Cognitive predictors of literacy acquisition in syllabic Hiragana and morphographic Kanji

Inoue, Tomohiro; Georgiou, George K.; Muroya, Naoko; Maekawa, Hisao; Parrila, Rauno

doi:10.1007/s11145-017-9726-4

Cited by 39 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Table displays the zero‐order correlations between all variables and shows that, in line with previous studies with Japanese children (e.g., Inoue et al, ; Kobayashi, Haynes, Macaruso, Hook & Kato, ; Ogino et al, ), literacy skills were significantly correlated with each other across Hiragana and Kanji ( r s ranged from .28 to .64). Hiragana spelling in Grade 1 correlated negatively with parent teaching in Grade 2 ( r = −.22).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 79%

“…This suggests that although parent teaching may have a positive impact on Hiragana spelling before compulsory education starts (Hamano & Uchida, ; Inomata et al, ), its effects are reduced once children enter elementary school. This explanation is supported by the findings showing that the majority of Japanese children acquire accurate reading and spelling in Hiragana after only few months of formal instruction (e.g., Inoue et al, ). On the other hand, the results showed that shared reading in Grade 1 among higher performing children was positively associated with Kanji spelling in Grade 2.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

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Can earlier literacy skills have a negative impact on future home literacy activities? Evidence from Japanese

Inoue

Georgiou

Muroya

et al. 2017

Journal Research in Reading

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We examined the cross‐lagged relations between the home literacy environment and literacy skills in Japanese, and whether child's gender, parents' education and child's level of literacy performance moderate the relations. One hundred forty‐two Japanese children were followed from Grades 1 to 2 and assessed on character knowledge, reading fluency and spelling. Their parents responded to a questionnaire assessing the frequency of their teaching and shared reading. Results showed that parent teaching increased and shared reading decreased from Grades 1 to 2. Cross‐lagged path analysis indicated that the literacy skills in Grade 1 were negatively associated with parent teaching in Grade 2. The results further suggested that more educated parents of higher performing children, particularly boys, adjusted their involvement to their children's literacy skills, while less educated parents of lower performing children did not. These findings indicate the importance of parents' sensitivity to their child's performance. What is already known about this topic Home literacy environment (HLE) plays an important role in children's literacy acquisition in Western and some East Asian contexts. Children's early reading skills can have an impact on later HLE. The direction of the relationship between HLE and children's reading skills may change from positive in Kindergarten to negative in Grade 1. What this paper adds In line with the findings of previous studies in other languages, Japanese parents adaptively adjust their home literacy activities to their child's literacy skills. The effect of children's literacy skills on later shared reading is stronger among boys than among girls. More educated parents of higher performing children adjust their involvement to their child's literacy skills, while less educated parents with lower performing children do not. Implications for theory, policy or practice We should encourage parents to be sensitive to their child's literacy skills to help them build a foundation that will boost future literacy development. This can be particularly true of less educated parents with poorly performing children. We should encourage educators to communicate the children's literacy achievement to their parents and also suggest the means by which HLE could be beneficial for their children's literacy development.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Can earlier literacy skills have a negative impact on future home literacy activities? Evidence from Japanese

Inoue

Georgiou

Muroya

et al. 2017

Journal Research in Reading

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“…The underlying basis or cognitive demands of literacy acquisition include not only universal but language-specific factors 26 . Before now, visual memory 27 , visuospatial cognition 3 , and morphological awareness 28 have been reported as cognitive predictors of Japanese kanji acquisition, in addition to relatively small contributions of phonological processing and rapid automatized naming, crucial in alphabetical orthographies 29 . These reports suggest a broad range of cognitive functions underpin multidimensional kanji abilities in Japanese.…”

Section: Multidimensionality Of Japanese Kanji Abilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The multidimensionality of Japanese kanji abilities

Otsuka

Murai

2020

Sci Rep

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the aim of this study was to identify the cognitive structures of kanji abilities in the Japanese general population and to examine age and cohort effects on them. From a large database of the most popular kanji exam in Japan, we analyzed high school graduation level data of 33,659 people in 2006 and 16,971 people in 2016. Confirmatory factor analyses validated the three-dimensional model of kanji abilities, including factors of reading, writing and semantic comprehension. Furthermore, the age effect on writing, and correlations between writing and semantic dimensions, were different between 2006 and 2016, suggesting reduced writing ability and stagnation in integrated mastery of kanji orthography and semantics in current-day Japanese adults. These findings provide the first evidence of the multidimensional nature of Japanese kanji abilities, and age/cohort differences in that dimensional structure. The importance of the habit of handwriting for literacy acquisition is discussed.Writing systems can be broadly divided into phonographic and logographic scripts. In the former, a letter is mapped onto a sound unit, as in English. In the latter, a character is mapped onto a meaning unit, as for Chinese. Japanese uses both systems in combination, namely kana and kanji. Each kana letter represents one mora, a sub-syllabic unit of sound in Japanese, with highly regular and consistent letter-sound correspondence. In contrast, kanji characters usually have multiple pronunciations, which can also be written with more than one kana letter. The correct pronunciations of Japanese kanji words are determined by context and at the whole-word level, in a similar manner to English exception words, unlike the Chinese logographic writing systems. Kanji characters are used for content words (i.e. most nouns, or the roots of most verbs, adjectives, or adverbs), whereas kana letters are mainly used for inflectional endings, postpositions, or conjunctions. A single kanji character or more than two in the so-called compound words, occasionally accompanied by kana suffixes, can represent a word. Many homophones in the Japanese language are represented with the exact same kana letters but have different meanings, and can be discriminated by writing in kanji. In addition, unlike kana or alphabetical letters, kanji characters vary in visual complexity from simple characters such as the kanji カ to very complex ones like 鬱 (u-tsu, depression), both of which are designated as daily-use kanji by the Japanese government.Considering the unique properties of kanji, including multiple pronunciations, semantic values, and variability in visual complexity, it is assumed that the abilities to master and manage Japanese kanji would be multidimensional as for overall language ability 1,2 . However, the dimensional structure, whether uni-or multidimensional, has not been established. Given the higher prevalence of problems in literacy acquisition in kanji than in kana among Japanese children 3 , understanding the functional components of Japanese kanji abi...

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“…We focused on this period because previous cross-sectional studies in Japanese have indicated that word reading fluency, particularly in Hiragana, develops rapidly during this period (Kobayashi et al, 2010; Sambai et al, 2012). Given the findings of previous studies showing that nonverbal IQ (Koyama, Hansen, & Stein, 2008), vocabulary (Ogino et al, 2017), phonological awareness (Inoue et al, 2017; Ogino et al, 2017), morphological awareness (Hatano et al, 1997; Muroya et al, 2017), and rapid automatized naming (RAN; Kobayashi et al, 2005; Wakamiya et al, 2011) are associated with word reading skills in either or both of the two scripts, these skills were also assessed and used as covariates in the analysis.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Existing studies in Japanese have consistently reported a positive relationship between reading skills in Hiragana and Kanji (Inoue, Georgiou, Muroya, Maekawa, & Parrila, 2017; Kobayashi, Haynes, Macaruso, Hook, & Kato, 2005; Ogino et al, 2017; see also Koda, 2017, for a review). For example, Kobayashi et al (2005) showed that Hiragana naming speed was moderately correlated with Kanji naming speed in Grade 1 children ( r =.51).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-script transfer of word reading fluency in a mixed writing system: Evidence from a longitudinal study in Japanese

Inoue

Georgiou

Imanaka

et al. 2018

Applied Psycholinguistics

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We examined the cross-lagged relations between word reading fluency in the two orthographic systems of Japanese: phonetic (syllabic) Hiragana and morphographic Kanji. One hundred forty-two Japanese-speaking children were assessed on word reading fluency twice in Grade 1 (Times 1 and 2) and twice in Grade 2 (Times 3 and 4). Nonverbal IQ, vocabulary, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and rapid automatized naming were also assessed in Time 1. Results of path analysis revealed that Time 1 Hiragana fluency predicted Time 2 Kanji fluency after controlling for the cognitive skills. Time 2 Hiragana fluency did not predict Time 3 Kanji fluency or vice versa after the autoregressor was controlled, but Hiragana and Kanji fluency were reciprocally related between Times 3 and 4. These findings provide evidence for a cross-script transfer of word reading fluency across the two contrastive orthographic systems, and the first evidence of fluency in a morphographic script predicting fluency development in a phonetic script within the same language.

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Cognitive predictors of literacy acquisition in syllabic Hiragana and morphographic Kanji

Cited by 39 publications

References 67 publications

Can earlier literacy skills have a negative impact on future home literacy activities? Evidence from Japanese

Can earlier literacy skills have a negative impact on future home literacy activities? Evidence from Japanese

The multidimensionality of Japanese kanji abilities

Cross-script transfer of word reading fluency in a mixed writing system: Evidence from a longitudinal study in Japanese

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