A qualitative case study of the motivation effects with explicit phonics instruction for chinese young efl learners

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of phonics instruction on the motivation of young Chinese learners of English. Surveys and semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. The results indicated that the two participants involved in this study responded favorably after exposure to explicit phonics instructions. Decoding new words, reading aloud, as well as word memorization has become much easier by incorporating the rules of phonics in decoding new words with the help of phonics instruction. As a result, for the two participants in this study, learning English became a more intrinsic and extrinsic process after accepting explicit phonics instruction. The implication of this case study is that providing additional word attack strategies often helps a new reader become more confident. After receiving phonics instruction, new EFL learners could improve their ability to decode words in text and memorize new ones as well. This in turn will more likely help them succeed and increase their motivation for learning a new language.