Becoming literate in Chinese: a comparison of native-speaking and non-native-speaking children. Authors include Hong Kong based: Ying Wang & Catherine McBride CUHK; Yanling Zhou, EdUHK
This paper supports the use of romanisation in the teaching of Chinese to children from non-Chinese speaking backgrounds.
"NCS children showed a trend towards making use of phonological information to learn to read Chinese..."
"Problems of learning Chinese are likely exacerbated in HK because schools and families lack a simple phonological coding system to mediate recognition of Chinese..."
Conclusion: "School teachers should assist NCS children in using phonological knowledge, such as the Cantonese pinyin system, in learning to read and write in Chinese."