Developing phonological knowledge of students is believed to be beneficial to reading development. This paper reviews selected eight articles on the issue of phonological knowledge and reading development in both native and English as Second Language (ESL) context. In finding the trends and patterns across all eight articles, the content and context of each study was critically analyzed. The discussion is divided into five sub sections; research settings, data collection methods, samples selection, focus or issue of the current studies, as well as the similarities and differences of the findings. It is found that phonological knowledge (as developed in phonics instruction) is undeniably effective to develop reading skills, even for readers with limited exposure to English. Students who were exposed to phonics instruction were able to read fluently compared to their counterparts. Some of these studies even highlighted that these students acquired reading skills faster compared to the control groups. The findings of the selected studies have also established contributing factors on reading success. Of interest, gender, age and type of phonics instruction are among influential factors to reading development. Despite the impressive findings, this paper also discusses the other components and structure of the selected studies, such as the research design, settings, sample selection as well as focus or issue highlighted in each selected study. It is hoped that this paper will enlighten readers on the trends and patterns of the current literature in the area of phonological knowledge and reading development across language settings.