A Study on the Effects of Phonological Training on Freshmen’s English Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Reading is important for EFL students. Seemingly, reading comprehension only involves visual processing; in fact,it also involves the conversion from visual input to phonological code. This study investigates whether phonological training can improve students’ reading comprehension ability. Baddeley’s Working Memory model and Perfetti’s Blueprint of Reading Components were drawn on, and 160 college freshmen were recruited, who were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received a 12-week phonological training. Afterphonologicaltraining,subjects’speedofdecodin gtextissignifi cantly increased, which promotes the allocation and use of working memory resources. This study provides a new perspective for improving EFL learners’ reading comprehension, and also sheds light on the cognitive and psychological process of reading comprehension.