Acquisition of Hiragana Letters by Pre-School Children

Shimamura, Naomi; Mikami, Hiroko

doi:10.5926/jjep1953.42.1_70

Cited by 19 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The trial letters may have been inappropriate (too early) for children of this age, many of whom may not have been able to read at this time. A report on Japanese preschool children's reading ability in the 1990s showed that the proportion of children who could read >60 of the 71 Japanese kana characters were 59.1% and 89.4% for 4 and 5 years old, respectively . Ninety‐two percent of the present children were 4 years old, and they might have needed their parents' help to understand the message on the letter.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Postal contact with participating children and its impact on response rate: Japan Environment and Children's Pilot Study

Senju

Suga

Tsuji

et al. 2016

Pediatrics International

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Postal contact with participating children and its impact on response rate: Japan Environment and Children's Pilot Study

Senju

Suga

Tsuji

et al. 2016

Pediatrics International

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“…The total Kindergarten sample had 92% accuracy in naming the 71 basic hiragana, which matched the 93% accuracy for 5-year-olds in a large survey sample of preschool children reported by Shimamura and Mikami (1994). The first purpose of the study was to determine whether any initial phoneme awareness among Japanese children is associated specifically with their acquisition of hiragana you-on.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

The acquisition of phoneme awareness in children learning the hiragana syllabary

et al. 2010

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In research on the acquisition of reading, there have been some crossorthographic comparisons between alphabetic scripts and the hiragana syllabic script. One of the theoretical motives for these comparisons is the hypothesis that phonological awareness is related to the size of the phonological unit mapped by the orthography, with phoneme awareness limited to readers with alphabetic literacy. Therefore, it would be expected that young Japanese children who learn the hiragana syllabary (and no alphabetic orthography) would have poor awareness of phonemes, which are internal to syllables. The present research used methods more fully representative of the language and orthography examined. The results indicate a previous underestimation of early phonemic awareness in Japanese children.Keywords Phoneme awareness · Hiragana syllabary · Cross-orthographic research · MethodologyThe published research on learning to read a non-alphabetic orthography draws largely on issues, questions, and methodologies from work on the learning of English. Share (2008) drew attention to these 'Anglocentric' findings that may not

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“…In contrast, Inoue et al (2018a) found that children’s Hiragana reading skills in Grade 1 were negatively associated with parent teaching in Grade 2, suggesting that Japanese parents adjusted their involvement to their child’s literacy skills. Indeed, given that over 90% of third-year kindergarten children in Japan can master reading basic Hiragana characters before formal literacy instruction in school ( Shimamura and Mikami, 1994 ; Ota et al, 2018 ), it is natural for parents to be sensitive to their children’s performance during the transition period from kindergarten to primary school.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Home literacy environment and early reading skills in Japanese Hiragana and Kanji during the transition from kindergarten to primary school

Tanji

Inoue

2023

Front. Psychol.

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We examined the reciprocal associations between home literacy environment (HLE) and children’s early reading skills in syllabic Hiragana and morphographic Kanji in a sample of Japanese parent–child dyads. Eighty-three children were followed from kindergarten to Grade 3 and tested on Hiragana reading accuracy in kindergarten, Hiragana word reading fluency in kindergarten and Grade 1, and Kanji reading accuracy in Grade 1 to Grade 3. Their parents answered a questionnaire about HLE [parent teaching (PT) in Hiragana and Kanji, shared book reading (SBR), and access to literacy resources (ALR)], parents’ needs for early literacy support by teachers, parents’ expectations for children’s reading skills, parents’ worry about children’s homework, and mother’s education level. Results showed first that ALR, but not PT and SBR, was associated with reading skills in Hiragana and Kanji. Second, whereas Hiragana reading in kindergarten was not associated with PT in Hiragana in kindergarten, it negatively predicted PT in Hiragana in Grade 1. However, Kanji reading accuracy was not associated with PT in Kanji across Grades 1 to 3. Third, parents’ worry was negatively associated with children’s reading performance across Grades 1 to 3 but positively associated with PT in Hiragana and Kanji. Finally, while parents’ expectations were positively associated with children’s reading performance across Grades 1 to 3, they were negatively associated with PT in Hiragana and Kanji in Grades 1 and 2. These results suggest that Japanese parents may be sensitive to both their children’s reading performance and social expectations for school achievement and adjust their involvement accordingly during the transition period from kindergarten to early primary grades. ALR may be associated with early reading development in both Hiragana and Kanji.

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Acquisition of Hiragana Letters by Pre-School Children

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Postal contact with participating children and its impact on response rate: Japan Environment and Children's Pilot Study

Postal contact with participating children and its impact on response rate: Japan Environment and Children's Pilot Study

The acquisition of phoneme awareness in children learning the hiragana syllabary

Home literacy environment and early reading skills in Japanese Hiragana and Kanji during the transition from kindergarten to primary school

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