ABSTRACT
This chapter gives a theoretical review related to the development of children's phonological awareness and its training alongside its profound connection to literacy development. These involve factors such as the understanding of the structure of phonological awareness, the types of phonological awareness tasks employed, the language learning environment (monolingual or bilingual), the phonological similarities and complexities between native and target languages, the processing characteristics of speech sounds in the native language, cross-language transfer and existing language knowledge. Future research in this domain should aim to scientifically evaluate children's phonological awareness development, elucidate the relationships between bilingual phonological advantages, general cognitive abilities and specific language learning experiences, especially the development of phonological awareness in multilingual contexts (L1, L2 and L3), and its impact on literacy development. Additionally, the effects of cross-language literacy experiences on bilingual and multilingual children's phonological awareness warrant investigation, as does the influence of different approaches to phonological training on children's phonological awareness development. These inquiries collectively contribute to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the intricate interplay between phonological awareness and literacy development, particularly in multilingual settings.
