| Researchers interested in the pedagogical point of view propose that phonological awareness enhanced by suitable instruction methods will facilitate word reading, and that this even applies to readers with Chinese as L1 who can then, in fact, learn English as L2 more successfully as a result of it. The purpose of this review study is to continue further investigate the truth of the orthographic depth hypothesis as opposed to theories which allow for both phonological and visual/graphic processing to occur in reading words in any writing system and for possible effects of instruction on word reading. Our review work looks at studies on L1 and L2 word reading, their similarities and differences, specifically in relation to different instructional backgrounds, highlighting the role of phonological awareness. The whole word approach and phonics teaching will be contrasted first in English word reading teaching and then specifically between the Hong Kong and Taiwan school settings. |