| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Most of the phonological awareness research to date has been conducted by studies examining how it relates to subsequent reading development. The present paper, however, focuses on the phonological awareness of L2 and its relationship to L1. A total of 200 five-year-olds and 22 six-year-olds, in the first study and 115 five-year-olds and 22 six-year-olds in the first study also participated in the second study. First, the hypothesis that linguistic transfer of phonological awareness occurs from L1(Japanese) to L2(English) was tested with structural equation modeling. Thirty percent of the variance in L2 phonological awareness could be explained by L1 phonological awareness. The second study added one more latent variable-intelligence-to the plausible structure model. Adding intelligence, 40% of the variance in L2 phonological awareness could be explained and 57% of the variance in L1 phonological awareness could be explained by intelligence.
A total of 94 seventh graders and 131 sixth graders participated in the third study to investigate development of English phonological awareness among Japanese children. Comparing the answering patterns of British children ages from five to seven, I hypothesize that Japanese learners use mora units to segment one-syllable words, while British children use onset-rime distinction. The hypothesis seems to be appropriate, although additional data collection will be necessary to confirm its validity.
Based on these findings, I conclude that we should never underestimate the importance of children's first language development on L2 development since there is a cross-linguistic transfer. On the other hand, we can imagine that the development of English phonological awareness is predicted by a child's exposure to English and amount of his/her learning. It Is important for Japanese learners to learn to segment words on the basis of onset-rime level to acquire a natural sound system of English.
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