How Chinese Learners Decode L2 English Words: Evidence from a Phonics Instruction Program

Abstract The teaching of L2 phonics, defined here as explicit instruction in the symbol‐sound correspondences of a second or foreign language, has been enjoying growing popularity in recent years. This is associated with the reemphasis of phonological decoding in different aspects of L2 learning, and learners' difficulty in developing L2 decoding proficiency. However, there has been limited research on L2 phonics instruction, particularly qualitative evidence exploring the nature of learners' decoding errors. For Chinese EFL learners, past studies often stress the negative impact of their morphemic L1 on decoding English words. In contrast, the potential influence of Pinyin knowledge (an alphabetic system for transcribing the spoken Chinese language) has often been overlooked, despite constituting an important aspect of their literacy. This study reports the effects of an English phonics instruction program, conducted with Chinese university EFL learners, on different categories of English graphemes, classified according to (a) whether they are present or absent in Pinyin, and (b) if present, whether their pronunciations are similar or different across Pinyin and English. In a quasi‐experimental design, a group of first‐year English majors ( n = 71) received 12 weeks of English phonics instruction, while a comparison group ( n = 67) received 12 weeks of English phonology instruction without phonics. The results show that the phonics group made significantly more progress in decoding some graphemes, especially Pinyin‐absent graphemes. Qualitative analysis of participants' decoding identifies three types of common errors in decoding, with the impact of Pinyin being highlighted. Implications for the design of L2 phonics instruction programs are drawn.