Psychological Development and Education ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (3): 368-376.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2025.03.07

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Experience in Phonological and Semantic Connections Influences the Effect of Phonics Instruction

JIANG Ying1, GAI Xiaosong1,2, JENNY Thomson3   

  1. 1. School of Psychology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024;
    2. Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of Higher Education in Jilin Province, Center of Mental Health Education and Research, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024;
    3. Department of Human Communication Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TS, UK
  • Published:2025-05-20

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Abstract: Phonics instruction from English-speaking countries is increasingly introduced in English lessons in non-native English-speaking countries. However, can non-native English speakers who lack prior experience in phonological and semantic connections of words benefit equally from grapheme-phoneme correspondence training? To examine the influence of non-native English speakers’ prior experience of phonological-semantic connections of words on phonics instruction, we adopted the single factor between-subjects design with triple levels (The pre-phonological and semantic connection training group was the experimental group; the pre-initial sound discrimination training group was the positive control group; the group without pre-training was the negative control group), with 120 grade-four students in a primary school. The results showed that children who had established phonological-semantic connections of words in the pre-training benefited more from the subsequent phonics training. They showed better word reading ability and transfer effects in novel words compared with the trained words. The results indicate the limitations and solutions of phonics instruction in native Chinese speakers.

Key words: phonics instruction, phonological awareness, phonological and semantic connections, word reading, foreign language teaching

CLC Number: 

  • G442
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