The Importance of Phonological Processing for Reading Comprehension : Why Reading-while-Listening should Precede Silent Reading

Phonological awareness underpins reading comprehension. It is recommended that English learners attain phonological awareness before reading instruction begins, and that once learners start to read, they be provided with the opportunity to simultaneously listen to the text. Nevertheless, English learners undertake silent reading without the necessary foundation of phonological awareness. This is suggested by the nature of their spelling errors, because spelling errors reveal phonological assumptions. First, I compare the spelling errors of L1 English-speaking children, L1 English speaking teenagers and adults, and L2 English learners in Japan. This comparison reveals that the first two groups tend to make errors based on phonology, whereas the latter make errors which cannot be interpreted in terms of English phonology. This suggests that many English learners have not developed sufficient phonological awareness. Next I present ways to foster phonological awareness as a foundation for reading comprehension.