Development of Phonological Awareness of Chinese Children in Hong Kong

Three studies were conducted in Hong Kong to examine the development of phonological awareness of Chinese children from the ages of 3 to 8. Like English-speaking children, Chinese children were found to be able to detect relatively large sound segments (e.g., partial homophones) at the beginning and gradually progress to smaller sound segments (e.g., rhymes and tones). Tasks detecting onsets and rhymes in a similarity format were found to be easier for Chinese children than those in an oddity format. In addition, cross-linguistic comparisons indicated that Chinese children develop an awareness of initial consonants and rhymes later than their English counterparts. The possible impact from differences in the oral and written languages between Chinese and English are also discussed.