Depending on the L2 that the student is learning, the phonological differences

between the native language and the L2 could make acquisition either difficult or
easy. If the phonology is similar to the mother tongue, then it will be easier to learn
the L2. Phonology is the study of the sound systems of a language but they vary
from language to language. Spanish and Portuguese have a similar phonology. But
English and Mandarin Chinese have many sounds that are different so they are very
phonologically different. Teaching second language acquisition is a difficult job. We
need to teach students to recognize, and make the sounds of the L2. So if the
sounds of this L2 are totally different from his L1, it is going to be a big task. The
English “th" for example is an obstacle because it does not appear in their L1. There
are two models of reading, Word Recognition View where students will learn
phonemic awareness and how to perceive and work with phonemes and then apply
it to learn phonetic rules. This helps readers recode written language to oral
language. But there is also the Socio-psycholinguist View of reading. Here the
phonemic awareness is more of an acquired ability where the students can
distinguish between words. They are read to by teachers and other students and
the focus is on making meaning, not the properties of the phonemes. Then, later,
the children learn spellings and connections between the letters and sounds. The
Top -down Method of reading can be used in a situation where students have
knowledge of literacy skills in their native language and the focus is on
comprehension first, then smaller areas of need last. In Bottom -up Methods, a
student will learn the key elements like phonemic and phonological awareness and
when work up to sentences and paragraphs. This type works well for languages
with non Latin alphabets.

In teaching a second language, phonology plays different roles. In Grammar

-Translation the focus is on written translation and phonology is very minimal here.
But in the Audio-lingual Method, it is very important because the important goal is
understanding and speaking the language. Phonology is not so important in the
Natural approach where the emphasis is meaning. The students learn phonology
through the process of gathering meaning and content and communication. It is
also important to consider allophones, dialect differences and language differences
when considering learning to read in an L2. Allophones are the differences in
phonemes based on the physical properties around them. In addition, different
dialects and languages differences could pose a problem, but less so if the student
is focusing on meaning. (Freeman and Freeman, p.95)