Language proficiency and phonological awareness : an investigation on Singapore English- Chinese bilingual children

This study investigated if both English and Chinese proficiency are related to the development of English phonological awareness (PA). Fifty Singaporean kindergarten children (M age = 69.54 months, SD = 7.55) participated in this study. The participants were aged 4 years 10 months to 6 years 9 months. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and Chinese translated version were used as a measurement of language proficiency for both languages. For each language, children were grouped into a high or low proficiency group. Phonological Awareness, a subset of Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement was used to measure English phonological abilities. Results of two-way analysis of variance revealed that (a) children who were more proficient in English had better English PA and (b) children who were more proficient in Chinese also had better English PA, reflecting the presence of cross- linguistic transfer. The findings suggested that second language is important. Other implications of this study and directions for future studies were discussed.Bachelor of Art