Abstract
Phonological/phonemic awareness (PA1) concerns “the translation of print into some equivalent of speech” or “the acquisition of letter-sound relations”. It is considered by many to be causally linked to reading ability and believed by some to form a critical foundation for reading instruction. We provide cross-linguistic evidence to argue against such a strong position. Specifically, we argue that (a) PA is not causally linked to reading ability in Chinese, (b) PA is not related to reading Chinese characters, (c) PA is not universal, and (d) PA training is not an effective way to teaching reading.