Phonological Awareness in Preschool English Language Teaching

Research on reading acquisition has shown that there is a strong relationship between meta-phonological skills in children attending preschool and the development of their reading/writing skills, in any language - be it a first language or a second language. The present work analyses the hypothesis that carrying out phonological awareness tasks in English as a Foreign Language with young Italian learners in preschools, can foster their literacy skills when children are introduced to formal literacy in English. In order to verify the assumption, the work draws on the most relevant scientifically-grounded studies in the area of developmental psychology and specific learning difficulties – in particular dyslexia. The result, at the methodological level, is a series of innovative teaching/learning tasks in EFL aimed at fostering meta-phonological skills in Italian preschoolers, as well as children’s overall oral skills.