Survey on the Knowledge Base of EFL Pre-service Teachers for Phonics Instruction - Vol 12 - Issue 5 - 2022

Sep 11, 2026

Phonics, grounded in letter-sound relationships, underpins early reading instruction and remains challenging to implement in EFL contexts despite curriculum requirements. A survey-based study examines 104 EFL pre-service teachers’ subject matter content knowledge for teaching phonics across first to fourth academic years using random sampling. Results show a weak phonics knowledge base, highlighting gaps in pre-service teacher preparation. The study provides preliminary descriptive evidence to support policy makers and researchers in designing targeted training to improve phonics instruction implementation in China’s EFL setting.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Background

Phonics and early reading instruction

National curriculum requirements and textbook implementation

Teacher preparation challenges

Research objectives

Research questions

Vol 12, Issue 5,(2022) E-ISSN: 2222-6990 Survey on the Knowledge Base of EFL Pre-service Teachers for Phonics Instruction Min Jie Chen 1,2 , Ruey Shing Soo3 , Xiao Yun Bai 1 , Guo Jie Yin 1 , Wei Lun Wong2 , Kee Ping Chuah2 , Norhayati Yusoff4 1 Foreign Language School, Mianyang Teachers’ College, Mianyang City, P. R. China, 2 Faculty of Languages and Communication, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjung Malim, Malaysia, 3 Faculty of Language and Communication, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Malaysia, 4 Perak Matriculation College, Gopeng, Malaysia Corresponding Author [Email:](Email: yaleygj@mtc.edu.cn)[ yaleygj@mtc.edu.cn](Email: yaleygj@mtc.edu.cn) To Link this Article: [http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v12-i5/13211](http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v12-i5/13211) DOI:10 .6007/IJARBSS/v12-i5/13211 Published Date: 08 May 2022 Abstract Phonics which refers to the letter-sound relationship originates in English speaking countries. Phonics instruction is part of early reading instruction. Based on previous literatures, the most suitable one for EFL students is synthetic phonics instruction approach. Since 2011, phonics is required by National English Curriculum in China, literatures indicated that in the actual teaching activities, it is hard to implement phonics instruction, regardless of phonics instruction approaches. The rationale for this is that the in-service teachers and pre-service teachers are short of subject matter content knowledge. Very few studies are conducted to look into in-service EFL teachers and pre-service EFL teachers’ knowledge base to teach phonics. To bridge the gap, this study aims at providing preliminary descriptive data via a survey on pre-service EFL teachers’ knowledge base to teach phonics. To attain this goal, 104 pre-service EFL teachers ranging from the first academic year to the fourth academic year are selected via random sampling technique to fill in the survey. The findings indicate their weak knowledge base for phonics instructions. This study hopes to provide empirical information for policy makers or researchers to look into this matter to take some measures to prepare pre-service EFL teachers to teach phonics in order to promote the implementation of phonics instruction in EFL context in China. Keywords: Pre-service EFL Teachers, Subject Matter Content Knowledge, Phonics Instructions, Teacher Preparation Background English is an alphabetic language which contains 26 letters and represents 44 different sounds (International Literacy Association, 2019)[ILA, 2019] . Hence, for each individual letter, there may not be only one sound to be pronounced. Phonics is just the study of the relationship between letters and sounds (ILA, 2018) . Once, the new language learners grasp the decoding rules with phonemic awareness, could they successfully turn those prints into their inner verbal speech to improve their reading fluency. With more sight words and practice, more mental attention could be paid on comprehension rather than decoding, reading comprehension abilities might be improved (Blevins, 2017) . Thus, the initial purpose of phonics instruction is to read on word level and then to text level. At the same time, decoding and encoding are reversed processes and decoding goes before encoding. Spelling abilities might also be developed consequently with the development of reading. Blevins (2017), Department of Education, Science and Training (2005) [DEST, 2005]; ILA (2019) indicated that phonics is suitable for all the English learners, including EFL students. In China, English is the foreign language. The pupils are called EFL learners. There are numerous empirical studies indicate that phonics instruction indeed can promote EFL pupils’ reading and spelling abilities as well as interests and learning motivations (Huangpu, 2017) . In the National Curriculum of English, which was released by Chinese Education Ministry in 2011 (Ministry of

FAQs

What are the main findings regarding their phonics knowledge base?

Findings indicate a weak knowledge base for phonics instruction among the surveyed pre-service teachers.

Sep 11, 2026

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