2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
RESEARCH ON VOCABULARY LEARNING AND READING DEVELOPMENT-THE INFLUENCE FROM ROMAN CHARACTERS AND JAPANESE COMPETENCE
| Project/Area Number |
18520450
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Foreign language education
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| Research Institution | Chiba University (2007)
Bunkyo Gakuin University (2006) |
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Principal Investigator |
ALLEN-TAMAI Mitsue Chiba University, FACULTY OF EDUCATION, PROFESSOR (50188413)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
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| Keywords | Reading Development / phonological Awareness / Vocabulary learning / Phonics / whole Language / Roman Character / Alphabetical Knowledge |
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| Research Abstract |
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT, hereafter) announced the new Course of Study on March 28, 2008, which will officially start in 2011. It calls for the implementation of a new compulsory class called "Foreign Language" and a once-a-week English class for upper grade students of public elementary schools.
From the time when English was introduced into public elementary schools, activities relating to literacy development have been excluded and the importance of literacy education has been almost totally ignored. The researcher stresses the urgent necessity to develop an effective reading program and this research investigates the effect of the literacy program that the researcher developed and practiced herself with upper graders of a public elementary school for two years.
The aim of this research is to examine the effect of the literacy program. The participants were administered tests to measure alphabetical knowledge, phonological awareness, and vocabulary knowledge. Statistically significant differences were found between pre and post tests, which showed that knowledge gain of alphabetical letters and improvement of phonological awareness took place. The vocabulary knowledge was found to be related to Alphabetical Knowledge of lower ease (r= . 821), Roman Character Knowledge (r= . 761), Japanese Competence (r= . 741), Alphabetical Knowledge of Upper Case (r= . 692) and Phonological Awareness (r = . 644).
The participants gave positive evaluation of all the literacy-related activities, especially regarding learning the alphabet letters in lower cases. They also acquired more confidence and interest in learning English through this program.
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