts and L2 proficiency level.…”