As a follow-up study (Baek, 2009), the purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy of phoneme-based phonics in L2 early literacy skills such as L2 phonological sensitivity and L2 word recognition in comparison with that of rime-based phonics. Furthermore, the relationship between L2 phonological unit and L2 word recognition was also examined. The phoneme-based phonics approach group performed better on L2 phonological sensitivity and L2 word recognition skills than the rime-based phonics approach. Moreover, L2 nucleus (medial vowel or vowel cluster) across the two groups was closely related to L2 word recognition and was a critical precursor of L2 word recognition skills. The current findings propose that L2 phonemic awareness be first introduced to L2 beginning readers rather than L2 rime awareness.